Trampoline

The other big hit at Grandma's house was the trampoline. I love Hannah's hair.

Sister Kandel's house

When Mark was little, Diane used to dress all the kids up in nativity costumes every Christmas. She still has all the costumes, and she really really wanted us to take pictures since we had the perfect grouping for Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. I'm saving the pictures for closer to Christmas, but to take the pictures, we visited her friend Sue Kandel, Mark's old seminary teacher. Her house was amazing. I had heard about this awesome house they had, but this was my first time seeing it. They used to run a daycare/summer camp on the property, and I wish I had gone to summer camp there. They had lakes, and a pool, donkeys. It was just beautiful. 

Hannah with the donkeys

Mark and Henry

Watching the ducks

Hannah

Getting ready for our nativity pictures

The donkeys

The play house

Inside the playhouse

Matthew

On the bridge

Kent, Ohio

We had a wonderful week in Kent, Ohio. It was only my third visit since we've been married. The last time we were there was Christmas 2010. We spent most of the week hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins. We did do some Halloween activities. We went to a local farm and got some pumpkins and then later we carved them. I did do a bit of shopping with Sara, went on a few bike rides with Mark, and Mark and I went and saw The Martian, which was great. Mostly, we just had a chill week hanging out with the cousins.

With our pumpkins

Mark, Amy and Henry

Henry

Matthew, Amy and Christopher

The carved pumpkins

Christopher - death star

Garrett - Daniel Tiger

Hannah - pumpkin with no nose

Amy - silly pumpkin

Matthew - traditional jack o'lantern

Christopher, Garrett, Matthew, Amy and Hannah

Watching Star Wars

Twin Lakes

After we arrived at Mark's parents' house, the first item on our checklist was to go visit the lake. Mark's parents live in an area outside Kent called Twin Lakes. Their lake has a small beach, a playground and pavilion. Since Mark's brother Stephen lives just down the street from their parents, their oldest three came down to the lake with us. The kids had fun playing in the sand, and then Mark and Elwin pulled out the canoes and we got to go for a ride around the lake while Grandma watched Henry. It was so nice being back in Ohio. I loved seeing all the trees. 

Matthew at the beach

Henry chilling in the grass

Getting ready to destroy Mark's sand castle

Hannah

Mark

Matthew

Garrett, Christopher and Matthew

Mark, Diane and Henry

Amy

Christopher

If you look close, you can see she is wearing socks on her hands.

Mark ready to pilot the girls' canoe.

As I take the picture, Garrett says, "We have to pretend we like each other."

Hannah and Amy

Mt. Rushmore

On our way to Ohio, we decided to take what Mark and I dubbed "The Great Northern Trek." Mark had never been to Mt. Rushmore, so we drove pretty far out of our way to visit the monument. I'm not fully sure if it was worth the extra hours we took getting there, but we did have a great time visiting. The Black Hills area of South Dakota was very pretty. We even saw a bunch of big horned sheep right off the road. The monument is cool, but only holds the kids' attention for about two seconds. However, there was a Presidential trail that went to the base of the monument. It mostly consisted of a boardwalk with lots of stairs. Not terribly stroller friendly, but the kids had a blast. It circles back around to an art studio where they have sculpting demonstrations - however, it was closed when we were there. But the monument is an amazing feat. Also, our trip to Mt. Rushmore let me check off both Minnesota and Wisconsin from my list of states to visit. I only have twelve left!

Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt and Lincoln

Mark

Hannah and Matthew

Henry and I

"Come on, Daddy"

View from the cave

How cute is he!

Fall pictures

Right before we left for our Ohio trip, I had my sister-in-law Jess come over and take some pictures of the kids. I wanted a cute fall picture of the three of them, some 3 month old pictures for Henry and some soccer pictures of Matthew. We took the group picture and then when I took Matthew to put his soccer clothes on, Jess took some pictures of Hannah, Henry and her son Daniel. However, Matthew threw a fit, and we never did get any soccer pictures taken. Oh, well. Two out of three isn't bad. 

Happy Fall

Matthew, Henry and Hannah

Hannah patiently waiting

3 months old

Look at those blue eyes

What a cutie

Daniel and Henry

Daniel