The All Horse Parade!

We had a great time at the All Horse Parade in Delaware this afternoon! 

I think my favorite part was watching Jonathan watch all the horses and people go by. There were some moments when he was obviously so excited, he just didn't have words to describe his feelings and then there were other moments where he was totally in awe and sat or stood motionless as he marveled at what was before him. So amazing to watch things through the lens of a child's eye. 

Zachari and Lincoln had tons of fun together and after the parade, we all enjoyed dinner at the Mosleys'. I'm thankful for this small-town tradition and I hope our family is able to add it to our list of things we do for many years to come.

I only had my phone with me as a camera so there aren't lots of pics to share, but enough to remember the day, for sure.

Celebrating with the girls

Two nights ago I got to celebrate my birthday with some the most beautiful ladies in my life. I think I say this to pople a lot and I probably blog about it quite often too, but man, I am richly, richly blessed in the friends department. Most of these ladies have been with me for more than fifteen years and their value in my life only increases. 

We went to Basil because I loved it so much on my actual birthday and I sure did order the exact same stuff for my dinner! It was a small group of just seven of us (and baby PJ) for the meal, but afterwards we headed to Mandy's for snacks and drinks and our numbers increased by two. I laughed so much and so hard there my face was hurting, my eyes burned from all the tears and my heart felt so full from gratitude and joy I thought I might burst from any one of my many seams. 

These girls make turning older so worth it and they remind me about the precious things in life that really matter. Thanks, friends. You sure know how to make a girl feel loved. 

Heather, Lindsay, Bekah and Kristina aren't pictured, but with the exception of Linds who was sick, all of those girls did hang out with me that night and it made for a glorious night to remember!

The first day of summer!

Yesterday was a beautiful first day of summer and we were all too excited to celebrate it and bask in the  light of the longest day of the year!

The day started off a little muggy and gray, but that didn't stop us! A new friend, Merilee, so graciously offered to babysit for us in the morning so Blinn and I got to enjoy hot-out-of-the-oven cinnamon rolls at Sassafras Bakery with fresh Cafe Brioso coffee. Fannntastic.

Later, we met back up with the kids and ran some errands which included a stop at Lowe's for some landscaping stuff and supplies for making a picnic table! While J napped, these two took less than an hour to build this!

We ate dinner outside - such a summery meal of BBQ ribs, fresh green beans and corn on the cob... at the new table outdoors, of course!

After dinner we headed to the airport where we got to enjoy the fabulous sunset and see a couple of planes land. There wasn't as much activity there as we had hoped for, but the kids didn't mind. It was a fun way to soak in some of the moments of the longest day of the year. 

I was in love with how the soft sun looked on Zachari's skin so I wanted to snap some more photos of her. She however, wasn't in the mood for any sort of serious poses so this is what we got. I'm alright with it. She still looks beautiful and it would be silly of me to expect that every time I want my kids to stand a certain way in just the right spot they'll do it! These are the real moments of life - the goofy, hands-over-the-mouth memories that make up Zachari Jane.

After the airport, one more stop before heading home! It was the longest day of the year, after all, so we justified letting the kids stay up later and giving them sugar right before bed. What?! Coldstone Creamery has never really been on my radar as a place to go because when I've been there in the past, I found it to be too rich, too large of a portion. I had a coupon that Matt and I used and we learned that they had a dairy-free sorbet for the kids so it was a nice break from the norm. As you can see, Z was thrilled to get to have a special dessert: strawberry mango sorbet! She had to share the cup with J, but he ate more than half of it, I'm pretty sure! These kids sure get their sweet tooth from their papa!

It was a simple day, but one I am glad we shared together. I'm thankful for the change of seasons in this state. Its like a chance to to hit the restart button every few months.

Whetstone Park of Roses

Today we visited Whetstone Park of Roses. Beautiful, mildly warm evening, setting sun, gentle breeze. Lovely roses all over the place, lots of space for Z and J to run and explore. A simple evening outing that I'm glad we made happen. Matt and I were so, so tired today and all we wanted to do was sit around the house and feel sorry for ourselves, but out we went! I told him that it would be better to get out of the house for an hour or so and let the kids play, than to have them chattering and climbing all over us within these four walls. It worked! Not sure how sound my parenting method is, but whatev!

The setting sun and the crisp, blue and white clouds with all the rich green of the trees and the grass was all so gorgeous! These  pictures don't even touch how magnificently the sun seemed to gently kiss the tree tops and how vibrantly it lit up the green fields near the parking lot. I was distracted by all the beauty though and marveled over a god who loves us so much He creates breathtaking masterpieces such as these. 

Here's our family photo from this evening...

And here we are last year, June 10th. My, how the little ones have changed!

