(Un)Happy Father's Day and Giant Baby!

After the travel last weekend, this weekend was spent close to home.  We wanted to take advantage of the last of the less humid and cooler days of the weekend to work on the patio.

Saturday was spent moving the rest of the gravel to the back and leveling it out with rakes and shovels.  We also worked on the steps going from the lower to upper patios.  This area looks great but is still not finished...it's always harder/longer to get work done with a toddler and infant to tend as well!

The next step was to tamp down the gravel to the correct depth and slope.  We have been trying to buy a new plate compactor for awhile now but they never seemed to be in stock at our local store.  So we finally found one that was about a half hour drive away and went to buy it on Thursday evening.  We pulled it out of the box on Sunday - it looked pretty nice too.

Unfortunately, it would NOT START.  Chris tried everything he could think of to get it to start to no avail.  After about 4 hours of complete frustration, he gave up.  We put it back in the box to exchange later.  The bad part of this was that we missed out on some ideal work weather - not to mention Chris having a horrible Father's Day.

But speaking of Father's Day, Chris is the father to two pretty great kids.  Josh is a very happy baby (when he's not wet, hungry, or tired!).

 And they get along well (for now) with the exception of the aggressive loving that Samantha shows sometimes. 

 
Looking at this picture, is it any wonder people think Josh is 6 months old instead of 2?  What a huge baby!

I took Josh to his 2 month well appointment and he is still way off the charts for weight and length.  He measured 16 lb. 15 oz. and 25 1/4 inches.  If he keeps up on this path, he'll be at least 6'4" and 220 lb by age 20 - yikes!

 

This coming weekend, we hope that we get some nice/cooler weather so we can finish up the patio!

Traveling with the Kids

This week was busy like every other.  Samantha had her last dance class, we had multiple play dates, and library trips. 

My brother drove down for a day to spend some time with the kids.  Samantha really enjoyed having him here and it was a big help to be able to run some quick errands while he stayed with the kids.  It wasn't the most exciting trip for him but hopefully we can have more fun next time he's down.  

We made our first (mostly successful) trip with the kids.  We headed to Columbus to celebrate our niece's graduation from high school.  In order to make the most of our trip, we headed up Thursday evening and stayed with Chris' parents. 

Friday morning we drove the remaining distance and spent some time at COSI (the science center) and had a nice walk and lunch in German Village.  Samantha enjoyed the science center and both kids were pretty well behaved. 

Our hosts were very gracious and allowed us to stay in the apartment attached to their house - it made nap/night time a lot easier this way. 

With all the family in town I was able to spend some quality time with Josh without Samantha trying to love him to death at the same time.

Samantha really enjoyed spending time with the whole family.  There was a lot of bouncing on the trampoline.  Here is a picture of her with Anna (the soon-to-be graduate) and another of pure silliness.

She got her first "big kid" bike and did a pretty decent job pedaling it around the driveway.  

Her favorite cousin of the weekend was Isabelle - poor Isabelle never got a break! 

She did enjoy the additional dogs too and Lucy and Leo were very gentle.

Saturday morning we walked around the Ohio State campus to see where Anna will be attending in the fall.  Even though Chris spent his college years there, the campus has had a lot of renovations and additions since then.  Being a Penn State graduate, I begrudgingly allowed my picture to be taken in front of the Ohio State sign (I tried to give a thumbs down with a frown-y face but I was chastised).

While walking, Samantha kept stepping off the path when people were near to let them pass...this is something we make the kids do on the path around the lake at home when there are runners/bikers.  I tried to explain that these sidewalks and paths were wider but she still insisted (at least she was trying to be polite).

The family party was on Saturday evening (for some reason we're missing many pictures of the rest of the family).  It was great seeing everyone!  Plus I got a break from holding Josh the whole time so my arms are nice and rested today.

On Sunday, before the actual graduation ceremony, we had a big family brunch at the Scioto Country Club.  It was fantastic food - as evidenced by Samantha's three full plates!

The private balcony overlooking the golf course was a nice place for taking pictures too.

Unfortunately, only about half of the cousins made it so here is a photo of 8 of the 14.

As with every family gathering, people start to question which parent the children resemble.  So for comparison sake, here are photos of the kids with Mommy and Daddy at about the same age - what do you think?

We weren't able to make it to the graduation so we headed home.  We broke up the trip by meeting my parents for a late lunch/early dinner.  After we left them, we had to drive through some storms and very slow traffic.  The plus side was the beautiful rainbow (always hard to photograph!). 

This week we hope to get some more work accomplished on the patio - especially before the full summer weather hits!

The Berries are In!

This was a slow week work wise due to the rain almost every day.  Another reason is the Chris had to go in to work on Saturday morning.  We were able to move some of the base gravel for the upper patio this evening.  The pile in the driveway is getting smaller and smaller - pretty soon we'll be able to park side by side again!

We did have some fun - I took the kids to the summer reading kickoff celebration at the library on Saturday, we went to a cookout with friends, and we had our sister-in-law and niece stop by for a visit. 

Our garden is looking better and better - probably the healthiest plants we've had in this garden.  Our strawberries are doing great in the planter box I made.  We've been able to harvest a few handfuls every day so it has become our "dessert" after dinner.  Delicious!

Josh continues to grow like a (chubby) weed.  He's 16 pounds now and he's on track to exceed the Skocik family record of 18 lb. at 3 months old.  He's awake a lot more during the day and starting to smile a lot more too.  I tried to get a picture of the adorable open mouthed baby grin but they didn't turn out well so this is all I have for this week.

Hopefully this week we'll have some nice evenings to continue hauling tons of gravel so we can put in the upper patio soon!