spring break: part 3

i feel so behind on blogging, that I'm not going to get into too much detail about the trip home from ohio, i'll just post the pictures. but we made a few stops that were so very fun!

in cincinnati we stopped at Taste of Belgium for the best frites ever (ok, so the only frites we've ever had, but they rocked) and delicious waffles and crepes. we looked a little out of place with our crew of little people, but we had fun and the kids loved it.

next stop louisville kentucky!

the louisville slugger factory was awesome. at the end of the tour they give each person a mini bat and you can take a turn in the batting cages. chris swung a replica of babe ruth's bat and CRACKED it- what a man!

we also visited churchill downs on a very cold morning. but even with freezing temps, this may have been our favorite stop. i think i've said that about all of the places we visited :) we really enjoy watching the kentucky derby, so the kids thought it was pretty cool to see it in person.

our last big stop was nashville. and the main reason we stopped in nashville for a night was... a food truck. not just any food truck, but The Grilled Cheeserie gourmet grilled cheese truck. oh man, it was heaven! hands down, the best sandwiches we've ever had. jack and ellie are still talking about it and i may or may not day dream about it on a daily basis.

the food truck roundup was at a beautiful park and the kids picked flowers while we waited.

my two favorite things in this world, chris and a pimento mac n cheese sandwich. 

we walked around downtown nashville and saw too many boot shops and party buses with drunk girls to count. charlie said he liked the city while jack said he had a bad feeling the whole time we were there and didn't like it.

of course we had to find some bbq while in nashville. this was a little place right on the water that had live music. it was really tiny and again, we were quite out of place. but it was a great experience with the kids.

on the way back to our hotel for the night, chris surprised me with a quick stop at my home away from home...

it felt great to walk through a publix again :)

we bought half a key lime pie and stocked up on some publix root beer, which was buy one get one... seriously love publix.

you never know what you'll see or do on a road trip and thats one reason why i enjoy them so much. we saw this truck in kentucky that made us laugh

yup, thats a baby stroller and a buck in the back.

things can get a little crazy during the long driving stretches though. one afternoon we all had red vines hanging from our noses, which got wet from snot and dyed the kids nostrils and lip red. another time i used pistachio shells to make chris laugh... i think i looked rather british...

we almost needed to make a pitstop to change our pants after that one. all in all, it was probably the best spring break ever with this little family of ours.

i hope the kids remember this road trip for ever and ever.

spring break: part 2

columbus was the perfect adventure.

 cousins and aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa... it was heaven!

we were usually having too much fun to bother with many pictures. we got together for dinners, played games, visited cosi, had sleep overs, golfed, played in the snow (yes, snow... during spring break...), stayed up late each night and watched lord of the rings trilogy at marc's theater, played with puppies, visited our missionaries at the mission office, ellie played dress up with cousin dayton (a high school senior... what a good guy!), and the list goes on. everyone went out of their way to make our visit a good one and it wasn't just a good visit, it was the best.

making buckeyes with cousins lauren, kate, and madeline.

bowling! 

why don't bowling alleys everywhere have bowling lanes for kids? genius!

wii competition between chris and delauna

kate had a project at school that we were able to go visit. it was a wax museum of influential people and the kids were the "wax people". you walked up and pushed a button and they told you about themselves. obviously, kate was mother theresa.

this is what charlie looked like at the end of the day, every day

at cosi, an awesome science museum, with amy and tyler's family

the kids were asked to participate in a research study about language and reading while we were there. it was pretty fun to watch them behind the windows, just like in the movies ;)

we stayed at marc and delauna's in powell for the week. they are the best. delauna and i worked out in the mornings before the kids got up. I've never had so much fun getting my bum kicked!

they have three puppies. at the beginning of the week our kids were all afraid of dogs. by the end of the week, all three kids were sad to be leaving june bug, lady bug, and bailey. charlie especially. he loved june bug. she would snuggle with him while he was reading each day.

of course we visited a few restaurants while in columbus. we didn't realize columbus was a foodies paradise, but it is. so much awesomeness! i think we ate enough to hibernate through next winter.

one of our favorite stops was at Schmidts Haus in german village. what a beautiful little town, complete with brick roads, tucked in the big city.

charlie loves the dr. seuss book Sneetches. in the book, the star bellied sneetches have frankfurter roasts and charlie has been dying to try a frankfurter. well, of course a sausage haus would have frankfurters on the kids menu and he was thrilled!

the funny part? chris was so excited to come here but in the end, he enjoyed it but didn't think the sausage was anything spectacular. truth be told, i wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to go to a german sausage place for lunch. sausage and sauerkraut isn't really my favorite. in fact i down right hate sauerkraut. but this ended up being one of my very favorite meals. ever! my first bite of these scrumptious morsels was like a burst of pure ecstasy. schmidts famous pretzel nuggets. seriously, my mouth just flooded while thinking about them. if all pretzels were like this, i would weigh 300 lbs.

then i had a turkey reuben sandwich that was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had... and it even had sauerkraut. it was not normal sauerkraut. so yummy. 

 schmidts is known for their ginormous cream puffs. we tried a regular cream puff and a pistachio one. along with german chocolate cake. and a cherry tart. i guess thats what happens when we go on vacation :) for the record, the cream in the cream puffs was fabulous, but the "puff" wasn't all that great. then again, people only eat cream puffs for the cream anyways, right?

 cathy and i made some jeni's last time we were in idaho, so of course we had to try the real jeni's splendid ice cream while in ohio.

 it didn't disappoint.

we got a babysitter one of the nights and all met up at The Melt downtown.

i feel sorry for people who don't have awesome in-laws. we had so much fun with denise and doug, amy and tyler, marc and delauna, and mom and dad. wish the other siblings could have been there too.

oh, and owen too!

holy mac-n-cheese-stuffed-grilled-cheese-sammy!

can't believe I'm admitting this, but this sandwich was a little much. definitely something you want to split with someone else. i think i oozed mac n cheese instead of sweat during my next few workouts after that sucker.

visiting the family was exactly what we needed. we are missing everyone tremendously and hope to make another trip sometime soon.