Ohio Part I

We realized that our big vacation to Yellowstone in August and then to Vegas to attend the wedding reception of our nephew on the Mercado side is coming up quickly, which basically means that our summer here in MI is going quickly. So we had to decide what we're doing for the rest of our summer at home.

First, we had to squeeze in another trip to the zoo that I bought a season pass to and the girls haven't been to yet this year. There was literally one day that we could do that no one had any camps, lessons, or work, so off we went to Toledo, OH.

I forgot what bird this was, but he was sure fun-looking!

It was raining and these goats were all huddled under their shelter. The one was even on the tire swing!

Big adorable bunny!

The lemurs liked the cool, wet weather too. We never see them out!

We watched this orangutan eat his head of lettuce. Then he started eating carrots and I decided to pull mine out with the hummus and all my kids started eating the carrots and hummus with me (except Austin who doesn't like carrots and Erik didn't have hummus. If you know my children, you would be as surprised as me at this event!)

This Galapagos turtle is over 100 years old!

Feel station!

Never see the polar bears moving about either...

Austin just got Karissa's old phone (no phone capabilities right now) and he recorded everything he could! Took lots of pics too!

When we used to go to the Toledo Zoo all the time! Our friends, the Petterborgs, live right there. They were Victoria's first friends in Deleware and then moved to Ohio a while back. The kids barely fit in that little cave now! 

Feeding the giraffes was very exciting!

That evening, Austin got to go to the temple for baptisms for the first time. Jason took Victoria and Karissa as well, while I stayed home with Erik. Our temple just opened and will close again for some renovations until November, so we're very lucky that a friend of ours thought of our family and reserved a time for the kids to do some family baptisms.

I would have liked to have gone, but I wanted to be with Erik. I was able to print off a bunch of names from my family tree, though, so that was fun.

 Jason was able to do the confirmations and spend this special time with the kids.

Remember when we all thought Covid quarantine was just going to be a quick three-week pause from everything? My kids seemed daunted and we all felt like we might go crazy with everything being canceled for 3 weeks. I assured them that we would keep a good "school" schedule at home and make it through even better, and then we would go to Cedar Point to celebrate! Well, we all know that it wasn't what we thought. Cedar Point finally opened without restrictions, though I'm not quite sure when that happened. Victoria got her friend all excited to join us and we just had to plan it and follow through. Karissa ended up bringing a friend as well since Jason wasn't about to go to the "capital roller coaster amusement park" in the nation and we had extra room. We went back to Ohio two days after going to the zoo and enjoyed a very fun, but busier-than-we-expected, day.

It was Austin's and Erik's first time there.

Emma has her hands up at the end there, with Austin and Victoria right next to her.

Ash, Karissa, Erik, and I were on the other side.

Erik was too short for only two rides, so we spent some time in the "kiddie" area. He still had fun and I enjoyed the time with him but decided I much prefer to go on a huge roller coaster than round and round.

Bumper cars!

View from the Skyway. That's Lake Erie in the distance.

Here's our picture from Valravn, Erik's first time going up-side-down! He loved it after he got over the first big scare.

Here's the rest of the group on the front row- Austin, Karissa, and Ash.

Getting ready for another roller coaster.

There's the drop from our final roller coaster, Millenium Force.

As you can see, it's the best steel roller coaster in the world!