Vacation

Jeremy's youngest brother Jon got married over Memorial Day weekend. His bride is from Cincinnati, OH, so naturally that is where the wedding was. We were fortunate to all be able to go and celebrate with them making this our third official family vacation.

This was only the second time we'd flown with the kids. I was a little worried since the flight was so much longer and wasn't sure how the kids (especially Isaiah) would do confined for so long. As usual, my worries were needless. The kids did great and were so well behaved. The only tough time we had was when we missed our connecting flight to Cincinnati from Atlanta literally running from one end of the airport to the other (terminal E to terminal A) where our plane had left just minutes before, and then having to go all the way back to terminal E to catch the next flight!

Despite that, we arrived safely and the rest of our trip was relatively uneventful.

Isaiah actually slept a bit on the plane!

Aside from the wedding itself, some of the highlights of the trip included:
Visiting the Krohn Conservatory where we got to walk through their butterfly exhibit and tropical gardens.

Riding the tractor lawnmower at the Bates house (fun for Jeremy and the kids!)

Swinging on the porch swing.

Evelyn wanted to try her hand at taking pictures. The one below is one of her contributions. Not half bad aside from Isaiah's expression.

Meeting Great Grandma Shultz. She lives in Missouri, and the last time we saw her was right after Evelyn was born.  It was a real treat to be able to introduce Isaiah to her and re-introduce Evelyn. Unfortunately I apparently didn't get any pictures with her and the kids. And this is one that Isaiah "helped" to take so the lighting isn't particularly great.

Visiting the Cincinnati Zoo.  It is the second oldest zoo in the country and has quite an extensive collection of animals. We only scratched the surface of what there was to see, but were pretty impressed with the experience. Our favorites were the animal encounters where we could touch and see some of the animals up close, and the baby animals in the children's zoo.

manatees

touching a live snake!

petting the goats.

a baby alligator.

Swimming in the pool at the Bates' house.

Seeing the dinosaurs at the Creation Museum.

The gardens at the Creation Museum were quite lovely. Too bad it was so hot! We were practically melting in these pictures!

Another contribution from Evelyn.

All told it was a very restful vacation. We tried to be selective in what we did so we wouldn't wear out the kids - or us! And still tried to allow some flexibility for naps and downtime. Of course, the wedding, which was the real reason we were there, was quite lovely and festive. We are so appreciative of the Bates' family for their hospitality and putting us up in their beautiful home.

My Little Helpers

Today Evelyn was begging to help me wash dishes. This isn't such a bad thing really, but since it often ends up a bit messy, uses up A LOT of water, and I have to be supervising, it can kind of be a pain in the behind more than actually being a help. But, she's got to learn sometime right, and I probably shouldn't pass up help when it's being offered. So, I decided to let her (and Isaiah of course, who would not be left out of anything his big sister is doing) wash all the non-breakable and non-deadly dishes.

Mostly they just like playing in the water, but they actually did a pretty decent job of getting the dishes clean thanks to Evelyn being the washer.

It was  probably the most peaceful 30 minutes I had all day. No fighting with each other, and I really didn't have to provide too much supervision or direction. I just checked in occasionally to make sure the washed dishes weren't getting to piled up waiting to be rinsed and to help put them on the dish rack.

I love how they were so happy in their task. To them it wasn't a chore, they were having fun! When do household chores become something you dread rather than enjoy? I mean, I definitely take pleasure in the end result, but I can't say that I particularly enjoy the task.  Talk about a good lesson for me!

The end result: Most of the dishes clean. I only had a half-dozen or so left to do myself which was great because I really hate washing all the plastic cups and bags!

The whole reason behind the demand to wash dishes: these silly water bottles they got at the zoo yesterday. They wanted them clean so they could drink more water out of them!