surprise

We managed to surprise my dad for his 65th with a birthday party a week early at an unexpected spot, Scholotsky's Deli! There were party quizzes created by the clever Mommu (which I won this time!) and many cupcake cheers ;) 

buddies

It's always so relaxing to hang out with old dear friends, but especially on a nice shady playground on a beautiful day. We also found two geocaches (one hidden by that garden on the top left - hint hint!) and we topped off the day with some yummy ice cream.

ride em

The good ol mall is pretty much a kid heaven. They upped the ante with these charmers - giant stuffed animals on wheels!  You can zip around on them all along the mall corridor, and it is truly a blast. Check out those fun faces!

pool

We hit the Willo pool I grew up visiting, and man it was so fun!  Between the big waterslide and little slide and water fun in the little kid pool, both boys were so happy and it really felt like a vacation spot. The prices at the snack bar seem to have stayed the same too, so 5 cent candies, yes please?!

staying cool

Summer heat hit Ohio right in time for our visit to the Farmer's Market and then a bit later in the day for the Willoughby Art Fest. We carted the biiiig boys around in the double stroller which was convenient and once they were carrying snow cones they were pretty content to look around at all the sunny booths. My sister paid attention and got me the coolest wooden board for my birthday, so that's a big win!  The crab cake sandwiches were another big win!  Then we snuck into the library to cool off a bit more. The boys were thrilled the summer reading revolves around super heroes in the Willo! The boys were super excited to color and stick pennies on their own balancing supermen. Then we had a chance to catch up with the whole family for dinner and some water table action.  Wish I'd gotten more pictures with all the family - eek, how does that happen when I take so many pictures?!

waldameer

Waldameer is such a fun little park!  Aiden drove with Keaton as his bumper car passenger and both of them can ride nearly every ride in the park.  Aiden rode the big rollercoaster with his PopPop over and over again. A highlight was bringing home a bounty of new stuffed friends from "winning" the games.

boogie

Last week we boogied into Willo town and headed straight to the DTW music on the square. After fueling up on some crepes, the cousin buddies grooved it up!  It was the start of a really nice visit.

rockstar

Happy Birthday J! What a rockstar year it has been! Rock on! We love you!

Update: we celebrated with a Cirque de Soleil Varekai show, kid made chocolate cake, and BBQ.

monkeys

An afternoon bouncing around with a bunch of buddies is always a treat. These guys were sweat monsters by the time we left.  Keaton keeps showing me his Monkey Joe's stance with hands on his hips and asking to go back.

rock out

They opened a new section of our favorite spot in town, Mosaic. The Jammin Java folks hosted a series of concerts on the green. My guys were ready to rock on a beautiful sunny afternoon fueled by some chocolate milk and grahams.

good list

J got another chance to visit this hot sauce mecca. The checkout area had these cricket treats that caught Aiden's eye. J said they'd been talking about how eating bugs is a thing and they are actually good for you. At first Aiden said no way, but was easily persuaded by daddy when he said, mommy will eat one if you do too?! So inexplicably I was choking down a little pokey, crusty, very dry cricket as Aiden quickly gobbled his in record time. I don't know how J convinced us to do that, but Aiden is excited he can say he did it now.  

In a much tastier realm, the new Duck Donuts opened here in town! This is a legendary donut that people who go to the Outer Banks are always talking about and now we are no longer in a donut dry zone - woot!  These donuts are hand dipped to order right off the belt and they are amazing! They have a peanut butter glaze which is doubly amazing! The lemon and orange glazes are equally as good! It was crowded when we went and we actually had to line up outside the store to get in, but it's totally worth it!

The sunflower Keaton planted blossomed! One out of the three is really big and almost as tall as Aiden! The other is laying sideways and one was broken off by an animal. It's fun to get a clear view of all the moths and insects that visit it as we walk by.

This big guy sometimes reminds me of his littler self and especially in his dino/dragon fleecey robe. He's been cuddling up in it at night, ya think we might need to turn off his fan or have the air up too high?!

Keaton picked this little pocket magnifier as a souvenir from our trip. He likes to dig a little all around and look at the "crystals" he finds up close.

