What we did on our summer vacation...

worn out from a full day of travel!

Cookie Monster and water (the bare necessities)

riding in the rental car - forward facing :(

how to grocery shop with 3 kids!

all 4 kids playing nicely together

ready for our walk!

my new house (ha, ha)

my other new house

Trevor and Tyler with Ty's new police car!

Kelly's house with our sweet rental car :)

yet another amazing house

Jakey mowing mulch!?

kids, toys, and dogs, oh my!

Miss Mollie

Jake trying to earn his keep

can you spot the fireflies?

cutie pie Mollie and her mommy

Trevor, Tyler, Mollie and Kelly

check out this truck

so many cars, so little time

Kelly's ginormous backyard

Mollie chillin' in her stroller

boys with toys

running free

swing time

our first (and only) attempt to eat out with all 4 kids

the mess we created

3 car seats side-by-side!

skee ball in Kelly's grandparents' basement

the boys decided to dress me up

didn't they do a great job?

so ready for our night out

bridge over the Ohio River

friends :)

Chris and Kelly

me and Joe

the Beerwolf

yes I posed with it

Joe and Chris

just like old times

Joe surrounded by all the kids!

Jakey and Trevor

playing happily together

Trevor, Tyler and Jake playing cars

look at those gorgeous eyes!

Connie's house

the kids eating dinner together

sitting in the rocking chair and mesmerized by the TV

Connie's backyard

still Connie's backyard!

first attempt at a group photo

second attempt

can I please transplant this house to Cali?!?!

jump starting the ride-on lawnmower. only in Ohio.

pep talk

here I go

I actually mowed for a few seconds!

Joe made me hold a beer for this photo. So classy, I know.

the boys checking out my mowing skills

my little man

Mollie again

Tyler being goofy

Kelly and her girly girl

Joe and Jakey asleep on the plane

Jake and Kyra checking each other out

how did they get so big so fast?

Jackie and I with our little cuties

Oh wow, is this going to be a long one...

Last Thursday, we started the adventure that was our summer vacation. We were off to Cincinnati, Ohio to visit my good friend Kelly and her family. This would be our first time meeting each other's kids, and since she already has 3, it was a long overdue visit! We woke Jakey up a little early on Thursday morning, and we hit the road before 8am. He was a happy camper in the car, with breakfast and a Dora DVD to keep him entertained on the way to the airport. We made it to the airport in record time, and proceeded to park and take a shuttle to our terminal. Jakey loved riding on the "bus" as he called it, and this gave us hope that he would like the airplane as much as the shuttle ride! Since we had the stroller, we had to find our way around the airport via elevators, which worked out ok. The security check with a toddler was interesting. They made us remove Jakey's shoes, his sippy cup of water was allowed to go through (although I think they tested the contents), the stroller had to be collapsed and placed onto the conveyor belt to be X-rayed. All of this was fine with Jake. Until they took away his Cookie Monster :( He was so upset and didn't understand why Cookie had to go through the X-ray machine. Poor little guy. The first tears of the day, but definitely not the last...

We knew we had to let Jakey run around at the airport and release some energy before our 4+ hour flight, so Joe and I took turns chasing him around. I made the mistake of letting go of his hand a few times, and from then on, he wanted to run around on his own. I was right behind him the whole time, and this would have been ok in a less crowded place, but he kept running in front of people so I had to pick him up and force him to hold my hand. Tantrums ensued. Many more tears later, we finally got him calmed down and back in the stroller. We knew we needed to eat an early lunch because it would be a looooong time before we would be able to eat again, so we went to a Mexican restaurant near our Gate. We had to sit down to order, and we asked for take out, but it still took a longer than we expected. And we grossly misjudged our boarding time. Joe went to change Jakey's diaper while I waited for our food, and he came back just in time to notice that our flight was already boarding (our flight was supposed to take off at 11:25am and it was 10:45am-ish). Obviously, we are not big travelers or we would have known that planes board way earlier than their departure time. Oops! Joe took Jake and our carry-ons and headed to our Gate, while I stayed behind to wait for the food we had already paid for. Luckily, I saw our waiter headed in my direction with some "to go" bags, asked if they were ours, grabbed them, and ran through the airport with the Mexican food! I am not one to skip meals, people! And I did have my walking shoes on :) I caught up with Joe, we checked the stroller at the gate, and made our way onto the plane. We had assigned seats, but we asked for the bulk head seats when we arrived at the gate (the first row behind First Class that has more room - they keep these seats open for handicapped passengers and - possibly - those traveling with small children). Unfortunately, our plane was full, and they denied our request for these seats. So we were stuck in normal seats near the back of the plane, closer to the aisle than the window, with Jake on our laps, 4 bags at our feet (2 diaper bags - one full of snacks and toys, the other full of diapers, the DVD player, etc. - my purse, and the laptop), and what felt like 5 lbs. of Mexican food. "Awesome sauce." We'll get to that later...

