Vacation to Ohio

I think I may have a problem with taking pictures on vacation! I take way too many! I just want to capture all the fun we are having I guess. So don’t feel bad if you don’t make it through this whole post!

So this year we decided we didn’t want to go too far from home for vacation since we had 4 small kids, including an infant. So we went a few hours away to Sandusky, OH. It was actually a lot of fun! The first 2 days we spent at the Castaway Bay Resort, which is part of Cedar Point.  The girls really loved the water park! Here is Corinne in a bathing suit for the first time.

Maddie went down this slide about a hundred times! She also came home with swimmer’s ear, which is a first for anyone in our family. 

Abby really surprised us with how much she enjoyed the water! She didn’t want to do any slides, but she LOVED the wave pool! She hated the beach and the waves as a baby, but it looks like she is ready for the beach now. She had no fear and was running full force into the waves! Thankfully they had to wear life jackets while in the wave pool b/c she was just crazy about it!

A view of some of the water park. Sammi loved doing that big slide to your right that you went on in a raft.

Grandpa did a great job watching Corinne while the rest of us were in the water. She thinks he is so funny! She can be in the most somber mood, and then she will look at him and start cracking up! It never fails! Maybe it’s the mustache?

Corinne did try out the water a little too. She really didn’t have much response to it.  She wasn’t crying or upset, but she wasn’t like happy and smiling or laughing or anything either.  She pretty much just goes with the flow with whatever we are doing.  

Abby loved going in this bigger pool too where you could play basketball and ride on these floating creatures.  It was fun! And I think Brandon had just as much fun at the water park as the girls did!

I think Sammi enjoyed the water park the most! She went down all the slides by herself dozens and dozens of times!

After the water park, we stayed in a condo in downtown Sandusky for the next 3 nights.  It was right on the bay of Lake Erie and really pretty!

Corinne just had a good time hanging out. She loves to sit up like this!

The girls had a big fun time with these paper dolls that my Mom brought for them. There were times they didn’t even want to go anywhere b/c they just wanted to play with them. Who knew paper dolls would be such a big hit!

One of the days, we rode a ferry over the Put in Bay island.  The girls thought the boat ride was so fun! There were people throwing pretzels to the seagulls that followed the boat, so they thought that was just great.  The seagulls would actually take the pretzels right of your hand! It was pretty neat.

We had thought it was great fun to ride in a golf cart around the island! We had to get one of the super big ones since there were so many of us. It was so funny sputtering along to our destinations and getting lost on the island!

Brandon drove most of the time until he had a few beers at lunch.  I think it had been so long since he really relaxed, he just didn’t know what to do with himself! He got a little goofy by the afternoon. Good thing Maddie didn’t mind sitting in the back with him and listening to his geek jokes he kept telling.

The girls went fishing with Brandon right outside our condo one night and caught a catfish!

Another day, we went to a few of the state parks in the area. We stopped at this lighthouse but didn’t realize you couldn’t go in it until the afternoon. So that was a bummer we didn’t get to go up in it.

Abby had the prettiest hair that day…..I just had to take a picture of her golden locks!

And the girls had fun playing on the beach at one of the state parks. 

Daddy had just as much as the girls!

Corinne tried out the sand too, and again didn’t have much response to it.  She just goes along with whatever we do to her!

There was also a pool at the condo! We had fun swimming in it one of the afternoons. Even Corinne got to go swimming! She seemed to like it ok.

This summer Sammi finally learned how to go under water and kind of swim.  She was excited to show off her new skills.

On the way home, we stopped at a place called Hale Farm, which is a working farm from the 1800’s.  I highly recommend going there! It was really neat.  Everything they do on the farm is how they did it in the 1800’s. It was very authentic and the demonstrators included the kids in everything they were doing.  Here the girls are sweeping with brooms that the man made using corn that he grew especially for making brooms.

There was also a lady who was weaving and they even have a dye garden to make their own colors of yarn. Here Maddie and Abby were trying out the loom they had set up for kids.

They also got to be play with the toy guns and line up like they would have in a war!

And Abby was really into churning the butter!

Anyways, that was a really cool place and we hope to go back there again! Our vacation was so relaxing this year and we were surprised at how much there was to do. We didn’t even do everything that we could have.  And it was really beautiful on the lake! It’s hard to believe summer is almost over now! Most kids have gone back to school, but Sammi doesn’t start till Sept. 7th. So we are hoping to squeeze a few more fun things in this week!