Back from the black hole

WOW, can you believe it's September already? So much has been going on around here. Let's see, where do I start?

OK, so I got reprimanded today for being "the worst blogger EVER!". An accusation which I acknowledge to be true most recently and to which my only response is I AM SO SORRY! August was an extremely difficult month full of unpleasant A/C issues which I will spare all of you from; one because it's an unbelievably depressing topic for us and two because we're truly sick of dealing/talking about it. So, what better way to get over an atrocious situation than to leave it behind, way far behind, like 500 miles away from home.

As we did this time last year, we took an 8-hour road trip and spent Labor Day weekend visiting our great friends Rob, Rachel, Jack and Luke in Indiana. This year though we were also joined by our good friends Scott, Kathi, Isabel and their new baby girl, Gabrielle, from Wisconsin. The last time we got to spend any time with them was over two years ago. This was a totally different experience from the last time we were all together being that there were almost as many kids as there were adults. Quite honestly I wasn't sure how that would all go, but truth be told we had a fantastic weekend. And it was actually very relaxing. The kids got to play together and the adults got to do some much needed catching up.

Although much nicer weather than back home it still got pretty hot outside during the day, so in an effort to keep cool we visited the pool and played with the sprinklers and slip-n-slide in the front yard. All the kids were more than happy to play in the water. As you can probably guess, Isabella made sure to stay far away from any and all sprinkler-like activities.


Actually, it got so hot Rob decided he needed to cool off as well. Unfortunately, he was the only adult brave enough to cool off in this specific manner. I know the rest of us were secretly wishing we could do the same. It sure looked like fun.

While all the outdoor activities were going on Baby Gabrielle was inside taking her nap, but we made sure to get lots of photos of this sweet and happy baby girl.

On the way back home on Monday we decided to make a stop at Dinosaur World in Cave City, KY. We weren't really sure what it would be like, but every time we've driven by it in the past it's peaked our curiosity. So in order to ensure Isabella would not be frightened we kept telling her about the "really big dinosaur toys" we were going to go see. She loved it. It was set up like a path, very Jurassic Park like, and every few feet there were different dinosaur exhibits with information. Isabella loved that she got to do a whole lot of walking, so much so she actually asked her daddy to carry her for a while. And she only got scared a couple of times, mostly when the big dinosaurs were extremely close to the path.

Uncanny resemblance, don't you think?



I thought for sure after all this walking this child of ours would pass out in the car and take a nice long nap. WRONG! Apparently mommy was the one who was beat after our stop and took a nice long nap while daddy continued to drive and Isabella watched episode after episode of The Backyardigans on her DVD player.