Summer Break

Chase took his last final today (WOO HOO!) so to celebrate his freedom, we went to spend the day at Kings Island! It's a pretty fun place with some fun roller coasters, a Nickelodeon kid's area, and a water park. We went on the perfect day because not all the kids are out of school and it was a weekday, so some rides we walked right on! That's my kind of wait!

I thought these cars were kind of cute! It was a car chase ride complete with cop cars, a helicopter, and fire!

I had to take this picture of Chase, not because he's a beast but because it was his favorite ride. He is so fun to ride with, he just GIGGLES the whole time!

Son of the Beast - a wooden roller coaster that is the world's longest and tallest! It was really fun!

This blurry picture is of a ride that takes you 115 feet in the air and through five inversions, all while facing the ground, experiencing the feeling of human flight! It was a very strange feeling!

This is us at the top of a scaled down model of the Eiffel Tower - probably the only we will ever see. Here are a few pictures we took from this view.

Just a bunch of ups and downs to tickle your tummy! Mom, you would love this one!

This was a different ride where you do the track once frontwards and then backwards. It's the first roller coaster Chase has been on where you hang from the track.

We had a lot of FUN! Chase is extremely excited for his summer break and I'm sure he'll be golfing his brains out! We can't wait for our trip home!

Birthday Girl

I just wanted to wish my cute little sister, Tara, happy birthday!
She's turning the big 22!

Tara has one more year of pharmacy school so she is quite a smarty pants, but what kind of big sister would I be if I didn't embarrass her a little bit?

When we were in Hawaii, we went to the Punch Bowl, named for its shape, and Tara kept looking around for the drinks!

When she saw several bust statues in Nauvoo, she was sad and surprised that so many people didn't have arms!

While driving in a canyon, she got a cramp in her hand from constantly holding her brights on because she didn't know you could leave them on!

She always makes me laugh and she's a good sport when we tease her! I love you sis, have a great day and I can't wait to see you!

3 Things Tag

Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog.  List:

3 joys

3 fears

3 goals

3 current obsessions/collections

3 random/surprising facts

Joys - Chase, Boxer, and family/friends

Fears - tornadoes (I am in Ohio), spiders, and scary movies

Goals - learn to cook, get in better shape, and be a good mom

Obsessions - American Idol among other shows, exercising, and blogging

Facts - I eat yogurt & oatmeal everyday, I love drinks in frosty mugs (Diet Coke lately), and nothing else 

I tag Des, Alicia, Darcie, Emily, and Sherri and anyone else, if you want to.

Study Buddy

The last little while, Chase has been studying a lot LESS and a lot more at HOME, which I couldn't be happier about! He doesn't spend every waking moment with his head in a book at the library anymore. We finally got him a desk so he has somewhere to study but he still needs a good chair. His test scores are better than ever so this is working for him! He's doing very well, way to go Chase!

Now we all know Chase is very talented when it comes to school and home improvement jobs, but he has another talent most people don't know about...DECORATING! Chase decorated his desk all by himself! He picked out the lamp and strategically placed two teeth molds on either side and the pot that he made by hand! That's fine, but those white things to the right of the lamp are some of Boxer's teeth that fell out! What a freak but I love having him around more!

Spring!

I LOVE Spring and I think the cold weather is finally behind us here. Good riddance! About November, Chase was thinking about planting tulips but we didn't know much about it except that it can be pretty expensive so we didn't plant anything. As it started getting warmer, I noticed something beginning to grow around all of our trees. I couldn't stand the anticipation to see what it was! Then one day I went out back, and this is what I saw...

pretty daffodils!

We also have this tree on the side of our house that has beautiful blossoms right now. This picture doesn't do it justice but they are huge.

And we have tulips in the bed in the front. I was so happy to see that they are pink! There are quite a few but this was the only one open. What a good surprise...we have flowers and we didn't have to do anything for them!

I took Boxer to get a Spring hair cut but they told me his hair was too thick since it's still puppy hair so the longest it could be was 1/4 inch! No thanks! So they just trimmed his face and paws...terribly! He looks like an old dog and not a puppy anymore with that long beard. A lot of the hair on top of his head was cut way too short and compared to his ears, he looks like he has a mullet! They cut his paws so short, I can't tell where his body stops and his legs begin! Chase calls him a ballerina and I call him peg leg. The only good thing I can say about it is he can see. Good thing his hair will grow out!

Book Tag

My cute friend Des tagged me and this is an easy one that doesn't require any thought, so here it is.

Here are the rules:

1. Grab the book closest to you (has to be at least 123 pages)
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the sentence on your blog
5. Tag 5 people

Right now I'm reading John Grisham's The Appeal. I'm not very far into it but it should be a good one and the sentence is:

Whether or not their ailments were linked to polluted groundwater is a question for another day.

I tag Sherri, Candice, Tara, Darcie, and Alicia.

Our First Visitors

We were SO LUCKY to have Chase's sister Alicia and her family come visit us! It was so nice to see family because it feels like Christmas was such a long time ago. We had a lot of fun with them playing games and doing fun things!

We wanted them to get a taste of the Buckeye culture here. Avery and Carsten are standing in front of a huge buckeye chocolate and they tried some buckeye ice cream. We tried to go on a tour of a chocolate factory but they didn't have tours the day we were there. Bummer!

I think there's one more fan now!

We went to the zoo and Avery was feeding the ducks her lunch. Then when she was eating her chicken, a goose came over and took it out of her hand!

You have to get your face painted. Carsten is the the loch ness monster. It was so green, he still had green eyebrows days later.

Princess Avery!

We went to the Franklin Park Conservatory and saw tons of cool plants and butterflies. Pretty girl and pretty flowers!

We went to Cosi, which is a science center. There are lots of hands on exhibits and some demonstrations to watch. Carsten and Avery liked playing with these balls in the water.

We went to Hocking Hills State Park and hiked to see a few cool places.

Us having a picnic.

And we went to the park to play.

Thanks so much for visiting! We had a blast and can't wait till we see you again! Boxer misses his friends! We love you!