Ohio 2011 Day 1 & 2 (Detroit)

Instead of our normal week long stay at a beach house, we had a "staycation" in Ohio. Kevin and Luke flew together and I took Hannah and Gavin on a red eye. They did really well, they are great little fliers. The Pittsburgh airport had a giant skeleton of a T-rex.
Joyce drove the 2 hours home and we slept like babies the whole way. We went swimming at Mamo J's pool and then went home to unpack and pack for our weekend trip. We drove to Detroit that night. In 24 hours, Hannah, Gavin and I had been in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan.

That night, in Detroit, Kevin and I went exploring while the kids got busy with their spoiling. We found the Joe Lewis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings (hockey), Comerica Park, the Tigers (baseball) and Ford Field, Lions (football). On the way home we drove down a street that you make sure your car doors are locked when you stop at a red light. We later found out that the strip club and rim store littered street was "8 mile." Always an adventure.

Saturday morning we had a delicious breakfast. The kids ordered chocolate milk, check out the sprinkles and fancy chocolate syrup.
We went to The Henry Ford.
I loved this museum, it had all kinds of cool American history items. The car Kennedy was assassinated in.
The chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated.
The Rosa Parks Bus.
Air Force 1


The most hilarious part of the day was when Gavin hopped the 6 inch barrier and decided to drive a car Henry Ford made in 1899! It was the second car Henry Ford ever made. Gavin had the steering "stick" (not a wheel) and moving it side to side made the wheels move side to side. We all almost had a heart attack! Poor Gavin... he was just trying to have a bit of fun and the way he said, "hey Dad! Look!", you could tell he was so proud of himself for getting in the car all by himself. Kevin caught this pic just after. He looks so deflated.
Here's Henry Ford's first "quadricycle" ever made. See it protected by glass and not a 6 inch barrier!

The biggest train I have ever seen in my life. It was a coal train. We learned from the security guard, the 600 ton engine is supported by 20 feet of concrete underneath.

*and Kevin says I'm always on my phone...

A giant snow plow.
Henry Ford was very interested in flying as well. As an inventor, he was great friends with other genius inventors of his time. The Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, etc.
The museum had a paper airplane making station. It was a highlighted attraction for the Joneses.
Testing our inventions. Gavin hit the bulls eye of the target on his first try. Learning about barnstormers.
Generating enough power to light a light bulb. I will vouch for Kevin, he lit all the light bulbs, I'm just a lousy photographer and kept missing it. I made him keep doing, but he had enough. Everyone took a turn.

*still the strongest man in the universe, according to the kids

The Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile was there and we made a Daddy-Gavin hotdog. I get such a kick out of this picture.
Gavin wanted Papa Tee to buy him a $20 Wiener mobile... what a random want... he wasn't happy with the small, less expensive one, he wanted the biggest!We had a great time at this museum. We could have spent all day there but we had to go to the next activity. I will always remember dancing to 80's music making our own music video and all of up piling into a photo booth to take pictures... "BFF at the THF"

Greenfield Villiage was next. Surprisingly, the kids loved it.
It was really hot, but we still had a good time... frozen custard!Thomas Edison's laboratory. It was moved to Greenfield Village along with the Wright Brother's home and store (from Ohio) in time to celebrate Edison's 80th birthday. The EPA came through a few years ago and made the museum get rid of all the hazardous elements and chemicals.
The original Ford Motor Company
We went to the Detroit Tigers game that night. First, we had to eat at Hockey Town.
Kevin got to see THE "Cup" Ok, not the real one, but still.
Kevin at his 9th ballpark, Comerica Park. (He has 20 left, he went to the Pittsburgh Pirates game a few days after the Tigers game)
We had a wonderful trip to Detroit. I really loved the city and the museums. It was a perfect way to spend the Fourth of July weekend learning about great American inventors.

Catch Up: 4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July Lots of fireworks and friends. You can have fireworks in La Mirada so a bunch of families contributed and we bought our own.
Out of all the kids there were only 4 boys.
There were 2 Hannahs, 2 Emilys, 2 Sydneys, and 2 Haileys

Sparklers were a huge hit as always.

The Making of a Pyro

We spent Fourth of July with my family. My dad bought a bunch of fireworks, for those of you who know my dad... I know... I couldn't believe he did that either!

Gavin loved the sparklers! His eyes got so big... Kind of ironic that he is wearing his firetruck PJs and playing with fire. Here is Gavin being "supervised" by my brother Justin. Justin broke his ankle in March. He was playing tag in the dark, stepped in a hole and fell. Cracked both bones in half, a spiral fracture for you educated people!

Hannah was a fan of the fireworks. She loves the fireworks at Disneyland so she was so excited to see the fireworks at Mamo's (my mom) house. Her face is dirty from her fudgsicle.

My sister made this crazy shirt with her friends. Notice that her right hand is over her heart... pretty cool!!!

Grayson invited his unofficial "girlfriend" over for the festivities. Kelsey fit into our family well. They are soooo cute.

Hannah and Gavin LOVED Kelsey. See Kelsey "supervising" Gavin???

My sister Lauren came over for dinner and decided to join us after her CD burning binge... Hope you have some awesome CDs Lauren.

The best part of the Fourth of July was being with my husband.

I finally found a common ground for my husband and father... they like to blow things up. Kevin had about 5 sparklers going and my dad was trying to light a sparkler off of Kevin's... Kevin lost a little arm hair in the incident. It was a good laugh... Poor Kevin, this wasn't the first incident that involved fire and hair loss for us.

See, more supervision of the 20 month old playing with fire.

By the end of the night I figured Gavin was a pro at this whole firework thing and let him go... His fire truck PJs were good luck.

Hannah was a true mini pyro.

Just Keep Swimming...

My kids love to swim. They can swim up to three times in one day. Eat, swim, eat, sleep, eat, swim, eat, sleep, eat, swim.... Hannah has had her "backpack" since last summer. The strap on the bottom gave her an atomic wedgie. She would always say, "Mommy, my backpack's in my tooshie!" I found a new one at Target and bought it. She was so excited to try it out. She said, "It not in my tooshie anymore." I love that little girl...

Naturally, Gavin got the "old" backpack. He did pretty well his first try. You can really tell he feels like a big boy now. I still have to heavily supervise him, but it's nice not to have him climbing all over me.

It was a treat to swim with Daddy. Hannah and Daddy had a fun time jumping off the waterfall together. Kevin took her to the top of the waterfall, held her and jumped. Hannah wanted to do it again, and again, and again.

My sister snorkling... she's such a dork!

Gavin loves to play catch...

We love swimming, and I love the fabulous quality of a nap the kids take after they swim. It's really a win win situation.