Daddy Time

So these pictures are old, but I had to make sure I posted them because they document that Ben had some free time, and I'm afraid that once school starts up again we're not going to see much of him. To be honest, when Ben has free time sometimes we don't know what to do with ourselves. It's nice to hang out at home and all, but neither one of us is in our regular routine so things can get a little frustrating, and I hate when I don't get things done. So we were sure to do some fun things.

Little E got to go on a pony ride at the zoo. He was a little nervous, so he had his comforting thumb in most of the time, but he really liked it.

Then he got a little wild and took the thumb out for this picture. :)

He also really liked the little boat ride at the zoo that takes you past the gorillas and stuff. We couldn't see the big moat the kept the gorillas away when we were on the ride, so we were kinda nervous that they'd be able to jump into our boat and eat our eyelids and lips. (Did you hear about that news story with the pet monkey?) Oh, and don't worry...there was a seatbelt, and E was tightly strapped in even though you can't clearly see it in the picture.

The next day of Ben's vacation was the 24th. We decided late the 23rd that it would be fun to take a trip to Cincinnati. We'd heard there were some fun things to do there, so we did a little research, booked a hotel room through hotwire.com, and we were on our way early Friday morning. The Aquarium was cool, but it was overpriced. It's one of those things you can do once in your life and be content. They also did not allow strollers, but did provide free child carriers. I guess it just gets too crowded and people can't see.

Here are Daddy and E looking up at the overhead fish tunnel. E was pretty mesmerized with the fish.

Here he is petting some sort of crab. He LOVED petting it. He'd start fussing and then point back at the crab and say "That!"

They had sharks too!

We even got to pet the sharks! I admit, I was terrified, and Ben had to get a little annoyed with me so I would finally do it, but it ended up being ok. We did not let E pet the sharks though. I was really nervous watching the other kids with their fingers in the water.

Me at some bridge. Now I can say I've been to Kentucky!

Ben and E at the Cincinnati Museum of Science and Natural History

The museum we went to was way cool. I would totally recommend it. On Fridays from 4-8 everything is free. They had a children's museum (which we did not make it to), a science museum, and a bunch of others that looked pretty cool. You can get into the science part for free if you have a COSI membership.

After the museum, we were pretty pooped, so we braved Cincinnati and tried to find our hotel AND food. We ended up getting to our hotel (which was sweet) and parking was a little inconvenient, so we just ended up ordering pizza to our room. Then we put Emerson down and hid by the bathroom until he fell asleep and played cards on a little table by the light of the bathroom. :) Not quite the romantic evening away, but it was still fun. In the morning, we made our way home through a horrific rainstorm, and I was picturing flying cows and such because I was pretty sure we were driving through a tornado. We were relieved to make it home.

*Updates to come soon on our trip to PA with the Johnsons!