I had purchased a contraption online made specifically for airplane lap babies/toddlers which strapped Jake to one of us, and kept him secure while our hands were free. I figured that if Jake felt like he was strapped in, he would be less likely to try and escape. We tried it on at home before we left, so that it was not completely foreign to Jake. It worked out great! And we can use it for future travel or to strap him to any normal chair if there are no high chairs available. Gotta love that :)

So I strapped Jake to me, gave him his snack cup full of his favorite snacks, and his water cup. I knew that he would have to be swallowing food and water to help prevent his ears from popping during take off and landing. I had planned ahead and brought an arsenal of supplies to help get Jake through the long flights. I had all of his favorite snacks (goldfish crackers, bunny grahams, raisins, dried cranberries, freeze dried apples, baked pea pod crunchies, etc.) along with a bag of organic lollipops (just in case!) Can you believe Trader Joe's sells organic lollipops?! My friend Janice told me about this one. Who knew? I packed his favorite small books, a magnadoodle, crayons and a coloring book, his favorite telephone toy, an awesome Mickey Mouse toy (that my Aunt had given him several months ago, which I stashed away just for this occasion because it lights up but makes no sound!), plus a bag full of new toys that I had wrapped so he could open a new present every so often. We had the portable DVD player and the laptop as a back up which also plays DVDs, and 5 DVDs! We were PREPARED. Well, as prepared as we could be for (dun dun DUN) the unknown.

Take off went well, and Jake was happily snacking away. We purposely decided not to feed him lunch, because small snacks take up way more time! However, Joe and I couldn't eat our lunch until the seat belt sign was turned off, so that we could then use our pull down trays. Eventually, we were able to eat our Mexican food. Worst.veggie.burrito.ever :( We scheduled the flight during Jake's normal nap time, hoping that he would eat, and then fall asleep. This totally backfired on us. He ate, and then refused to sleep. We broke out the books, the toys, the DVDs, and eventually...the candy. The portable DVD player must not have been charged all the way (although I tried to fully charge it the night before we left, but apparently I failed miserably), because it died fairly quickly. As did the laptop, which normally only holds a charge for less than an hour. Once those batteries were gone, the meltdown began. And not even a lollipop would help. We're talking a crying/screaming fit on the plane. So much fun. Joe and I walked Jakey up and down the aisle, and this helped a little. We switched laps, and Jakey sat with Joe for the remainder of the flight. I cannot remember how or why, but finally Jake calmed down and the rest of the flight (about an hour or so) went ok. The poor people in front of us had to endure the meltdown, Jake kicking their seats, listening to the noise from Jake's DVDs, etc. They never complained once, and later told us about their grandkids. Yay for nice, understanding people! It also helped that we were sitting near lots of other families with children/babies/toddlers. We were worried about how Jakey would do during landing, but it went ok. He sipped his water, which helped with the ear popping, and loved touching down on the runway. After the plane came to a stop, he said "anah!" which in Jakey speak, means "again!"Quite the little adrenaline junkie we have. He said "anah" after the plane landed on our return  flight as well :)

Once we finally made it off the plane, the stroller was waiting for us as we exited (gotta love that!) I then changed Jake's diaper in the airport bathroom, and I believe that was the second time I had ever used a public "pull down" diaper changing station (and the first time was on the plane!) I have avoided those like the plague. I think the germaphobe in me is to blame. But it really wasn't all that bad. A long walk through the airport and another shuttle ride later, and we were at the rental car office. At this point, it was 7pm Ohio time (4pm Cali time) and Jake hadn't napped at all. While Joe was dealing with getting the car (this took forever!), I pushed Jakey around in the stroller. By the time we got the car, Jake was out cold. We had ordered a rental car with a car seat and I was already upset that it had to be forward facing. Add to this the fact that it was not already installed for us, and I was fuming. They basically just handed Joe the seat and said "here ya go." Since we have had the Fire Department properly install all of Jake's car seats, and we don't mess with them once they are installed, we had no idea how to install this seat. All car seats are different, and we couldn't figure this one out. I went in to ask the woman at the rental car desk if she had installation instructions, and she said "we don't have instructions" and "we make you install the car seat for safety reasons." Really? So it is much safer for us to install the seat improperly without instructions? I know they don't want to get sued, but to not have anyone to help or even an instruction seat to work with? At this point, I may have busted out a "well in California, this is how we do things..." I had only been there for less than an hour and I was already putting down their state. Actually, the airport is technically in Kentucky. No offense to any Kentuckyians out there, but I am not a fan. So I said my 2 cents, it got me nowhere, and Joe finally figured out how to install the car seat. I put Jake in the seat fully expecting him to wake up, and he stayed asleep for the entire car ride. Poor little guy was exhausted. And so were we. It was only about 30 minutes from the airport to Kelly's house, but we stopped and ate dinner on the way. Jake was CRANKY because we had to wake him up to eat. He cried through a large portion of the dinner. Luckily it was late so there were not very many people in the place for us to annoy. We finally got him to eat some dinner, and then we left as quickly as possible. Another few minutes of driving through what we considered country roads, and we were at Kelly's house!

