JUNE MOMENTS

ADVENTURING WITH BEEAMA AND PAPOO

First of all, remember when little Brinlee used to call Grandma and Grandpa "Beeama" and "Papoo"?

It was a short lived phase, but it was darling.

And, like a weirdo, I may or may not still call them that every once in a while, just by myself, in hopes of keeping it alive and maybe rekindling the habit...  

I liked it, ok?!

Well, whatever you prefer to call them, they came for a visit, and it was awesome!

We seriously had a blast running all over Ohio with these two party animals.  We only had them for a week, and would have gladly taken several more weeks.  The time went by WAY too quickly, and we all ended up completely exhausted.  But we sure packed in the fun!  

Let's review.

And let's start with the biggest stuff, shall we?

Road trips.

World record roller coasters.

Beaches.

Cool old hotels.

Amish tours.  

I wasn't kidding when I said "party animals". Beeama and Papoo came ready to rock!

Just look at these bright-eyed, bushy-tailed little early morning rascals, all ready to hit the road and run like crazy at "the roller coaster park"!

As always, Cedar Point did not disappoint.  That place is seriously magical.
What did come as a bit of a pleasant surprise though was how well the girls did!
It was all thanks to Grandma!  She kept the little ones while Tim and Reed and I ventured off for the big stuff.  So, hats off to her! It made things awesome and kept everyone happy.

These are the faces of some folks getting ready for THE Top Thrill Dragster.

120 miles per hour in 3 seconds.

Total vertical height of 420 feet.

Total ride time from start to finish - 17 seconds.

You definitely pee your pants a little.

It's, amazing.

Obligatory character cuddle session.  Not that you can blame them for wanting to show some love.  It is Charlie Brown and "Snoopy-Puppy" after all!

We did 2 days at cedar point, and on day two I got a little sentimental about hanging with the girls a bit more.  And I'm really glad I did!  They were having the time of their lives! They're seriously the cutest, most fun little buddies!

I really wanted to make sure I was with Brinlee for her first roller coaster ride.  She had been talking about wanting to ride one for ages, and when the time finally came... well let's just say it's easily in my top 5 all time favorite life memories so far.  Her little giggles were the picture of pure joy.  She was ecstatic, and loved every second of it, and rode and re-rode those little roller coasters All. Day. Long.

Mckenna was a little less sure.  That little angel may be a crazy monkey child sometimes, but she's surprisingly a bit of a Nervous Nellie, and likes to be cautious and comfortable.  She rode the little roller coaster, and said she liked it... but she wasn't interested in doing it more than once.

What she was  interested in though was the Snoopy airplane ride... over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over..........
Talk about happiness!

By far the most entertaining for all of us though was the bumper cars.  Brinlee kind of got it.  Mckenna insisted on having her own car (even though she couldn't reach the pedals), and then spent the entire time stuck at the back wall bawling.
Classic.

Thank goodness other people can stomach those round and round spinning rides.  Why do kids love those so much?

Just livin' the dream!

On the first day the girls burned out on rides pretty early, so grandma took them back to the hotel around lunch time and then entertained them all afternoon at the beach. When I came back that evening to meet them for quick dinner and bedtime, it was like they had forgotten I'd even come along on the trip at all!  They had had just the time of their little lives all day long and were as happy as could be!
And exhausted.  It was probably the quickest and easiest bedtime in the history of bedtimes.

Before we headed back out for more roller-coastering the next morning I dressed the girls back up in swimsuits really quick and ran down to the beach for a few minutes.  I had missed it the day before, but I love the beach and hated to pass up a chance to get my toes in that sand.
That, and you really can't pass up the dreamy "darling little girls on the beach" photo op!

When we tuckered out that afternoon and couldn't ride any more, we loaded back up in the car and ventured over toward Cincinnati to check out the Amish country. We spent that night in a really cool, old hotel in a tiny little town, and then spent the entire next day seeing all the sites.  It was actually pretty cool! Tim and I have had several people tell us we should go see some of the Amish areas, and Melody had always wanted to see it.  We're really glad we made it part of the plans.  It was a lot of fun!
Some of the highlights: a hotel room with a cozy fireplace, the horse and buggy ride, the Amish home tour, the goats on the barn roof, the pony ride, the Amish donuts, peach fry pie!, the little Noah's Arc playground, and the little market spot selling fresh peaches that totally hit the spot in a bowl of vanilla ice cream!

We knew Mckenna is terrified of dogs.  

It turns out she is actually pretty scared of ALL animals...

She spent the entire time right here.  Up off the ground, where nothing could reach her, holding tight to someone who could "Please keep me safe!"

Oh, and gathering rocks too.  Lets not forget that she did find some time to do her favorite thing in the world.  Gather a few rocks. Cute little sweetie!

By the end of the day when we were headed back home, we had some pretty tired little ladies. Actually I think we all felt like this.  It was a cram-packed, fun-filled, busy, crazy 3 days.  But boy was it a trip for the books!  We loved every minute!

Let's see, what else did we do with our visitors?

We pulled out the good old Pie-Face game (Man, that one just never gets old! Funny every time), went to the park and duck pond, cuddled, stayed up to catch fireflies, and hiked through a metro park. Whew!  I think we did sleep a little in there somewhere...

We sent grandma and grandpa off to catch their flight home on Sunday afternoon, and our house has felt too quiet and too empty.  We sure love having visitors come and play with us.  And we really love these grandparents!

Thanks Beeama and Papoo for the amazing trip!  Please hurry on back, we can't get enough of these adventures!