These funny brothers watched some America Ninja Warriors and want to imitate them every chance they get. So here they are racing across the railing like it's their job. My job is to keep them out of the emergency room.

peter pan

This show caught my eye immediately since it was close to home, although at first I couldn't figure out how I didn't know there was a theater there before I knew it was a big tent for an aerial show. The 360 theater with awesome projections on the sides of the tent did not disappoint. It was full of music but kept to the original book and didn't have the same familiarity as the Disney type shows. It was a good blend of pleasing the little kids and adults. These guys love Peter Pan!

burke lake

We met up with some old college friends at Burke Lake on a nice comfortable summer day. It's nice when everything aligns and a perfect day unfolds. My friends and I couldn't get over how many kids we've accumulated and some of them are turning into pretty big kids.

We played on the playground, visited the geese, attempted to find some geocaches (which a according to the logs seem to have washed away in the ridiculous rain storms we've had lately), rode the carousel and train, and had a bus picnic. It was fun to catch up and I wish we could do it more often!

cars n toys

At Luray, we popped into the old transportation museum full of really old carriages and cars.  Even the train setups have caverns underneath!

luray caverns

Our little cavemen were ready for some more cavern exploration so we headed down from the mountain to see Luray. This cave is touted as having the biggest formations, and they really are huge and difficult to capture on camera. They are also the most developed cave so some formations seem to be harmed when putting in paths, etc. They even have some stalagtites they have tapped as organ pipes which are played from a real organ installed many years ago. It sounded a bit faint but pretty impressive. The boys' favorite were these two formations that looked just like fried eggs (bottom right).

50s flair

The juke box, the local honey, the train displays, the pretty covered bridge are all good ingredients for a road trip back in time. You could get a burger for $3.25 and a giant shake for a quarter more. There was even a little museum full of old 50s/60s store front displays, mostly animatronic animals after my heart. So much to fill up the imaginations of these happy goofballs.

skyline drive

On our road trip to Shenandoah, we drove along the mountain ridge where there are countless overlook spots. Funny thing is even at our first spot the boys were more fixated on this shiny colorful bug than the impressive views?!

parade floats!

The cavern owners not only own a huge cave but they've invested in giant parade floats and displays. So right down the way from the cavern, they have a giant warehouse full of some of the best floats from past Rose Bowl parades (natural materials replaced), Thanksgiving day parades, and inaugural celebrations. It makes me want to go to these parades to see these giant floats, although they had buttons to press to make many of them move.  It is truly a site to see around every corner!

skyland resort

We drove up Skyline drive to mile marker 42 where we stayed the night at the Skyland Resort which is owned by the national park system. We were in a really nice cabin full of multiple rooms that were set up just like hotel rooms, except each of these had a beautiful view off a nice balcony.

Even the view from the stairwell was gorgeous (top right) Somewhat luckily, this sunset photo was taken before a cluster of a night where the boys went to sleep hyped up on Anerican Ninja Warrior way after normal bedtime, but even after falling asleep fairly easily they both got bumped in the dark trying to use the potty half asleep, both had hacking cough attacks at two seperate times, and the room alarm clock accidently went off at exactly 12 midnight. Not all of a road trip is fun and games...

After dinner one night we took a short walk on an official section of the Applachian Trail - that means we're hard core hikers now right?!

shenandoah cavern

The next stop on our mini road trip was the Shenandoah Cavern. You venture 222 feet below the surface at the deepest point and when the tour guide casually mentioned that fact, Aiden gasped and said "whaaaat?!" They were both in awe as they sported their matching miner jackets. My favorite was catching the reflections in their big eyes looking straight at the ceiling. J joked about cave trolls and Keaton put on a pretty good acting performance pretending to be scared as his brother comforted him. I was a little timid about going under the "balancing rock" which only has three tiny points of support. This cave had a ton of long slender formations that when they caught the light looked a lot like bacon. The 50s diner above served plenty of bacon options to satisfy any cravings.

interview with KC

This huggie guy was so excited to be at the beach house everytime we left in the car to go to a restaurant or the grocery he was repeatedly making sure we weren't headed "home to our house" - "Just making sure, I want to be at the Beeeeach house!" He adopted a new blue tiger and red dragon on our trip and they've already had lotsa love because Keaton loves to give squishy hugs, even if you aren't interested as his cousin and brother know very well...

He was very determined on his bike recently and I told him that he was doing a good job working hard - his response was funny, "Well, daddy told me mosquitos don't stop for blood!" It was a little mixed up and his dad has no recollection of this type of conversation, but the sentiment is good. This preserverant kid won't stop until he gets it right...

