Fall 2020

This year, Summer and Fall kind of blended together thanks to our delayed back to school. We bounced between at home school and remote for most of the Fall, so we were able to enjoy a lot more time at the pool throughout the month of September.... then we switched to enjoying lots of bike riding. We are fairly close to our downtown, so we like to ride down there for treats at the pastry shop or the occasional small event. Our town has cancelled all of the Fall festivals and other events we looked forward to every Fall, but we have been able to attend smaller events like a celebration of Black poetry day. We have also enjoyed the bike trail and all of the beautiful Fall foliage along the trail

We celebrated Ida's birthday with some outdoor family gatherings and a couple drive-by wishes from friends. She was a little sad she missed out on celebrating her birthday at school, but she had a great day.

Since I'm working from home and Cora is remote half the week, we have been enjoying the Fall weather as much as possible. Sometimes, we do schoolwork outside, other times we just take lots of breaks to enjoy our backyard.

Holiday-wise, we did some of our yearly traditions, but skipped actual Trick-or-treating.  We decorated 'spooky houses' at my parents, stopped by the pumpkin patch near our house, participated in 'BOOing' our neighbors, wore costumes throughout the month, and watched all Halloween themed movies.

Like most things about this year, things were different. We changed some things around and really enjoyed our Fall days more than we were ever able to in previous years.

QuaranSummer 2020

We are in full on Fall mode, but I still want to document and remember things from this summer... so as I always say better late than never!

This was such a weird summer, but also one of my favorite summers of my adult life. Working from home full time has changed things so much for our family life. Work is no longer a huge stressor for me since I don't have to deal with commuting, meal prep, missing my kids, getting distracted by coworkers, or being inside all day long. 

We spent a lot of time outside playing soccer, running around, going on walks, and just soaking up the sun. My goal for the summer was to get Cora riding her bike. We ended up bike riding nearly every day and it quickly became Cora's favorite thing to do. Luckily, we are a couple doors down from our town's bike trail entrance so we spent a lot of time on that trail. where we enter, there is a flat section to the right and a large hill to the left. We spent the first couple weeks exclusively riding on the flat part of the trail until Cora worked up her skills and courage to try the large hill.  She did awesome on the hill and a couple days into riding down the hill she really started to love it.  One day we were riding and there was a young girl at the top of the hill working up the courage to ride down.  Cora gave her a little encouragement and we went on our way.  Later in the trail we ran into the girl and her family. Her dad said that Cora gave the little girl the courage to ride down the hill. Cora was so excited to inspire the little girl to ride down the hill and I could see Cora become that much more confident in riding her bike.

Towards the end of the summer, we got a pool pass and hit the pool every other day. The first day, Cora took her test to get the yellow band and passed. When she walked out the door with her new yellow band, she threw up both her hands and shouted "I DID IT!"  We found that we loved the earlier pool time which was mostly old people and us. Cora tested for her green band at the end of the summer and it was so sweet watching all our old people cheer her on and congratulate her. 

We got to spend lots of time as a family this summer. Over the last year, Ben started taking one day off a week and we had an intentional family day. We'd go swimming, hiking, play outside, cook big family meals, watch movies, etc. Overall, we really just enjoyed spending time together all summer long.

Wisconsin Vacation

We made our yearly journey to our family cottage in Wisconsin at the end of July. We packed up the girls Friday evening and drove overnight to arrive around breakfast Saturday morning. The girls were so excited to spend the week hanging out at the cottage and swimming.

Each morning, we would putz around the yard and enjoy the quiet mornings. One of the mornings, my dad, Ida, and I went over to the neighbor's yard and walked around their boardwalk area. There are mounds of moss all over the ground and it is so neat. I would love to have a moss garden like that.

Cora learned to swim this summer, so she was most looking forward to swimming in the lake. She swam all day every day. As soon as it was warm-ish enough to swim, she would be suited up and ready to go. Ida would take a bit longer to warm up to the water, but also loved spending our afternoons in the water.

Towards the end of our vacation, we took our army of kayaks out and Ida really loved riding along on kayak adventures. There is a little cove close to our cottage and I love going over there and checking out the lily pads.

Cora was always off hanging out with my parents and brother, so I spent a lot of one-on-one time with Ida... which is also why most of my pictures are of Ida. I loved getting to spend so much time with her goofy self and watching her enjoy everything the cottage has to offer.

Towards the end of the week, my Aunt and Uncle invited us over to pick blueberries at their cottage. Cora loved running around grabbing all of the berries in sight... and Ida loved tasting all of the blueberries.

We had a wonderful relaxing week. The girls had the best time running around, swimming, and enjoying all of the family together time.

See previous Wisconsin vacation posts here.

2019 Summer To Do List

We've never really done a seasonal bucket list before, but figured this is the time to start. My schedule is more flexible than ever and our kids are at an age where it is much easier to get out and about and enjoy activities as a family. I had a couple things around town that I wanted to try and I added some of our favorite places we like to go. It was fun to get Cora involved in making the list and seeing how many pool/sleepover combinations she could come up with. I'm looking forward to seeing if we can fit all of this in our 11 weeks of summer break. I'll be updating with links as we complete activities.

+ Pool (purchase passes)
+ Bike Riding
+ Cincinnati Art Museum (Burning Man Exhibit) Phase 1 and Phase 2
+ Ault Park and hiking
+ Highfield Discovery Center
+ Zoo Trip
+ Sharon Woods, Gorge Trail, and Root Beer Stand
+ River walk and Smale Park (carousel?)
+ Lemonade Stand
+ Taft Museum (Patrick Dougherty sculpture)
+ Cookout
+ Bike Riding
+ Sleepover with Grandparents (double sleepover)
+ Picnic
+ Parade (4th of July)
+ Louisville trip
+ Farmers Market
+ Movie in theaters (or drive in?)
+ Dye hair mermaid colors
+ Face paint
+ Play date
+ Sleepover with aunt and uncle
+ Paint inside play cottage
+ Vacation... Cottage!

Charleston Falls Preserve

Ben is a courier and he'll occasionally get a job that works out timing-wise where we can all tag along. This weekend he got a job up to Dayton and I quickly Googled what there is to do and see there. Generally I'm looking for something that is easy and isn't going to cost a lot of money. I landed on Charleston Falls Preserve. It looks beautiful, it's free, and it wasn't going to take too much time. I packed the backpack carrier and snacks and we were on our way within 30 minutes.

The girls were excited to get out of the car by the time we arrived. The walk to the falls was short and easy and there was no complaining from anyone in our family (which never happens). Ida oohed and aahed over a couple different things along the walk (mostly dogs) and Cora kept saying how much she liked nature.

It was misty and cold, so we didn't stay long. This was a perfect little pit stop adventure for us, but I'm also looking forward to coming back for a longer trip when it's a little bit warmer.