August 19

Well, we managed to close out the summer months with a bang before heading into the start of a new school year!  Our Lake Erie vacation is documented in another entry, but it was wonderful.  And we had a lot of fun outside of that vacation too!

With summer vacation coming to a close, we knew we had a few things we wanted to cross off our To Do list and we got the extra bonus a few Little Sweetie-focused days as Big Brother started school first!

Enjoying the newly accessibility-renovated local playground with Big Brother and G!

     

Special days with our special girl!  First up, going to see Super Pets in the theater!

     

Ladies needed to get their nails done!

Enjoying some cheesecake with Daddy at lunchtime!

     

Special Daddy Little Sweetie time at Top Golf!

And, as always, more cooking!  We made some sweet treats and also managed to finish Little Sweetie's Eat2Explore boxes she was gifted for Christmas.

     

Chocolate chip cookies!

     

     

     

     

General Tso's Chicken with snow peas!

     

     

     

Mapo tofu with ground pork and Jasmine rice!

     

Some back-to-school cutout cookies for her teachers!

School kept looming...before we knew it, it was time to pick up some new uniform pieces and and head to Meet The Teacher!

Very excited for her new school shorts!

Time to meet the teachers!

     

Fun with friends and a science station!

     

Ready for 3rd grade and switching classes, eep!

     

And here she is...ready for school!  How did our baby get so big?

Height and Weight

Little Sweetie is at 63.4 lbs. this month and up to about 52 inches!

Love this face!

Personality

This beautiful girl is still so fun and innocent and amused by kid stuff.  I hope she's able to stay this way for as long as possible.  

Such joy over a still inflated balloon animal!

Developmental Milestones

Little Sweetie's brain and creativity continues to amaze me.  She's really thinking about things and we love seeing the projects she develops.  Third grade is going to be a big year for sure!

Working on alphabetizing book titles!

Designing and engineering her own town!

Play-Doh time is still a favorite!

Fun Tidbits

The school year is starting off big, with the first "normal" events since Fall 2019.  So hopeful that our dear girl gets a year of stability and growth and that she doesn't immediately wear herself out with Chess Club, Piano, and Choir!

Good night,

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma

Great Lakes Adventures

Finally, after two years of postponement, it is time for our big Ohio vacation!  We had to change up the plans a little bit, but are pretty happy with our itinerary of hitting all the highlights along the shores of Lake Erie:  Niagara Falls, Cedar Point, Put-In-Bay, and some fun in Cleveland!

     

Ready to fly to our adventure!

We landed in Cleveland, got our luggage, and rented the mini van we planned to basically live out of for a week!  This was a different type of trip for us; normally we go somewhere and establish a home base, but this time we were nomads, staying in a different hotel nearly every night.  First stop was to get some dinner at a Cracker Barrel before we headed to Ashtabula, which would be our launching point to Niagara Falls.

     

Getting a walk in before dinner; Little Buddy was done with sitting still after the flight!

     

Little Sweetie had a real fondness for the golf tee game!

     

     

Waking up in the hotel the next morning and these two are just living the life!  I guess we could have just stayed at home and gotten a hotel room for the weekend and they would have been happy.

And then we were on the road!  We weren't too pressed for time, so we decided to stop and enjoy things that we saw that we were interested in.  That led us to look at this really cool light house in New York!

        

     

It was just a neat thing to stop and see!

Loving the road trip life!

But then we were back and the road and getting closer to the big first stop of the trip, which was one of Little Buddy's big bucket list items.

Almost there!

We had an amazing time at Niagara Falls.  We did both sides and were pleasantly surprised that the American side was better than Momma and Daddy remember from their previous trips from long ago.  Both Little Buddy and Little Sweetie were pretty impressed and also enjoyed getting their first passport stamps as we walked into Canada.

Taking it all in!

        

          

     

     

       

     

We enjoyed the American side a lot!

     

Walking to Canada!

Beautiful views!

     

Enjoying a dinner in Canada and checking out our new passport stamps!

     

Sunset on the Canadian side.

     

     

Little Buddy loved it!

Walking back to the US and enjoying the beautiful lit up falls!

Of course, we couldn't leave without a trip on the iconic Maid of the Mist!  So that was our stop the next morning.  I think both kids were more overwhelmed by the sheer massiveness of the falls than what they expected.

     

Ready to go!

When you run into one of your Texas friends in New York!

     

          

   

 

Headed into the falls!

Enjoying the view from the observation deck!

We finished up our Niagara Falls trip with lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  Then it was off to Canton to celebrate Papaw's birthday!

     

     

Lunchtime!

     

     

     

Happy to celebrate Papaw's birthday with he and Mamaw (and George)!

So glad we got to see Mamaw and Papaw!

Following our stop in Canton, we headed West to the amusement park mecca of the Midwest, Cedar Point!  We hadn't been as a family since 2015 and now that Little Sweetie was ready for roller coasters, we were ready to take her our old stomping grounds.  We got a cabin on property and got ready for some fun, especially since Aunt D, Uncle C, and J were going to join us!

I see coasters!

Staying at Lighthouse Point was absolutely one of the best decisions we made!

Cabin, sweet cabin.

Cabins.

     

Gorgeous views from our cabin.

The kids loved the bedding arrangements!

     

Hanging out in the cabin.

Walking around Lighthouse Point.

