Erin's Visit

My sister Erin and her daughter Alanna visited this weekend, and we had a fabulous time traipsing around town. I apologize once again for all the photos that will destroy the hard drives of my dial-up friends, but there were too many cute ones not to share.

Kadon, Alanna, Jeremy at the Cincinnati Zoo.

In the aviary.

Erin and Alanna checking out the birds.

Such a bright pink bird!

Kadon and Mommy

My favorite color--immortalized on a beautiful bird!

Fruit Bats

Erin and the kids made a commemorative penny from one of those machines at the zoo.

Sweet...

and spicy!

This polar bear walked up and down, up and down this little ledge the entire time we watched it.

Next door, a different polar bear was swimming in the water. He swam the length of the pool, then did a back flip and swam backward to the other end. At the other end, he flipped forward again, and swam forward facing the the opposite end. He did it over and over again.

Brooklyn, just like the last time Erin was here for the funeral, took to her immediately. I think that Erin is just enough like me to make Brooklyn really comfortable. She certainly sounds like me!

Riding the train at the zoo. I tried to get Brooklyn to sit in my lap for safety reasons, but she refused. I settled for keeping one hand tightly clasped to her clothing the entire time. She had a great time.

I love this face!

This was a baby seal, playing in the water. It's parent was lounging on an island in the middle of the pool. It reminded me very much of my life some days. 'You guys play by yourselves, and I'm just gonna lay here....'

Carousel at the zoo

While Erin was here, it was also Kadon's fourth (sob!) birthday. I gave him the outfit he is wearing first thing in the morning so he could wear it to church, and then let him have this Hot Wheels toy after lunch so he could spend the day playing with it.

My ploy actually backfired, as he then spent the rest of the day begging for his other two gifts.

Because it was such a beautiful day, we broke all the usual Sunday rules. We took the kids to the park, but it was extremely crowded. While there, my sister asked about the go-carting place we had passed on the highway the day before. I hedged for a moment, and then decided that Sunday or no, I wanted to take the kids go-carting.

We had such a fabulous time!

I passed Alanna every time, she wasn't very happy with me!

After go-carting, we went inside and played arcade games for a while. Erin and I discovered that we're both abysmal at air hockey.

We rushed home in time to make dinner, and then only had a few minutes for the rest of Kadon's presents and cupcakes before bed. He picked out chocolate with chocolate chips (my addition) and chocolate frosting. He called them 'double-double, chocolate-chocolate'.

It took him a couple tries, but he got all four candles blown out.

And then was finally able to open his last present.

On Monday afternoon, Erin and Alanna's last day here, we went bowling.

I love Kadon's face in this picture. He was so excited to be able to throw the ball down the lane and hit the pins!

Victory dance!

Brooklyn spent the outing wandering around. Once she escaped my notice, and walked halfway down the bowling lane before I could jump in the gutter and run down there to rescue her.

Granny-bowl style!

The bowling alley was completely empty, so as the time wore on we got sillier and sillier. Here, Kadon and Erin are blowing the bowling ball down the lane, and Jeremy is using the 'force' to knock over pins.

Even Brooklyn got in on the action!