Our first few weeks in Ohio

Hello friends and family! Sorry that we haven't posted anything in so long. We've been busy, sort of, but most of all we've been enjoying the free time that we have before my internship begins and before Will joins us! We're loving it here in Ohio, although I think we've each had some homesick moments this week. Everything is going well, though. Whitney is healthy (although no longer comfortable, sleeping, sitting, standing, doing TaeBo, etc.) and the baby room is finally coming together. I've been informed not to post pictures of the baby room until it's one hundred percent complete - who am I to disobey? The weather is beautiful, the lake is wonderful, the town is friendly, and the dogs are annoying. Anyway, this post will cover a ton of things we've done since moving to Ohio. Enjoy the pictures!

First of all, we had the pleasure of having Anne stay with us for a week after we got here. She graciously helped us unpack and get settled in, and we ate a LOT of good food. The day before she went back to Texas, Christy and Jonny came up to Cleveland for the day and we all had a really nice time together.

Here we all are playing at a nearby park. You may notice the large baby that's growing inside my wife's uterus:











Back at our place, Jonny showed us his new crawling and climbing abilities. He was really fast!





After Anne went home, Whitney and I spent a long weekend in Michigan with my parents. It was VERY relaxing and nice. We sat out on the back porch and watched sunsets, had some good home cookin', and spent a lot of time on their new boat. I even went water-skiing and Dad and I went tubing. I also went to the casino with my mom and played some poker - quite a weekend! I'll post those boat pictures soon (I don't have them quite yet), but here are a couple from that weekend that I took with my cell phone. The first is from their back yard and the second is from an awesome hole at Bucks Run, where Dad and I played golf. I put TWO in the water from the tee box here. I was threatening a sub-90 round on a tough course (which for me is great) until I posted a seven on this par three. Oops!





Moving on...Our laundry area is upstairs at our townhome. Does that create any worry in anyone's mind? I wonder what would happen if...hmmmm...No, surely, we wouldn't flood our townhome within the first two weeks of living there. However, if we did, after we had walked in to find water POURING THROUGH THE CEILING, once the GALLONS AND GALLONS OF WATER had been sucked out of the carpet, and the ceiling had been poked so that the excess water would drain out, and the drywall had been left to dry out for a week before they replaced the whole ceiling, that ceiling MIGHT look like this:



All of our stuff is fine - just a big scare.

I had the pleasure of taking Whitney's cousin Courtney to Cedar Point last week. We had a blast, although we had about a 2 hour "resting period" as thunder, lightning and hail attacked us from all sides. Until we braved the storm long enough to run to the nearest arcade, we were stuck under a canopy with picnic tables and about 25 other people. The picture doesn't do the storm justice. And then here are my shoes under a black light (random?!).





This post is almost over, don't worry.

Just kidding, here's some more. Before you look any further, see if you can guess which of these is not true:

1. At a nearby beach, there is an official sign that says you aren't allowed to defecate in the water.
2. The local Sears Grand has items on sale for 7 percent off.
3. Also at Sears Grand, the internet stations have signs that explicitly warn you against chatting with "girls" that are "12 years old" that are really old men.
4. On more than one occasion I have seen "Pop" on a restaurant menu.
5. Penny loves to swim in Lake Erie.
6. Polly loves to swim in Lake Erie.

What did you guess? Look further for the answers!




Does this crack anyone up besides me? Did they have to put this on the sign? I'd hate to be a guy with open sores and wounds who likes to defecate in the water at beaches. What a buzzkill this sign would be...



What, was ten percent too much to take off???



Obviously I support the idea behind this sign, especially if these stations are primarily used by children. I just thought it interesting to have a sign full of essentially the same warning, over and over again, only to just come right out and say it.



Hey, let's go to Meijer and get some pop. Vernor's and Mountain Dew for everyone!



We were AMAZED when Penny's first beach experience involved running straight into the water and swimming around. People at the beach probably wondered why I was giggling uncontrollably.







Every time a big wave came, Penny would move back about a foot. It was hilarious. And many of you probably guessed correctly- this is the farthest Polly ever got:



Finally, I'll leave you with a shot of my three ladies (and one gentleman). Much love to you all :)