Fun along the Scioto Mile

Last night after Blinn got home from work the fam headed downtown to enjoy the beautiful spring weather and see bits of the sunset. I was so thankful for the chance to get out of the house and do something a little different after Blinn got home. Many times he's so spent from the day and I am too so we stick around our block and while that's been fine, to explore something else for a change was nice. 

As photos show, it was really hard to get a picture of both kids at the fish fountains because they were so excited and rarely still. They were totally soaked when we walked back to the car, but they didn't mind and the giggles they both let out were totally worth it. 

Anniversary weekend

Over the weekend The Boy and I got to celebrate our 7th anniversary with time away from our kiddos and galavanting around downtown Columbus. It. Was. Excellent. 

We dropped the kids off at Kim and Carla's at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and for the next 27 hours we enjoyed a completely kid-free weekend together! I had been craving some one-on-one time with my husband and was SO looking forward to the weekend. I was trying hard not to have expectations that were too lofty and that would easily disappoint, but the weekend met my expectations and then some. I'm so thankful for our time together!

Because I don't want to forget what almost felt like a second mini-honeymoon, here's a rundown of our day and a half as just Kelli and Matt.  

Saturday:

• Our first stop was for lunch at Cafe Brioso. For literally six months I've been wanting to sit there outside at a table with Matt and sip on coffee whilst watching the busy city buzz past us. I had this romantic idea of doing that in October as the fall chill was settling in, but that never happened. Enjoying a warm, sunny afternoon in the spring was just as good. We hadn't eaten there in forever and that veggie sandwich was just as delectable as I remember. My cuppa joe was perfection and the time to sit and eat a leisurely meal with my boyfriend without having to cut up food or hear whining or fasten J into a highchair was nice. 
• Next, Matty wanted to visit The Vault and the alley where we hung out right after the ceremony (where we snapped the above picture).  We walked around downtown for a bit and marveled at the cool city we are fortunate to live in and we reminisced about our wedding day and how little we knew about life then. 
• Next, Matt took me to this super cool warehouse for about an hour dreaming and scheming and tossing around home decor ideas. I love his creative mind and the chance to be creative with him. One of these days we'll own another house and together we will decorate it just-so. Excited.
• In the late afternoon we checked into the hotel, The Hilton Columbus Downtown (at least I think that's the official name) and it is beautiful! And yes, I took photos of the whole room, but for now, I'll just post these first few that we snapped together.

Our room window looked out to the lobby/restaurant area, this was our view.

• Soon after getting settled into our (very) temporary new digs we um... christened the bedroom and my - it was excellent! There's something so freeing and different and passionate about being able to connect like that with absolutely no chance of a child interrupting things. Love it!
• We were giddy over the beautiful, large shower in the room and we explored it...together to be followed by lounging around in cozy white bath robes provided by the hotel.

• Next was time in the hot tub for me and a few laps in the pool for Matt. Nothing exciting to report about that, except maybe that we had the whole place to ourselves which was kind of great! 
• One of my favorite parts of the weekend was the chance to get ready for our date in a leisurely, stress-free way. I showered after the hot tub, walked around in my robe and then later in just my undies and I just took my time getting ready. I did my hair, got dressed, accessorized and took my time doing it, good tunes were playing from the I-dock and it was lovely. Because we were in a suite we had one and half bathrooms. Ridic, I know. More bathrooms than where I live for real, but whatev! Matty took one part of the suite and I took another and we got ready separately so as to (sort of) have that wow factor with each other when we were all dolled up and ready for the night on the town. It was fun. Its the little things, really!
• We met in hotel bar around 6:45 p.m. and myyyyy goodness! There was SUCH a handsome gentleman waiting for me at the bar, sipping on his classy whiskey with the sun hitting him just so. Seriously. He looked amazing and I was so happy we got ready separately so we could have that silly lil moment.

• After hanging in the bar for a bit, we took the COTA bus to Rigsby's Kitchen for an 8:00 reservation. Matt got an IPA and we shared the Grilled Mozzarella Brochette appetizer which was mighty tasty. Nothing I'd ever dream up on my own to make and not really something I'd be naturally led to on the menu, but our persuasive waitress talked us into it. We weren't disappointed. For dinner Matt ordered the House Made Sausage Pizza while I enjoyed the Sea Scallops (with fingerling potatoes and bacon-wrapped green beans). The presentation of everything was beautifully elegant and everything was yummy. Definitely one of those places that's known for ambiance and presentation with price tags to match so probably not a repeat restaurant for us, but a good choice for the occasion, for sure.
• The weather was so spring-lovely so we took advantage of it and walked back down High St. to the Hiltom for dessert at the hotel restaurant. We were the only peeps in the place which alway seems sort of weird and the apple pie thingy Matt ordered was wildly disappointing and crazily overpriced. Oh well. Ya live and and learn.

