Summer

 We went to the only whistle factory in the United States. I was surprised how small the plant was.  But then whistles are not that big.  We were not allowed to take pictures of any of the equipment, or the processes of making the whistles. It was quite interesting.  We each got a whistle at the end of the tour.

Since Tony and I had such a good time in Hocking Hill we decided to take Mike, Jess, and Hannah there.  The water falls were not as impressive as they were in the spring, but it was still very beautiful an green.  Hannah was able to skip her first rock. 

 

Mike and Jess went back to Phoenix, but Hannah got to stay with us for another 2 weeks.  We had such a great week with them and miss being able to see them more often. 

Summer

 On one of the days that Tony had off we went to Cedar Point. One of the largest roller coaster parks.  It is located about 2 hours from Columbus, in Sandusky OH on Lake Eerie.  Tony and Mike had to try all of the  scary ones.  Hannah was pretty brave for a 6 yr. old.  It was a long day, but we all had a great time.

 And for my Children that were not with us, Yes I rode on this roller coaster.  I had gone with the Laurel class a few weeks earlier and they talked me into going on this coaster.  I should have know that it was worse than they told me when it was the longest line that day and the signs said to take off ALL jewelry. I know I'm a little slow.

More Summer Fun

Unfortunately Tony had to work part of the time that Mike and Jess were here.  One of those days we went up north to a hardware store called Lehmans.  This place was massive!  We spent several hours going through this place.  They had every imaginable thing from antiques, to toys, to kitchen items, to tools and everything in between.

After spending several hours in the hardware store we had lunch at this little pizza and sandwich place across the street.  We were able to see the Amish buggies go up and down the street while we ate.  The store is much larger than the picture shows.  It has been added onto many times.

That eventing we went to play miniature golf.  We had a great time although none of us played that well.  This became Hannah's favorite thing to do and so we went several more times during her stay

After playing miniature golf  Hannah gave the batting cages a try.  She was such a trooper.  She got her finger smashed between the ball and the bat but she kept on trying.

Summer Fun

On June 11 Mike, Jess, and Hannah arrived in Columbus for a visit.  We were really excited because Mike and Jess would be staying for a week and Hannah would be staying another two weeks.  She would then be flying to Idaho with us for the 4th of July.
Sunday we went to church and then went for a drive around Columbus.  We drove out the the temple and then down a scenic route.  Everyone slept except Tony since he was driving.

Sunday after our drive Mike and Hannah played hot wheels, building different ramps for the cars.

Later that afternoon we went to Inniswood Park.  This park is a 123 acres of streams, woodlands, flowers, and wildlife.  There are many different gardens, rose, hosta, herb, rock, white, and  a sisters garden.  The sisters garden is for children and is full of many adventures.

In the sisters garden there is a maze that has a Native American legend carved in the paving stones. We enjoyed reading the legend and following the maze.

                                  

That evening we had fun playing Kenix before bed.

Hocking Hills

We took the opportunity to visit one of the mountainous areas in Ohio. Hocking Hills is exactly that. A region of hills that the Wolverine area hills would dwarf. But the scenery was beautiful. It made us feel like we were walking the Elven paths in Lord of the Rings. Green and lush with ferns and hardwood trees surrounding us. We went in Mid May so the spring water flows were still high. The waterfalls were amazing.

The first four pictures are from Old Man's cave. The area is sandstone and the caves have been carved out by the stream. We took Mike, Jess and Hannah with us a month or so later and as Hannah can attest there are allot of stairs.

Upper Falls are about 20 yards from the parking lot. You could miss them if you didn't know they were there. We started at Old Mans Cave and walked the entire loop and were surprised by how close we were to the truck at the upper falls.

Bath Tub. It truly looks like an old fashion round bath tub. It looks friendly enough but the sign says that it is deeper than it looks and very dangerous.

This is the trail to lower falls. There were many bridges and as you know Mom likes bridges. The moss covered allot of the stone work and the bridges were a little slick. But very cool.

Below is the trail to the rock house. Rock house is a small cave, Well about the size of our apartment. This was one of the scarier trails. Several of the carved out staircases did not have safety rails.

Inside the rock house

Inside the Rock House looking back down at the trail we had to climb to get here. Many people have carved their names in the sandstone. Many crazy people did it very close to the edge.

Conkles Hollow is supposed to be one of the best fall color spots in all of Ohio. There are two paths. One is handicap accessible and the other is one of the most dangerous walks in the park. As we had been walking for two days straight we took the easier path. It was amazing. There were so many ferns. It reminded me of the Redwood forest and the trip our family took several years ago. There were waterfalls along the way and a waterfall and pool at the end of the canyon.

Cantwell cliffs were Dad's favorite hike. We took pictures of fat ladies squeeze which is a narrow stair case at the start of the hike. Dad's favorite part was that he and Mom were the only ones on the trail for most of the walk. It was so quiet and peaceful. And of course he was with his favorite person.

As stated above there were many bridges and Mom got pictures of them all.

You would never believe it but Mom loves to see wild mushrooms growing. She would stop and take pictures. Have to admit they were pretty cool. The middle photo on the top row we called the outdoor toilet seat. It even had a soft cover. This is really a fallen tree stump with moss growing around the rim.

This is one of the many, many, many staircases in the park. I believe this is called the stairway to heaven. It is part of the trail in Conkles Hollow that is so dangerous. It takes you around the rim of the canyon. Every year people fall from this trail to the canyon below.

It was an amazing weekend. Our legs were very sore for several days after because of the many, many staircases. But the next weekend we wished we were back.

Fun With Hannah

Hannah loves to build with Legos and wouldn't you know it there is a Lego Game. You draw a card and it gives you four choices of something to build. You build the object of your choice, while the rest of the players try to guess. We played in teams and of course our team won. (Hannah, Grandpa, and Nana)

Second Leg

Saturday was Tyler's birthday and he wanted to go to the rock gym. Tyler, Brianne, and

her Tyler had all been before, but this was Tonys and my first time. It was much harder than it looked. We climbed for about an hour before everyone was exhausted.







That night we went to Whitewater Grill for sushi. Tyler's favorite. I wish that I would have remembered my camera to get pictures of the food. Tyler had some pretty interesting looking stuff. It was a great day with the kids.
Sunday morning we went to my moms and watched conference, then we went to visit Tonys mom. Then back to my moms to watch conference and have Tyler's birthday desert. He wanted fruit pizza and 7 layer dip. Afterwards we headed back to our house to hang out for the rest of the day.
Monday Tyler and Brianne came to the airport, we had breakfast together and then we were off to Phoenix .