It was so good to see her, and finally meet all three of her little cutie pies in person. Tyler just turned 4, Trevor will be 3 in August, and Mollie just turned 1. So with Jake about to turn 2 in a few months, we had all the ages covered :) They had waited up for us (by the time we got there, it was after 9pm) and they were very excited to meet us and play with Jake. Jakey wasted no time and started playing with their toys right away! We let the kids play together for a little while, and then gave our little Mr. a much needed bath and put him to bed at 10pm-ish their time or 7pm our time. My first major concern of the trip was the airplane ride. Once we made it through the first one of those, my second concern was the time difference. We debated whether we should try and keep Jake on California time since we were only going to be there for 4 nights, or just have him adjust to Ohio time and then adjust back to Cali time. What to do, what to do. Actually, he kind of decided for us. The not napping on the plane thing sucked at the time, but worked out in our favor for his Ohio schedule. He was so tired that he was able to fall asleep early by California standards, and he slept in by Ohio standards. We kept him on a 9pm-ish to 9am-ish Ohio time sleep schedule, and this worked out perfectly.

After we put Jakey to bed and Kelly and Chris put their kids to bed, we stayed up chatting for several hours. For Kelly and I, it was like no time had passed at all. Our friendship hadn't changed. Even though we try to talk on the phone about once a week, the time difference makes it hard for us to connect, and even when we do it is always hard to really chat for a long time with our kids causing constant interruptions. It was so good to be able to catch up in person after we hadn't seen each other for almost 4 years! It was just like old times. Only now, we have 4 kids between us!

On Friday, we went to a grocery store called Kroger so that I could get the ingredients to make my Nana's recipe of pasta sauce and meatballs for dinner. I wanted them to experience "real" Italian food and it was the least I could do for them since they graciously let the 3 of us stay at their house for 5 days. It was amazing to see how Kelly goes about her daily life with 3 kids! She goes to this particular store because they have the shopping carts with cars attached readily available. With Mollie in the cart, and the boys in the "car," she is able to shop with all of the kids. It was a nice store with lots of great looking produce and was much less expensive than our California counterparts. After the store, we picked up White Castle at Joe's request. He liked the sliders, but said he wouldn't crave them like he does In-N-Out. No comparison there. I tried their chicken and fish sandwiches since I don't eat red meat, and the fish was pretty good. The chicken not so much. Jakey loved the fries (although he hasn't met a fry he doesn't like!) After dinner we were all able to go for a walk around their neighborhood and check out some of the amazing houses! These houses are huge, and the yards are even larger! Property, property, property. So different from California. No sidewalks, very few fences (the houses that do have fences do not have privacy fences so you can see right into all your neighbors' backyards) lots of cats roaming the neighborhood (must not have the Cali coyote problem!), and tons of fireflies (they call them lightning bugs)!!! I LOVED the fireflies! I had never seen them in person before unless the fake ones at Disneyland count, ha ha. Talk about summer nights. It doesn't get dark until 9:30pm or so, and then the fireflies come out in full force! I could definitely get accustomed to Ohio summers, humidity and bugs and all. But I could do without the snowy winters.

The next 3 days were full of eating, playing, and more eating! We experienced Skyline Chili (which has a very distinct, somewhat sweet flavor and is surprisingly really good!) and it was a great place to take our brood of 4 kids. Quick service, very casual, plenty of high chairs, and kid-friendly food. On Saturday night, Connie (Kelly's mom - love her!) willingly baby-sat all 4 kids so that Kelly, Chris, Joe and I could all go out to dinner. What a nice/crazy thing for her to take on! We took a drive to the Ohio River and had dinner and drinks at Mexican restaurant, and then followed that with a trip to the Beer Sellar (where the Beerwolf lives!) The Mexican food was surprisingly decent even though we were nowhere near Mexico, and it was so great to be able to have a fun night out without the kids in tow. And we did make it home in time to put the kids to bed! The only cringe-worthy moment of the night was when the waiter said "awesome sauce" to us one too many times. Really dude?

