I can’t believe another year has come and gone!!! How about we catch up a little bit from where I left off… back in July… (oops)
***August***
Realizing that everyone’s schedules would be too busy for any visits before the holiday breaks, we met Nana and Zz at a midway point in NY for a little hotel slumber party and hiking adventure before school started. Plus… Zz would be leaving us to move back out west to attend college. We miss her so much!
We had some firsts this month apparently… We participated in the Kirtland 5k – the girls completed their first 1 mile walk (of which they ran through). Malia learned how to ride without training wheels, Allie went to her first Indians game and got her teeth cleaned!
We’ve really come to enjoy all the Cleveland has to offer. We went to the feast of the assumption in Little Italy and had the most delicious strombolis. (We shall definitely go again next year.) We also love venturing downtown.
I started my second year of dental school, Malia started 1st grade, and Allie started her second year of preschool. The girls are doing great in school – Malia is quick with her math, is becoming a master reader and sentence writer and she LOVES art and music class. She can always be found working on some sort of artwork and claims to want to be an art teacher some day. Allie is extremely obedient in class, writes several smaller words, is learning to read bob books, plays well with her classmates and just loves learning and ‘table time’. Allie is our affectionate child and says that she wants to stay home forever and ever with mom and dad and never go to college. Ha… we will see about that! As for me and my school – we hit the labs pretty hard this semester and at first, working on dentures was super fun and exciting. Then as most things do – it got old and I can’t wait to get into the clinic!
Lastly, we celebrated my bday with some family, friends and sunshine. All of my favorite things.
***September***
On labor day weekend we went and saw the Blue Angels in flight – totally awesome! But if I am remembering correctly we were pretty miserable with the heat and humidity – but I would totally go for that over the cold Ohio winters!
We continued to have soccer Saturdays and we participated in a small luau at church where the girls preformed their first little dance. I stayed busy with dentures – here is my first completed set.
Aaron and the girls had the opportunity to go to Florida for a week to visit Aaron’s brother Mike and his family. He was preparing for deployment to Afghanistan and they were blessing their new baby girl Savannah. (I was stuck in Ohio with midterms, tests, and projects that were piling up.) They even went to SeaWorld without me! But I’m glad they got to play with cousins and enjoy a warm sunny beach.
***October***
We did some random things this month… Aaron and I finally went on a real date (thanks to Nana), we visited Patterson farms to pick out pumpkins and had some delicious donuts, I actually had time to pick the girls up from school one day and we got to play at the park (a rarity with my busy schedule this past semester), we did more Saturday soccer and trophies (not sure what happened to Malia’s trophy picture), we visited west side market with Allie (another lucky morning I had off), and walked in the Tiger Pride Homecoming parade for the girls’ school.
As far as festive Halloween things go we walked the neighborhood to find scary decorations (all while trying to soak up every last bit of warmth and sunshine), we made a craft per the request of Malia, Aaron and I went to a haunted house, our family won a pumpkin carving competition at my school (hola!), and the girls dressed up as pirates! They also asked me to send them a picture of what I do at school and they thought that the ‘monster guy’ was trying to eat me, lol.
Our cutie pirates ravaged the town and enjoyed some cupcake and cookie decorating while they looted the businesses. On actual Halloween we enjoyed the festive displays and candy!
This month of October I guess was super busy… but the coolest thing we got to do was see Imagine Dragons in a free concert downtown to commemorate LeBron James… too bad they lost that game. But it was a fun adventure! We tried to watch from a parking garage next door and were promptly kicked out by the police – the girls were so confused why the cops were so mean. After I got my picture we obeyed orders and instead squished our way into the crowd. It was crazy… but the concert was worth it! The walk back was beautifully lit – I love this area of Cleveland.
***November***
I won a baking competition at school – you can’t resist white chocolate dipped gingersnaps! We got our first snow and it was miserably cold for awhile. Malia graduated from college – in the future – long story and pretty dumb actually... but now she is more apt to graduate from college?
We spent Thanksgiving in Washington D.C and had a great time with the Beck’s and Zellers. We ran our fastest times in the turkey trot and had fun sightseeing and making gingerbread houses.
Also… just for kicks, we played dress-up in my wedding dress! I was pleased to find that it fit too big on ALL of us! (I’ve been going to the gym every morning at 5:30am since the semester started and dropped 15 lbs!)
***December***
This was a great month for us. I studied hard and took part 1 of my Dental Boards early so that I could maximize my vacation time. Boy was it worth it after receiving the results in the mail! We celebrated the efforts and support of the entire family with a ‘fancy dress-up’ dinner and Aaron and I even went to see A Christmas Carol in Playhouse square. I got to spend so much time with my family and the girls loved even the simplest of things like rides to and from school. I also got to attend a beautiful Christmas party with the pediatric staff I worked with over the summer – it made me miss working out in the real world – but I’m almost half way there!
What else… I went with Allie on a field trip to the post office, we finally finished a snowman craft I started before Malia was born (see… Malia forces me to be crafty). I took the kids to the art museum where Malia felt right at home – drawing everything she saw; we made gingerbread people for Santa, and took our traditional Christmas Sunday picture.
Our Christmas this year was a small quiet one, but we got to enjoy our families through skype. We did get together on Christmas Eve with our dear friends and returned home for our traditional pj present opening and then watched Home Alone with the girls – which was hilarious with two cute little girls and their contagious laughter.
Christmas morning was a joy – this year Malia and Allie got to buy presents for us at a school shop with money they earned. (They would have gotten better deals at the dollar tree if you ask me, but they loved the spirit of giving.) You could say they were spoiled – we finally tapped into technology and got them both kindles. In school they are required to access certain things online and we got tired of them ruining our computers.
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***Last but not least… January 2015***
To close out the year and celebrate the new, we escaped Ohio for a week and headed south in the search of warmth of sunshine. We ended up at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina and absolutely LOVED it there! It was such a relaxing trip, filled with amazing weather and views (we hadn’t really grasped the concept that the sun ‘rises’ over the Atlantic, lol). The 12 hour drive was completely worth it… and to top it off gas was so cheap! We hadn’t realized how much we missed the beach… it was seriously wonderful and a much deserved vacation.
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The girls had a lot of fun finding all sorts of wild-life: sea-stars, shells, crabs, horseshoe crabs, a blow fish, a sting ray, and we even spotted dolphins close to shore! Malia was also brave enough to feed the seagulls.
There was so much to see and do, and the scenery was just perfect. Bike riding along the coast was definitely a highlight!
On New Year’s eve Malia and Allie stayed up all the way until midnight. I on the other hand fell asleep at 8:30pm and woke up in time to see the ball drop… turning into an old lady I guess!
A couple days later we celebrated Aaron’s 33rd birthday. We forgot to bring paper for cards, so Aaron got some trashy cardboard pizza box cards instead… leave it to these girls to keep it creative! To celebrate Aaron’s return to school – he will be starting his MBA program - we got him some Ohio University gear… go Bobcats! We are super proud of his decision to continue his education and look forward to the opportunities that await him.
Before departing the beautiful coast we drove down to Savannah, GA and had the most amazing experience sightseeing. It is one of the most beautiful cities we have visited, rich with culture and history. To be honest, this trip made us want to live down in this area some day… only time will tell!
Well there you have it. Six months of life with the Ohio Brewer’s. Rather than leave with some sort of empty promise of updating I’ll just see you when I see you. But I’ll leave with one last little life event… we have definitely become true residents of Ohio…
GO BUCKEYES!
