Where To Start?

It has been a long while since I have posted on this blog! So much has happened since my last post that I have no idea where to start…

How about I start on the morning of Feb 26th. Our family looked something like this…

…and at the end of the day it looked something like this…

Notice a difference?  The addition of a little person, you say?

Her name is Valerie.  Ace’s little sister.  Our new daughter.

I may be partial because 50% of her being came from me, but I think she is the 2nd cutest girl in the world…behind Momma of course.  🙂  Take a look!

Valerie In A HatThen a few weeks after Valerie was born Ace turned 4.  Can you believe it?  4 Years old!!

Ace's 4th BirthdayWe did a lot of fun things over the summer, but the biggest thing for Ace was starting school!  To get him ready for Pre-School he started in a pre-pre-school summer program.  He was so excited the first day…

Ace's First Day Of SchoolAnd then in August we took a much needed family vacation to Tennessee where we did all kinds of fun stuff including horse back riding, a helicopter tour, riding go-karts, going to the Dixie Stampede, hiking in the forest, and swimming in the pool…and in the river.

Sabrina and Valerie at Laurel Falls

Jared and Ace In The Swimming Pool

…and that brings us up to date!

Now I can make regular posts on here and bring my little place on the internet back to life.  🙂

PickTown Lights

Ace is really getting into Christmas this year. He is all about Christmas Lights, Christmas Trees, Santa Claus, … you name it.  😉

So, one night after dinner we decided to drive a few miles away and see the PickTown Lights.

Freaking amazing!  This dude has linked together 23 houses over a wireless link and has created an enormous Christmas light show!!

All 23 houses are synchronized to the same song which is broadcast over the radio waves.  You just dial your car radio in to the specific station and drive through.  Amazing!!!

Ace thoroughly enjoyed himself, but if you can keep it a secret…I think I enjoyed it more.  🙂

I went right home and began planning some kind of Christmas display for our house next year…

I was able to get video of one of the songs in the show.  If you are in central Ohio, I highly recommend going to check this out some night after work with the family…

[youtube 3Y7ufqUpJKM]

The Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend we went to the pumpkin patch to get Ace his pumpkin for Halloween!  Last year we went to Circle S Farms, but this year we decided to go somewhere closer to home…Pigeon Roost Farms.

Over the weekend we had our Indian Summer.  It was a blistering 90+ degrees in October!  Take a sick bald man, a pregnant woman, and a three year old out to the farm and into the sun with about 999 strangers and all of their running and screaming kids, and what do you get?  Three miserable people just trying to find a good pumpkin and get the hell out of there.  😀

It would have been great if Ace was about 5 or 6, but the activities were not geared for kids his age. About the only thing safe for him to do was look at the animals, so that is what we did…

After checking out the animals we did make our way through the soybean field maze…

And by then we were hot, tired, cranky, hungry, and pooped…

We managed to pick out some pumpkins before heading out to the truck and calling it a day….

Next disaster?  Carving these bad boys…  😀

Off The Beaten Path

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Ace and I like to get out of the house on the weekend. Momma doesn’t mind because she gets to sleep in. 🙂

Today we decided to go on a little nature walk.  We went to Three Creeks Park.  If you are friends with me on FaceBook (add me if not) you have probably seen the pictures from our previous visits, but this time we came in from a different entrance that we found last weekend on accident.

When we first walked in we were greeted by this gorgeous pond surrounded by trees.  The leaves are starting to change color, which made it even more inviting…

Three Creeks Park is spider webbed with walking trails…mostly paved, and some hidden gems…the dirt trails.  Ace and I prefer to rough it and take the paths less traveled…

Getting off of the beaten path enables us to see things that most people who are zooming by on their bicycles, or running with their IPods, completely miss out on.  Like the “Volcano Tree” as Ace called it…

And a giant patch of red berries which caught Ace’s eye…

After walking probably a mile back the curvy trail we found the highlight of Ace’s day…a small trail that led down to a bed of river rocks in the middle of the creek.

We spent probably 20 minutes there while Ace worked on his pitching arm by throwing the rocks into the creek.  Yes, he is a lefty… 🙂

And after his arm was tired from throwing and mine was tired from holding the camera we made our way back on down the trail.

It started off kinda chilly in the morning, but after all of this walking and throwing we had worked up a sweat.  Time to strip off some layers…

One of the most exciting parts of exploring these trails is not knowing where they lead.  I know that some of these trails make their way across the better parts of the East side of town, but luckily this one dumped us out about 300 feet from the truck.

We were both glad, because Momma had just texted us to let us know that lunch was about ready, and we had both worked up quite an appetite…  😀

2010 Vacation – Outer Banks, NC

Again this year we went to the Outer Banks for vacation.  We had a great time!  There were eight adults that went so we were able to split the cost and rent a really nice beach house!

Our Vacation Rental House At The Outer Banks

To get to the house you had to drive eight miles on the beach!  There were no roads to get to the house.  If you ever go to this part of the Outer Banks make sure you do your research and only attempt to drive on the beach at low tide.  😀  We got stuck twice on the way to the house and had to be pulled out both times.  😀

But, once we made it to the house we were able to relax in the pool and hot tub…

Ace In The Pool In North Carolina

Ace In The Pool In North Carolina

And our house was also in the Wild Horse Reserves, so there were wild horses everywhere!  They came right up to our house and even slept in our back yard…

Outer Banks Wild Horses

Outer Banks Wild Horses

Outer Banks Wild Horses Sleeping

Outer Banks Wild Horses Sleeping In The Back Yard

And when we were not playing on the beach…

Jared At The Beach

Jared At The Beach

Ace At The Beach

Ace At The Beach

Ace's Cousin Livi At The Beach

Ace's Cousin Livi At The Beach

Ace and Livi At The Beach

Ace and Livi At The Beach

…we went out to look at the famous light houses…

Currituck Light House

Currituck Light House

Cape Hatteras Light House

Cape Hatteras Light House

… saw the Inn at Roadanthe (From the movie Nights in Roadanthe)…

Inn At Roadanthe

Inn At Roadanthe

… saw all kinds of cool critters…

The Lizard

The Lizard

A Dragon Fly

A Dragon Fly

Pink and Yellow Moth

Pink and Yellow Moth

The Cool Bear

The Cool Bear

Whoever said vacation was relaxing?  😀  At the end of every day we were all pooped…

Ace Worn Out

Ace Worn Out

Ace, Calling It A Day

Ace, Calling It A Day

… and now we are back home…planning next year’s vacation.  😀

Hostinger