Even though we were all tiring a bit of riding in the van, it was good to be on the way to Ohio and know we had 5 days of NOT riding in the car to spend with family and friends!
We arrived Monday evening and spent Tuesday doing nothing but playing. Papa Dana came over to hang out with us Tuesday and we all enjoyed visiting with him. The kids also had a great time climbing the tree outside Shannon and Jason's house. Both of our kids are little monkey's and got rather high in the tree.
They even planned a little welcome tree-skit for our good friends, Sara, Anna and Dayton when they arrived for a visit on Wednesday. I'm not sure what all was involved apart from all of them being in the tree and waving hello and jumping out of the tree!
While Sara and the kids were at the house we did more of just playing and enjoying spending time together. The kids swam, ran, crafted, did puzzles, schemed and made posters for a lemonade and cookie sale they planned. Aunt Shannon and the kids set up the stand at their church before Wednesday evening services. All the money collected went to a special ministry called "Life Straw" - straws with filters that make even dirty water drinkable. They raised $163!! Pretty cool!
We were so glad that Sara, Anna and Dayton made the 3 hour trip to hang out with us for a couple of days. It is always good to spend time with them and makes us miss them all the more!
Thursday evening we celebrated Aunt Shannon's birthday at a Japanese Steakhouse. Jen and the kids had never been to one before so it was quite a treat to watch the chef cook in front of us! Here is what Katey thought of it:
Do you see her in the pink shirt with her hands on her face? :-) Seth kept scooting back further and further in his chair as the chef flung stuff and lit fires. It was pretty funny! We all had a great time and enjoyed the delicious food!
Shannon with Aubrey. We don't think Aubrey liked the fire very well.Friday was Shannon's actual birthday and she was awakened to Gabriella and Katey calling her on the phone to tell her to come to the kitchen for breakfast. The girls had worked hard on a special birthday breakfast. And, when I say "special", I mean it:
Why yes, those are grapes and green peppers placed artistically on a plate! Shannon was so very surprised!! And, we were all surprised that she was willing to share her wonderful birthday breakfast with her girls.
They decided to take advantage of the chop sticks we got from the Japanese Steakhouse the night before.Later that day we headed to Jay and Kathy's house for another day of fun outside. The kids rode the zip line, got to see Emily and meet our new little cousin, Laken;
and put on swim suits and goggles for a fun surprise...
THE SHAVING CREAM FIGHT!! 
It was tough to get good shots of the kids in action, but here is Aubrey after the fight. They all pretty much looked like this. HA!We also took a little trip to see Great Grandma Brown and Great-Great Uncle Carl - but I forgot to pull out my camera. Grandma's house smelled delicious as she was working on freezing some Incredible Corn (can't wait to hopefully get a taste of that over Christmas break!) and we had a nice time catching up with them as well.
The most surprising part of the trip was discovering that Seth is a HUGE kitten lover! Our son, who seriously claims to be 1/2 dog (I wish I was kidding on that part, but it is true - he tries to convince us daily), fell in love with Summer the kitten, whom he dubbed "Kitty Litter". He spent the entire time we were at Shannon's chasing the kitty around and picking her up. He was holding her one day and exclaimed, "I'm not sure why dogs don't like cats. I just don't understand because this cat is pretty nice!"
We headed home on Saturday and, while we would have liked a few more days of vacation, we were grateful to be home (and out of the van) and end our 2000+ mile adventure of the Eastern United States...and what a great adventure it was!
