Ohio

This past weekend we packed up our warmest clothes and heavy coats for a trip to Ohio.  Clare hadn’t been to Ohio to meet my family; our trip was long overdue.  Thursday afternoon we boarded the plane and settled in to our 5inches of extra legroom and DirecTV for the flight to Akron.  Clare is an excellent flyer; she slept most of the way and then played happily on our laps after waking up.

We arrived in Akron to lots of snow; people were all a swivit with the prospect of 2-5 inches.  I had reserved a small SUV for our driving, not only did we enjoy the extra room but having AWD was nice.  Jeff volunteered to drive while I sat in the back with Clare, positioning myself behind the front seat headrest so I couldn’t see the traffic in front of us.  After 2 hours of driving, the snow wasn’t too bad but the other drivers were, we arrived in Columbus at our hotel.

Friday morning we slept in a bit, none of us slept very well.  Clare had a hard time getting comfortable, which in turn meant we weren’t comfortable.  She finally found a comfy spot perpendicular between the two of us, at least one of us slept!  Once we finally got up we met up with my parents for breakfast at First Watch, a favorite breakfast place (Jeff wasn’t thrilled about the idea of Bob Evans, oh well).  To nobody’s surprise Clare needed a nap after breakfast, Jeff was more than happy to help her nap back at the hotel while Mom and I went shopping.  Generally Mom and I can do some serious shopping, this weekend we showed some restraint.  Our main stop was the Buckeye Corner to load up on Buck stuff; Clare got her first Brutus. 

The selection of full size Brutus was slim pickings, so Clare ended up with a 'Brutus Buddy Blanket'.  She really likes it, must be the satin edges.  

One of the main purposes of this trip was to introduce Clare to my Grandma, Eileen.  Clare is the 3^rd Great Grandchild in our small family.  We brought Tommy’s Pizza to Grandma’s apartment for lunch, none of us have had Tommy’s in years and I thought Jeff would like it; we all enjoyed the pizza and submarine sandwiches. Clare made herself at home and played on the floor while we ate.  Grandma brought out a few books from when we were little, even the Donald Duck book with finger puppet book that I can remember her reading to me.  We all enjoyed watching Clare play and talking about how fast she’s growing up.  Clare showed us all how she crawls, stands, and claps.  Of course no visit would be complete without a few pictures. 

Clare enjoyed playing with her new Leap Frog picnic set, her favorite piece is the orange slice and the cookie.  Similar to the Leap Frog vegetable pot she doesn't like things to be in the basket.

Showing us her crawling.  These jeans may be difficult to get on, but they are great for crawling.

Clare is in a pointing phase, always pointing at things.  Grandma was more than happy to play the game, touching her pointer finger to Clare's.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel for another nap and then dinner just the three of us, Mom and Dad headed back to Cambridge.  We tried to go to a favorite fish restaurant, but the wait was 45minutes, so we headed to the Rusty Bucket for some fried pickles and sandwiches.  Clare had some of Jeff’s Rueben and some mashed potatoes; she loved the Rueben. It’s getting easier to take her out; she loves to eat and hasn’t expressed dislike for anything so far.

Saturday we met Erin, Ben and August Johnson for breakfast at North Star Café, it was delicious!  They had the best biscuits I’ve ever tasted, holy moly were they good!! Clare and August had a great time chewing on each other’s toys and sitting on the table while the rest of chatted.  I wish we had more time to spend with them; I suppose had I woken up when the alarm went off we would have had more time.  No matter what we never have enough time to spend with them on our short visits. 

After breakfast we headed back up I-71 to Cleveland to meet up with Sarah, Maggie, Jack, Mom and Dad; Maggie and Jack were anxious to get to the pool.  Maggie and Jack had fun playing with Clare, Clare brought Jack the Batman Helicopter and Maggie the Tangled Barbie with color changing hair, both were big hits.   After lunch we headed to the pool, Jack was so excited he didn’t want to wear a coat or pants, just his suit, it was only 8 degrees, so he did put a t-shirt on.  The pool at the hotel was a pretty intense hotel pool, complete with two-story slide that goes outside!  Despite the freezing water, it couldn’t have been more than 82 degrees; we all had a good time.  

Not quite tall enough for the slide, maybe next time.

Mom and Sarah had the best seats in the house, warm and dry.

The water was really chilly, Clare had a quick full body shiver while sitting here on the step.

Thank goodness Sarah had some warm towels waiting for her.

Paul, Maggie and Jack sat in the hot tub after I left; they promised me they would take a shower. 

Dinner on Saturday was at the B Spot, Iron Chef Michael Symon’s restaurant.  The wait was well worth it, the food was really good, but the vanilla milkshake with vodka and Kahlua was even better.  I always enjoy having dinner with my family, it makes me happy to see how we’ve all grown and changed, having 3 little kids at the table provides entertainment and we’re never at a loss for conversation.  True to Evans style we rotated plates at the end and requested lots of refills, we’ll always be ‘beverage needy.’  I wish that Andrew could have joined us but he had to work.  Hopefully a whole Evans family dinner isn’t too far in the future.

Spending a little time with Kenny.  He was so nice to let her point out all of his features, his nose, his hair and even his 12 freckles.

Sunday we took our time getting out the door.  Grampy took Clare down to breakfast while I took a shower.  They enjoyed talking about the other people and eating a banana and some pears.  I discovered they had a waffle maker, turns out Clare loves waffles.   After a morning nap we headed over to Tia’s for a little party, complete with chocolate cake and Buckeye Blitz ice cream.  Clare had fun visiting with Mary who came from Madison for the weekend.  Grace joined us after her Field Hockey practice and Peter after church; unfortunately Margaret couldn’t make it from Boston (like Andrew she had to work). 

The flight home was our last hurdle of the weekend.  Clare slept for a bit but not long enough; she got pretty frustrated and couldn’t fall asleep, it was fun for all of us.  I will say despite her being unhappy she didn’t scream or cry too much, our third seatmate didn’t get up and walk away or anything, in fact he complimented her when we got off the plane. 

Overall it was a good weekend.  We don’t get to Ohio very often, but when we do I always have a good time.  The weather was really cold, but the company was excellent.  I wish we could have stayed a little longer and visited with everyone more.  I hope it’s not another year before we get back to Ohio.  Thank you to everyone for making the time to spend your weekend with us, we had a blast and miss you!