On Sunday it was raining during the day so we went over to the mall to walk around. On Sundays, the stores there don't open until noon! That would never fly in Cali :) On Sunday night, we went over to Connie's house for dinner and she served us tons of Cincinnati inspired home cooking. Skyline chili dip (so, so good!), corn fritters (my fave!), pulled pork sandwiches, scalloped potatoes, homemade mac 'n' cheese, etc. With cake and cookies for dessert! I think I gained 13 lbs. at that meal alone! But man, was it good. Connie custom built her house and it is beautiful, with another amazing yard! I just wish I could transplant one of these houses here :) Connie sent all 3 of us home with Cincinnati Reds gear, and gave Jakey a few more presents as well! She is such a sweetie.

I cannot begin to express how much fun Jakey had playing with Tyler, Trevor and Mollie. They all played really well together the entire time. The boys had no problems sharing their cars, trucks and other toys with Jake, and he just loved chasing the boys around. He thought Tyler was hilarious! And Jakey was always so concerned when Mollie cried. He would always go check on her to make sure she was alright. Too cute. It was so good for him to be around the older boys - he picked up new words, learned how to share toys, and get over his fear of other kids invading his personal space! The only thing that freaked him out a little, were the 3 dogs. Their doggies were really sweet, but Jake is not used to dogs getting so close to him. It took a day or so before he really warmed up to them. Boy that house was full with 4 adults (although Chris was at work a lot of the time), 4 kids, 3 dogs, a cat, birds and fish, oh my! But we had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed all of the mad chaos!

On Monday I got to have another new experience. It was something I have always wanted to try: driving a ride-on lawnmower! Chris showed me the ropes and I got to take a turn behind the wheel. It was really fun, and I even mowed a little chunk of their front lawn! Of course everyone in their neighborhood has to have a ride-on mower in order to cut their park-size lawns! For lunch we got to try Penn Station, a sandwich chain which had good sandwiches on even better bread! I told you all we did was eat! We tried to put Jakey down for an early nap because we had to leave for the airport at 1:45pm. Unfortunately, he didn't nap, but he did have "down time" in the crib, so that helped. It was very sad to leave (especially for the kids), and our trip went by way too fast :(

Jake again enjoyed the shuttle ride from the rental car office to the terminal, and he had a good time checking out the CVG airport before we had to board. Something else we hadn't seen before? A sign at the airport which read "severe weather shelter" with a picture of a tornado. You don't see that in California! The flight home went much, much better than the flight there. And, once we boarded, we were delayed a little while, so we took off about 30 min. after we were supposed to! It was almost 5pm Cincinnati time, so Jakey was hungry for dinner. He sat on Joe's lap this time because then I could easily find all of the snacks, toys, books etc. since I had packed them all! Jake ate a ton of snacks, played with the steady stream of toys I gave him, read books, and then fell asleep!!! He only slept for about 30 minutes but it was long enough for him to not have a meltdown on the flight! Yay! The other thing that greatly helped on the return flight was that they were able to accommodate our request for the bulk head seats! We had so much more room, Jake wasn't able to kick the seats in front of us, and we could spread out all of our carry-ons. Also, we sat near the window and Jake loved looking out the window during take off and landing. After Jake woke up, we put on a DVD for him (we made sure the DVD player was fully charged this time!!) and he watched it until right before we landed. Plane ride #2 was a success!

A long wait to get our luggage, and yet another shuttle ride later, and we were back in our car! We arrived at LAX during rush hour on a Monday, so we had planned to eat dinner in L.A., and hopefully avoid major traffic. It worked out that Jackie, Geoff and Kyra were able to meet us for dinner (luckily they didn't mind eating a little late). We weren't sure how Jakey would do at dinner since he had already eaten so many snacks on the plane and since it was 10pm Ohio time when we got to the restaurant (our fave Mexican place near Jackie & Geoff's house). I think he had a little crying episode but for the most part, dinner went great. And he ate a lot more than we expected him to. My trip started with an awful veggie burrito, and ended with the best veggie burrito! :)

We made it home after 9pm and put Jakey right to bed. We were exhausted and glad to be home.  I feel a great sense of accomplishment. This trip was a big challenge and if we can travel with an active toddler, we can do anything! It only took Jakey a couple days to get back to his normal sleep and napping schedule. He was such a champ, and we are so proud of him. It was really sad when he asked for the "boys" the next few days after we got back. Poor guy missed his buddies. I was having withdrawals too because I had to call Kelly for like 5 days straight after we got back. Hope fully we will get to see them again before another 4 years pass us by!