Great Weather and Good Friends
I think I have said this before but I love all of the hardwood trees here in Ohio and all the color! We have been spending as much time as possible outside. This week the spectacular weather made it even better to enjoy the outdoors. Someday I will take a basic photography class and learn how to take amazing pictures but in the meantime my photos may have either great colors in the background or good detail up close but probably not both.


My good friend and advisor from Oregon State, Arne, was in Ann Arbor Michigan for the weekend. Cadie wasn't feeling great so I drove up (about 3.5 hours) on my own to meet Arne and his family for dinner. I was able to hang out with my friend Amy from high school as well - I was planning on staying at her home but her family was wiped out with a flu so I ended up crashing at Amy's sister's home. It was so fun to see everyone and nice to be on my own for a night. This was the first time that I have ever been away from Cadie a full 24 hours! Between caring for sick kids and husband Amy still managed to make me a fine apple crisp and peach french toast. YUM.

I drove home just in time to attend the "rally in the ally" on the next block. Our neighbors invited us to their block party where they had closed off the ally, rented a bounce house for the kids, pulled out a big screen with the OSU game for the adults, and were grilling up some grub. We have really great neighbors!

Halloween Adventures
We have had a week+ of dressing up crazy and eating lots of junk. "Beggar's night" on our street was my favorite although we don't have many pictures. Friends Liz, Jeremy and Baxter (tigger) came over for dinner and joined us out on the front porch with all of the rest of the neighborhood (plus some!). Liz is faculty in public health and was a sick person "should have got my flu shot!" We had over 200 kids at our home in 2 hours and nearly ran out of candy. Luckily Read's stopped by with a cute princess and pea pod and some backup candy.


Cadie actually had 2 costumes and wanted to be a lion for playgroup.

And the full Toman getup:

Unplugged
We took an extended weekend trip to explore a little bit of Northern Ohio. The area was beautiful! There are so many different hardwood species around here and the autumn colors are gorgeous.
We started off in Kirtland Ohio, a small town with historical significance for our church. Here is a picture in front of a home that my great-great-great-grandfather (got that?) lived in during the 1830's. Crazy that it is still a home!

Then we headed to Holmes County - Amish capital. We stayed at a B&B and definitely need to head back again. We took a buggy ride, toured a cheese factory, ate lots of good food, and shopped for furniture. My favorite part (besides the buggy ride) was sitting out on the porch watching and listening to the buggies go up and down the road. I could seriously adapt to the Amish way of life - horse and bike transportation, no TV or internet, and living local.

On the way home we passed the Longaberger Basket building. Yes this is a functioning office building. Sorry for the quality of the picture, Cadie was cranky in the car and we were not stopping.

Fun!
Enjoying crisp weather at the park


Friends over for playschool (learning about eyes and ears).

Camping
Our next-door neighbors invited us to their family tree farm an hour south of Columbus to join 70ish of their other best friends for a night of fun and camping. I'm ashamed to say that this was Cadie's first experience in a tent. But happy to report that she slept well - better than her mom who was awake checking on her every hour. The 20+ baby kittens were a hit as was the pumpkin carving and running around crazy with her BFF Kelsey. Now that we pulled off one night in a tent we are trying to squeeze in another adventure before the weather turns really cold.

Fall Festivities - Let's go!

I love this time of year - besides the great weather there are so many festivals and activities. We already have something planned every weekend through November!
Last weekend we hit the local Ox Roast and Eric ran a 20K in the Hocking Hills area just south of us. This weekend is all work/back to school parties but I'm also trying to squeeze in Oktoberfest.
Hocking Hills is the closest we get to mountains around here but it is beautiful. Lots of trees, even some coniferous! I thought there would be lots of hiking trails for Cadie and me to explore while Eric was running but we only found a short one to a playground area. I'd like to head back to Hocking Hills sometime when we can stay longer.
The Ox Roast is a local tradition and fund-raiser for the high school. It was fine but I think we'll enjoy it more when Cadie is big enough to ride some of the carnival rides. She did enjoy the bounce house and I won a 2-Liter by tossing a ring!

Virtual Pat on the Back
I'm giving myself a virtual pat on the back for my amazing shopping skills. A friend here in Columbus taught me a little about Couponing and my life has changed. A couple of weeks ago I made my biggest get yet. Here is all the stuff I brought home for a measly $3.72. (For those of you that don't know - one bottle of juice by itself is normally close to $5)

I was able to do this with coupons on top of sale items and "bucks back" from previous shopping trips. Then, at the register I got $3 in bucks back and $5 off $25. I used both of those register coupons this week with manufacture's coupons and sales to get 3 jumbo packs of Huggies for $5 each. CRAZY! Now what to do with all this money I'm saving...