KI, OH - 2011

Oh what a vacation...swimming, biking, sand castles, sun and fun!

Kelleys Island, OH

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Vitale

In all of my sandcastle-engineer-building glory! The kids 'helped' but mostly dug trenches, transported water, poured it in the motes and stomped on castle tops. No matter what it was good. They loved the castle city.

The beach at Kelleys Island State Park is wonderful. Lots of sand, calm waters - cold this year - but calm thanks to the break wall. Swimming was fun. Dylan had a hard time early in the week since it was so cold. He was blue pretty fast. Thanks to hotter weather, less clouds and a couple degree warm up of Lake Erie water trapped in the bay - he was swimming like crazy the last day. Nothing like a good lake shark!

Just picture Gavin included in the picture and not sleeping in the back seat of the Pacifica. Gavin didn't make it the 4 miles from the house to the west point of the island. The sunset was beautiful but not nearly as beautiful as my girl. Gorgeous girl. I appreciate the beautiful peach colored light.

LOTS of Pictures!

Splash Lagoon

A Vitale 5 family weekend at Splash Lagoon in Erie, PA. Good times and as the sign says, "Get Set to Get Wet." Pools, family friendly hot tubs, water slides. Awesome.

Slide and repeat - approximately 300 times. Follow with water logged 'hot tub' to wrinkle extremities beyond recongition and float until you need to sleep. Take breaks for potty, snacks and sort-of-food from the Island grill. Follow with arcade time and a snack in the car.

Beware of oreo cookie vampires on the way home (I regret not taking Dylan's picture in car, snoozing away, drooling oreo cookie drool).

Did I mention the Kid's Suite? Aka room with alcove with a bunkbed, TV and table. Apparently all I had to do was give Gavin the opportunity to sleep in a bunkbed to be happy.

Kelleys Island, OH - Vitale Family Vacation

Post is LONG overdue, but here it is...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kelleys Island Ferry: You gotta wear shades...

We went to Kelleys Island this summer for a nice long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Vitale. We had amazing weather for summer in Ohio. Blue skies, warm weather. It was great.

Prettiest Girl!

We visited to limestone Glacier Groves while were there. They are glacial markings in the island limestone that are part of the State Park. Much of the natural groves were destroyed by limestone quarries.

As you can see, Nora started out dry, with merely wet feet. That did not last...

Nora Mermaid, so pretty.

Trip to the Park and a Picnic at Home

Nora the explorer at the park...

So hot! I need a drink..."I do it."

Saturday was beautiful! Hot, sunny...good day for a park trip and for a picnic. We did both.

I am really enjoying Dylan at the park this year. He is so much more free to roam and try on his own this year. I watch his every move but he is so independent. He LOVES slides and all of the climbing that goes with it. He tries desperately to keep up with the big kids. Little legs only move so fast.

Gavin has taken his independence to a new level as well. He quickly found some kids near his age to play tag with and was all over the entire playground. We played at the park for more than an hour and they were all so tired they ALL took a nap. Very little push back and were asleep in minutes. Amazing. It did help to have the bribe of fireworks, picnic, fire and playtime with Hutchinson family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We indulged Pete's inner-pyro this weekend and stopped at Prism fireworks. Nothing giant but some good rockets, small mortars, and some fountains. Eric and Carrie Stopped down with their girls and fun was had by all. The kids had a blast. We had a campfire and fireworks after dark. So much fun!

Easter

My little sports boy. Baseball hats, bike helmets, any kind of balls - basketball, baseball, etc. - bikes, baseball bats, dirt bikes, anything. Dylan loves to wear a baseball hat and also has developed a new love for Spiderman ("Pider-man"). He has also been trying to bounce and play with the regular basketball which is 1/2 as big as he is. So, new hat and new ball from the Easter bunny.

"Look Daddy, bas-et-ball!" - Snap goes the picture...

Happy Lego-ing Gavin! Gavin has been into blocks forever. He has now moved on to Legos. We are leaving the Duplos to the little kids now.

Nora - pretty girl. Nora sat and read through all of her books. She got some new Fancy Nancy books. She was so thrilled to get books, a new ball glove (in pink) and a new hat. Such a girl but hangin with the boys.

Christmas Eve

I never published because I never wrote...not sure when I will ever write. So, don't give a hardtime about the post that is nearly 4 months old. Oh well!! There are some great family pictures here.

Circus

We went to the Ring.ling Brothers circus. It was really fun. We got there in time for the pre-show that allows you to go down on the floor. You can get close and we could see some clowns and one of the elephants. The kids were mesmerized!! I think out favorite parts were the tightrope motorcycle and the elephants.

Happy Halloween 09

Everyone was very excited for trick-r-treat this year so pictures were not taken until we got outside. A little dark but still, you get the idea - Optimus Prime, Belle (Beauty and the Beast) and a triceratops (three horn dino). Dylan HATED the hood/head pieces for his costume. Mostly because it wrapped around under his chin and then velcroed together. We ended up getting it on his hat and he wore it that way without issue. Once he had his bucket, he quit trying to take the dino head off of his hat.

We had a great time trick-r-treating. Dylan walked the whole way around our circle with help on driveways and stairs. We took the stroller but didn't use it until later to finish the neighborhood. Impressive. Pete and I were reminiscing about Gavin doing this at the same age and for those little legs to go that far is amazing. Nora was on a mission for trick-r-treat. She was smoking Gavin most of the time. She did run out of gas sooner and Gavin kept going with Papa. [Pete was on call].

Nora was shining the flashlight on her Roseola cheeks in this picture. She wanted to be scary. Gavin just wanted to get moving. He wore his mask some of the night but because it was hard to see he ran right into another dad during trick-r-treat while he was running down a driveway.

Front...

Back...hehe...such a cute little dino butt and tail!

I'm out of here...see ya next year!

Looking for a flashback...Previous Halloweens: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.