A Visit From Grandpa and Brad

 We had a visit from Uncle B planned for quite awhile, and then my darling husband had the great idea to talk my dad into coming too!  Dads/grandpas usually don't have the opportunity/excuse to come out often what with being the breadwinners and all.  Grandmas are usually the ones to help with new babies and stuff, although I'm sure my dad would do a great job helping me with a new baby sometime. :)

We planned a huge weekend o' fun together which included picking Ben up from his Boards (which he passed, yay!) and then driving straight to Cleveland to the Indians game.  It was hotter than heck on the way up, it rained a ton, AND we blew a tire.  It was great by the time we got there though.  And E thought he was big stuff wearing Grandpa's hat.

 The next morning we got up, had breakfast, and drove to Cedar Point.  It was lots of fun and pretty slick with the parent swap pass.  One set of us would stay with the kids and take them on rides while the other set waited in line for a big rollercoaster.  Then we just handed our parent swap pass to the attendant and we'd switch off the kids and the other set would come through the exit and get right on the ride.

 We were so proud of E for being 37 inches tall (just barely an inch over the required 36 inches for most rides...) and for being so brave to try everything!  He's not the bravest boy about certain things, but he genuinely LOVED all the rides.

I must say though, that I was most definitely the hottest and sweatiest I have ever been.  That includes wearing pioneer garb and pushing a blasted handcart through the desert on trek.  All I can say is, no wonder the pioneers headed west.  At least they have dry heat.  We decided my mom would've withered and died within the first 30 seconds of being at the park.  I don't blame ya, Mom.  It really sucked.  Like, really bad.

Just a short time after we were at our hottest, walking through the main strip of the park, (which we lovingly entitled the Bataan Death March) the skies opened up and it poured for about half an hour.  All the rides shut down and we just waited.  Then it stopped long enough for lots of people to leave and for us to ride a few more rides, and then it opened up again and we were stuck.  It was not letting up.  We were all soaked to the bone by the time we got to the car.  But hey, at least we were finally a little bit cool.  We stopped at a Taco Bell on the way home to Columbus and we were all shivering from being so wet and feeling as though we'd never experienced air conditioning, EVER, it seemed.


On Sunday we went to church and celebrated Sammi girl's birthday and just enjoyed doing nothing.

On Monday we went to Thurman's Cafe and experienced the enormousness that is the Thurmanator.  Then, sadly we had to take Grandpa to the airport.  Luckily it wasn't too sad though because we were going to see him in two days when we flew to Utah for Uncle B's farewell.

Uncle Brad and Grandpa were so good to the kids.  They played endless trains and got much too little sleep. Uncle Brad didn't even mind sleeping in the same room as them and waking up to two big pairs of blue eyes staring at him, eager to play.  He was a huge help on the airplane, which I appreciated, since I more often than not fly all by myself with the two wild'uns.

This picture was just taken during the course of their visit.  Sammi can't stand having Emerson cry in time-out alone even though he was in there for being mean to her.

Thanks for visiting, guys!  It was such a fun trip.