Erie Trip, the middle

Well I think I made it clear that the Barnetts like to cram a lot of stuff into each and every day. I failed to mention that we also photograph almost every single moment, maybe almost to the extreme. So in efforts of keeping the family room slideshow going, I have attached a lot of pictures from our trip. There is so much to remember, and I want to make a book of this blog someday, so I am posting them out here.

I am not sure how we got to be so lucky, but pretty much everything went our way during the trip. It just seemed like everything was going our way. (FOR ONCE) Need a parking spot, oh yea, here is the first spot. Looking for something, here it is. Little things, but they all just seemed to add up to make it a very great trip.

What I think it really was....was that we were finally free. Free to do as we wish. Not bogged down by appointments and medicines and hospital stays. More importantly, we had a girl with us that actually wanted to do things....more more more...she always wanted more. Such a far cry from the whole last year. I think when our lives were taken away from us for a while, we suffered. So then when the life reappears, it is just that much sweeter. Every little thing is special.

That being said...I will let my pictures tell more of our vacation story.

We started at beach #6 on Lake Erie (thanks Julie)...there is a peninsula that juts out into the lake. The kids LOVED the beach. I asked them when we got home what their favorite part of the whole trip was, and it was the beach. The free thing! The thing we did quickly before going to the amusement park. But to them, it was just like the ocean, and a luxury that we don't really have here in Ohio.


Then we went to this amusement park called Waldameer where you can actually pay by the ride! The park is free, but you just pay to ride things. Quite a novel idea. This was good for us because we only had a couple hours anyway. It is really an old school amusement park. Real cotton candy and candy apples being made right there! It was so sweet to see my kids on the exact same rides that I did as a kid. I have pictures of me doing these same rides.

She loves her big brother, check out that hand around him.

I have to the find the picture of me on this plane...Then all five of us got on this giant gondola style ferris wheel. It was super fun to all be in the same car. And then we got stuck on the top while they reloaded, but the view of the lake was phenomenal. See it there?

We were high! You can see the lake in the background....

After the park, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a picnic. We always sit in the backyard at their house. They have huge trees and lots of shade and a huge yard for the kids to run around in. Here are my kiddlings with their Great Grandma Josie

And this is my Aunt Gail with Ally by my Grandma's bird bath. Birds run in the family around here. My Aunt worked her fingers to the bone arranging the picnic. (thank you)
And this is Uncle Bill helping the kids pick apples off the tree...
They had a great game of tball going, with a few of the neighbor kids, and Grandpa Jerry sat and watched with a big smile on his face. I could tell he loved watching the kids run around his yard.

And we got to celebrate Evan's birthday with presents and cake!

And I need to mention once again how cute my Grandpa Jerry and Carly are together!
Here I was trying to get just the shadows of my kids...easy to tell who is who...I need some photography classes though, not perfect.

The sun setting over the bay.

And back to our hotel on the bay to sleep....

So lucky we are to have had this day. One I will not soon forget....