• Back in the room The Boy whipped out a big ol bottle of Asti Spumante that he'd smuggled in inside his bag. Sneaky! He wanted to make a toast to our future and reflect on our past together. Precious man. He ended by reading me his would-be vows from our wedding day that he had misplaced. The part that sticks out the most?  "Kelli Marie Shearron, You're my sunrise and sunset... through the trees." ;) We laughed at the cheesiness of it for a while!
• To end the glorious day together we christened the king sized bed once more and whew! It was even more excellent than earlier in the day! (Z and J, I realize that one day you'll probably be reading through this blog and things like what I just typed will make you blush or gag or worse. Get it over it, Babes. You'll be thankful that I remembered the moments like these one of these days and then you'll fall in love and you'll have moments like these with your special person too. So there!)

Sunday:

• We slept in! I think we woke up sometime in the 8 o'clock hour and its funny that at this stage of our lives that's sleeping in, but it was great! And then, to round out the weekend, one more romp in the sheets and good Lord! It was the best that its been in a long time!!!! (Okay, now I'm blushing!)
• We took our time easing into the day and checked out of the hotel around 10 a.m.
• We walked to Cup O Joe on the cap and enjoyed fantastical coffee as we walked into the Short North and explored Philco We had an incredible meal  and we will be going back there soon! I got the Fried Egg Tacos (with chorizo!) and Matty ordered The Traditional. We shared the savory Hushpuppies which were a flavor letdown in comparison to my meal. But no matter. It was a good experience all around.
• After brunch we window-shopped around the Short North for a while, eventually got the car out of the Hilton garage and then we wandered around Franklin Park Conservatory for an hour or more. Again, the weather was picture perfect and we thoroughly enjoyed the chance to get to spend so much time outdoors doing what we wanted to do - a lot of nothing much at all!

• For a late lunch we made it over to Katalina's, another place I've been wanting to try and it was another new restaurant success! I got the Pesto Avocado sandwich which was a light, fresh, felt-pretty-healthy choice,  Matt got the club sandwich. The Shagbark chips that come with the sandwiches are chip perfection!  
• It was a bittersweet to end our weekend together when we picked up the kids between 3:30 and 4 p.m., but all good things must come to an end, right? We're so thankful for the help of Carla, Kim and Maryke for watching the kiddos overnight and taking great care of them and we're so thankful that we got a chance to truly celebrate our marriage together. 2013 was rough for us and that's putting it nicely. Here we are in 2014 now though, a new year, another year of marriage that's beginning and it felt like we truly had joy over our anniversary. Praise God!

The first taste of spring

Clear, blue skies. 

Hardly any wind. 

Warm sunshine. 

Temperature in the mid-60's. 

Bliss.

Yesterday was such a gift. But also a tease. 

Its only the beginning of March so I know there's quite a bit of cold left, probably a couple more snow showers too. But yesterday we left all that behind and soaked up the first taste of spring. 

Goodale Park with Lianne, Heather, Mandy and Erin Flannigan. Ruby was in school, but between us mamas we had eight little ones to watch and they all got along so well together. The four older ones, all girls, played wonderfully for a couple of hours and Lianne snapped a couple pictures of them and sheer innocent cuteness. They wanted to pose - how cute are they in the third photo?!

Completely unprompted sweetness

After a while at the park we walked over to the North Market for lunch. The kids ate packed lunches, some of the moms bought lunch at the market. We took over a big table upstairs and enjoyed a fun lunch date out of the house. After lunch we headed back to the park for about an hour and left because as is usual with a bunch of kids, everyone seemed to start melting down at the same time. It was a wonderful morning. 

We rode home with all the windows down and the sunroof open. We didn't wear coats. We soaked up the sun with sunglasses and big smiles on our faces. We got home for quiet time and because dinner we doing its thing in the crock pot, we went to another park afterwards! This time Selby in Worthington. We were there for about 45 minutes and Jonathan discovered the tire swing. We sat on it while I held him up and Z moved it a bit, but he was really more interested in standing beside it and pushing it around. He got knocked over a few times, but found his way back up and tried again and again. Z ran crazily in the field that's part of the park and J and I watched her with delight. The setting sun made things get slightly chilly, but we didn't care. Still no coats, still riding home with the windows open, still a touch of spring that was so desperately needed for the soul. 

When Papa called to say he was on his way home, we headed out to the front porch/yard, like we do all summer long. We waited for him to pull up, to play outside with us for just a few minutes before going inside to eat his dinner. We walked along the neighborhood sidewalks and rejoiced over such a beautiful day. 

Today was gray and cold again, the rest of the week is up and down. Whatever. Ohio weather is ridiculous and unpredictable. Yesterday though, it was a gift and I am so thankful that I got to experience it! 

Jacquemin Farms

Today we went to Jacquemin Farms in Plain City. Lindsay and Jonah met us there as a surprise for Zachari and together we all had a great fall morning!