One word to describe you would be: To think that I can do it! Right, a positive thinker!

Why do you like being a kid? Playing chase with Aiden

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? Baby Tiger because I kinda like them because they are cute!

Tell about a funny time in your life. When Aiden was trying to come to us and when he came over there was a picture of a gorilla costume and he was like ahh!

What is your favorite thing to do? Why?

Play with Aiden because it's super duper fun!

What do you love most about your sibling? Because he likes that I do stuff that he likes

What was the nicest thing you did for someone? Clean up my toys and my room

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? Riding my bike without training wheels!
What is the grossest thing you can think of? Aiden picking his nose

What is your happiest memory? Bethany beach, that was fun in the big pool with my floaties!

chip factory

We kicked off our trip to Shenandoah with a visit to the Route 11 potato chip factory.  They were cooking away but we weren't allowed to take pictures of the production line.  Aiden was excited because he said it was like a live version of the tv show Food Factory. We really enjoyed some chips right off the belt. Aiden surprised us and himself by liking the salt and vinegar chips. 

tidbits

Brain Chase is afoot!  (Afoot is one of the clues we keep getting stuck on lately) This is a brilliant online challenge where you complete math, reading, and writing exercises that unlock animated videos that are chock full of clues.  The clues lead you to an actual buried treasure - this year a giant metal sunstone which holds a key to a 10,000 scholarship. The winner gets to go to the location and dig up the treasure.  This is seriously sparking an adventure spirit and lotsa giddy moments. The first exciting moment was when the super cool decoder arrived in the mail and then a few weeks later this cool pouch full of foreign coins that also hold clues. We have fingers and toes crossed that they arrive at our door to tell us we located the spot! #wishfulthinking

J and I made it out to see Book of Mormon matinee at the Kennedy Center.  I still cannot believe what they get away with in the show, but it is really well done.  J loves it so much and I'm convinced his claps were the loudest.

Part of the Brain Chase math challenge earning Khan Academy points and Aiden picked this awesome Java script sequence.  I am pretty sure he surpassed my knowledge of programming in a day.  He's pretty jazzed that he can make his own little visual programs.

This poor guy had some ear trouble (including a stray paper in his ear that the ENT thought looked like a tiny origami creature) and the whole ordeal culminated in his fainting at tennis practice probably from some equilibrium issues. He landed straight into the fence, and he was shaken by it but really brave. I am just so thankful that we live so close to the tennis courts and could literally run over there as the club emergency staff took good care of him.  It's always something, but we are grateful that he is back on track now thanks to some antibiotic ear drops and rest.

We organized all our craft supplies recently and just pulling everything out draws attention from these little crafty guys.  They worked hard to paint these tiny piggie banks.

harbor

"Put your hands in the air like you just don't care!" I have no idea why I like this funny expression so much - but it was in the Home kid's movie recently so it pops up more often because then boys mention it... makes me smile every time.

We tracked down some peeps marshmallow dino eggs and the wall of abstract peeps. We visited the man in the sand and the random sculptures scattered around.

circus

J joins the circus from LB on Vimeo.

We may have the award for the best sport at the circus or what I like to call the 'go big or go home' award to J for being picked by the clown guy to join him to dance in the main ring! He came into the audience and the boys frantically pointed at him and before you know it he was up there under all those bright lights ;) This blows out of the water any past performances at Toe Jam Puppet Band as the ahem, bee queen (vintage gold toe jam, I wonder if they still do that?!). The crowd went wild as J went along with it and his biggest fans were so pumped up.

I know it's controversial but this elephant seemed content (and supposedly there have been reforms to the treatment of elephants like this and is it really that different than any animal training or horse back riding?) - so I rationalized and let the boys ride the elephant. We did talk to them a bit about the treatment of animals. They were so sweet and didn't want to squeeze the elephant with their legs as they marched along on the bumpy ride. 

beachy

I think these beach photos close out the photo frenzy from Bethany 2015. We have two little ocean loving, beach bums on our hands here in the Brennan clan, so I predict more beach vacations in our future. 

pool

The coin hunt hosted at the pool was a big draw.  The boys worked hard for the 41 cents they found under the water. Poor Keaton dove under and scraped his chin, so he really earned that penny from the baby pool hunt. It was fun to see all the kids go for it and really dive down as fast as they could. The coveted penny with the hole in it led to a water toy prize and was found by the kid right next to Aiden. Oh well, next time...