     

     

Got to enjoy the beach!

After our full but fun park day full of roller coasters, we were ready for a slower mode of transportation and opted for a ferry ride on Lake Erie.  We went out to Put-in-Bay, another prolific midwest vacation destination.

Waiting on the ferry!

On the ferry!

Bye, Cedar Point!

Beautiful views on the lake!

     

Enjoying a ride on the historic carousel at Put-in-Bay!

Heading over to check out Perry's Victory and International Peace Monument (because we're big history nerds like that)!

Perry's Victory Monument!  Third tallest monument in the National Parks!

At the top of the Monument!

Great views!

     

Finishing off our Put-in-Bay stop with some ice cream!

We stayed at the cabin one more night before heading east.  Now back in Cleveland, we had some time to kill before the Astros-Guardians game, so we hit the Cleveland Metropark Zoo and Rainforest!  The Zoo was beautifully decorated for the Asian Lantern Festival, so we got to enjoy some new sites we hadn't seen in our last trip way back in 201

Walking in to the zoo!

     

Little Buddy loves Tigers!

       

He also loved the bears and waterfalls in their enclosure!

     

Koala!

     

Red Panda!

Clouded leopard!

Little Sweetie howling like one of the animals!

    

Really fun decor for the Lantern Festival!

Finishing up the zoo and getting ready for the rainforest!

     

Ready for the rainforest!

     

Funny seeing my kids do the standard Northeast Ohio school field trip!

        

They really enjoyed the exhibits!

Then it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the ballgame!  We were so fortunate that our visit coincided with the Astros coming into town.  We didn't have any of the new Guardians gear, so we defaulted to Astro fan status and enjoyed our time at Progressive Field.

   

Walking into the stadium.

     

We're here!

Ready for the game!

Excited by her first time visit swag!

Stadium is beautiful!

    

Headed out as the Astros prepare to win!

    

Posing with the statues!

And then it was time for our last sleep in a hotel and our last morning in Ohio.  We decided to get out and walk a bit to see some of the sites along the waterfront, but not before Little Sweetie finally got her wish to play in an arcade.

     

The storm at Cedar Point cut out her hoped-for arcade time.  Thankfully she was satisfied with the video games and pinball machine at the hotel!

Checking out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

It was warm and a bit of a haul to the waterfront, so Little Sweetie was feeling pretty tired and took a quick respite!

Warm but beautiful day!

Checking out the William G. Mather Steamship!

Nice view looking towards Cleveland!

Believeland!

Thanks for all the fun, Lake Erie!

Headed back to Texas!

And so ends our big summer voyage.  We had been so anxious about this trip; nervous how it would be live out of suitcases and different hotels each night.  It ended up being one of our favorite trips together (but we took WAY too many pictures).  I am so glad we took the time to do this and look forward to even more travel adventures!

Good night, 

Little Buddy's and Little Sweetie's Momma

And then it was time for the real fun to begin!  Because we stayed on property, we were able to get an extra hour in the parks in the morning, which is a big deal.  We had originally thought we would start Little Sweetie on the smaller coasters and build up, but with that extra hour, we had shorter lines for some of the bigger coasters.  She decided to go BIG!

Little Sweetie is ready for a day of Roller Coaster Fun at America's Roller Coast!

     

First two coasters of the day were the (new to us) Gatekeeper and the tallest operational ride on site, Millennium Force!  She LOVED them and officially became a coaster fanatic!

     

Little Buddy may not have been in for the big coasters, but he was ready for a day of adventure!

Daddy and Little Sweetie headed back on the Sky Cars towards Momma and Little Buddy for the best part of the trip...

...Aunt D, Uncle C, and J had come to play!

It was so wonderful having family with us.  Besides just being happy to see them, Uncle C and Aunt D aren't big on roller coasters, so they were happy to help and hangout with Little Buddy while Daddy and I took both kids on ALL THE THINGS!  Momma even got to take J on his first big coaster, Raptor (although we nearly had a breakdown when we went to go back on it with Little Sweetie only to find that she was an inch too short, eep)!  However, she rallied and she and J had a BLAST being roller coaster loving cousins together!

Coaster buddies FOR LIFE!

Little Buddy's ready for his turn on a coaster!

     

He conquered the Iron Dragon!

We filled the morning with lots of roller coasting riding, but as it neared lunch time it was getting pretty warm.  Time for some water rides!  We got soaked from multiple rides on Snake River Falls and Thunder Canyon!

     

     

So, so wet!

Snack time!

Then we decided to head into one of the two kiddie areas of the park.  Little Buddy found a few more rides to enjoy!

Ready for the Woodstock Express!

They had a great time!

Found the other kiddie coaster!

Swings!

     

Decided to hit Iron Dragon one more time and bring Aunt D!

Found the other kiddie area!  It was a hoot watching these two try to find rides that Little Sister was tall enough but that J wasn't TOO tall for...he's really hit a growth spurt since we saw him last!

A rain storm ended up rolling while we ate dinner which cut the kids' night-riding plans short (but may have been a gift to the tired old grown-ups)!  But it was an amazing day full of memories and time with family.  Such a precious gift to have this time together!

Best.  Day.  EVER!

Good night from an exhausted, but in the best way, momma!

Always, 

LB&LSM

Little Buddy and Little Sweetie's Momma