Fall is here

Benjamin at 11 months

All sorts of changes and discoveries are happening in Ben's life.  He of course is changing in size, already wearing some 18 month clothes, changing in personality and changing in looks with his long hair.  He discovered he could survive and actually enjoy two rather lengthy car rides with women and a little girl and he has discovered that he prefers to be up on his two feet whenever possible although he hasn't quite mastered walking yet.

We have nicknamed Ben "Bam-Bam" this month because, I'm sure as most boys do, he loves to bang on things and see how much noise he can make without breaking something.  He has his gentle moments though that I love.  At night he will rub his hands on my arms before being put in the crib.

Ben still only has 2 teeth, but I'm pretty sure he's working on more as I type.  I don't mind the slow timing because that just means it will take that long for him to lose them.

These Groff babies produce the funniest expressions in my opinion.

This one is still my favorite at 6 days old.

Who says you need toys when you have a big box??

Emily - 4 years, 1 mo. - Sept. 16

Emily is proud to be a 4 year old. She tells everyone she meets that she’s 4 now. Although she keeps pointing out that when she's 6, Ben will be 3 and that she gets to buy a bunny or a kitty.  We keep telling her the motto I heard a lot as a child....we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

Emily has developed into a very independent little 4 year old.  We hear many times...."I can do it all by myself".  She is enjoying her tricycle more now since she can ride it and steer it where she wants it to go.

Emily started preschool this month and seems to really enjoy it.  She does ask every Tuesday if her church friends are going to be there too.  

Texas trip continued

Ben's first voice lesson

Enjoying bath time

Texas trip Sept. 9-19

We had been wanting to go visit Randa and the family for a while, but not interested in flying again so Mom, the kids and I loaded up Mom's van and began the tour.  It took about 18 hrs., but broken into 2 days was not that bad at all especially due to Mom's very creative method for helping Emily (and us) pass the time.  She made a chain out of old Christmas cards and at each 30 min. increment Emily was allowed to cut off one link of her chain.  It was good for her to see how the chain got smaller and smaller as we reached our destination.

We had a great visit with lots of fun things including playgrounds, baby pools, balloons, a visit to a big cat rescue center close to where Mark and Randa live, piano playing, "driving" Jeeps, reading and snacking on pretzel rods (or pretzel yod as David would say).

Zoo Trip

We had the opportunity to visit our Columbus Zoo recently with our friends.  For anyone with kids, I highly recommend a Zoo Pass - it's well worth the cost.

More donuts please!

Since we didn't get to see any moose up close in Montana, we opted for the ones in the zoo.

New Shed

We were on the hunt for a new shed in order to clear out some large items from our garage and finally found a really good company called Ohio State Barns affiliated with Wheat Ridge Mini Barns. 

Charlie will have to tell you what he had to go through with the city, but the gentleman from the barn company was great to work with.  I was really curious how they were going to deliver the shed so of course had to take photos.  The apparatus is called a mule and it just rolls under the shed and sets it down into position.  If anyone is in the market for a shed, we highly recommend this company.

Benjamin at 10 months

Montana Vacation continued

After our girls and guys mini vacation we all met back in Missoula for even more fun including a big birthday party, carousels,  Big Dipper ice cream, shopping sprees, good food, great friends, lots and lots of driving, and so much more. We took lots of pictures & made even more memories.

Thank you to Holly's friend who made this amazing cake for our combined birthday celebration.

Charlie surprised me with a date one night while in Missoula.  We had the chance to have a quiet dinner and then attempt to walk up to the "M" located on the hillside behind the University of Montana.  We made it up to the first switchback for some pictures, but did not make it all the way to the "M" - maybe on our next trip.

Vacation to Montana Aug. 18-25, 2010

We had the opportunity to go back to the state where we honeymooned a couple of weeks ago, but this time with more family members.  We had a short flight from Ohio to Chicago, IL, and then came the 3 hr. flight from Chicago, IL to Spokane, WA.  We had a short visit with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins in Spokane and then off on our 3 hr. drive to Missoula.  Here's Emily enjoying a nice whale ride at my Aunt and Uncle's house before we got in the 2011 Toyota Sienna which was our rental van for the trip. 

We arrived in Missoula on Wednesday night and got settled into our hotel (Wingate by Wyndham) which was the highlight of Emily's trip because it had a very nice water park along with a regular size swimming pool. Thursday morning Charlie and his Dad took off for a fishing trip while my Sister-In-Law, Mother-In-Law and kiddos went to Jackson Hole, WY and Yellowstone National Park for a girls only trip (minus Ben, but since he's not even one year old, he doesn't count). Since traveling with two little ones our trip took a little time, but we finally made it to Jackson later that evening & checked into our motel.

After a good night sleep, it was time to get out on the town as we only had 1 full day to spend in Jackson. After breakfast we toured the town for a little shopping and siteseeing.

There are a few intersections in Jackson Hole that still utilize a flag system to stop traffic instead of street lights.  You just pick up a flag on one side, proceed across the street and place it in the holder on the other side.  Emily of course wanted to hold the flag.

Next we took Emily to the Elk Conservatory Visitor Center to earn her Junior Blue Goose Ranger Badge where her Aunt earned her badge back in November.   She passed with flying colors and we were down the trail to play around in the Grand Teton National Park.

I had never been there so we spent the better part of our day walking and driving around to see the sights. For those of you that have never been there, you should definitely add Jackson & the Tetons to your to do list.

Emily was more than excited to see our first animal, a barely visible moose playing in the brush of the river. She exclaimed, "I saw it's belly Aunt Holly!" She then proceeded to say we needed to find at least 10 animals before we left the park to go back to our motel for the night.

After driving around for half the day we had only seen what counted up to be about 8 animals, elk, deer, birds, horses, cows, moose, squirrels, and even some barely visible bison. Our stomachs were grumbling so we decided to call it a day and head back towards town (and food!). In a distant field Holly could see what looked like a herd of something so she decided it was only a short trip down a road to see what they were. We were all glad she did.

The herd of Bison completely surrounded our car.  Holly & I were snapping pictures as the bison stared us down & tried to figure out what we were doing there. Emily was most concerned for their safety, as they didn't look both ways before crossing the road (cars were starting to pile up all around us at this point).  We stayed as long as we had to since they had our car surrounded and then took off for dinner.

We wrapped up the night after a good meal.  Holly & I did a little touring around town while Ginny gave the kiddos a bath & then everyone was off to bed.

When morning came we packed up the car & said our goodbyes to Jackson & the Tetons. It was time to tour Yellowstone. Having two tiny travelers we had only time to stop at Old Faithful, the Middle Geysers, & the Painted Pots. If you have time to go to Yellowstone, these places are worth the stop.

 

Finally we headed back to Missoula for the rest of our vacation.

Here are some shots of the boys during their fishing/hiking trip.