Day Camp x2

Trenton went to Cub Scout Day Camp this week...again. This time he attended with his new pack in Ohio. The camp was held at night for only four hours each night. The weather was much cooler, but the rain caused camp to end early a few nights. Trenton's favorite activity this time was archery because he had improved significantly with all the practice he has been able to get by attending two camps this year.

The boys cooked something over the fire each night of camp which was really fun and made it seem more like real camping. Here Trenton is making a fruit turnover. Yummy!

My Buddy

Owen is always right by my side. He is really beginning to copy everything we do including talking up a storm. Today he thought it would be fun to walk in my shoes. He actually walked pretty well in these heels. His favorite pair of shoes to "borrow" though are Olivia's (Ashleigh's new best friend) pink Crocs. He also likes to walk in Dad's running shoes and my flip flops.

A Real Castle!

We visited the coolest place today! I had heard about this historic castle shortly after our move and Trenton has been wanting to go ever since. Oh my gosh! It was so great! The story behind this castle is so remarkable. It was HAND built by ONE man who just passed away in 1981 at the age of 91. I guess he worked on the castle until his death and then left it to his fellow Knights of the Golden Trail as they called themselves. The story is that this man grew up loving knights (hmm...sounds like another young man I know whose name begins with T) and making things from stone. He and his friends would play knights in the woods everyday and when he got old enough he decided that a real knight needed a castle. He then started building the "Chateau LaRoche" which now stands as a memorial to him. It is full of secret passages, spy holes, a dungeon, his bedroom, kitchen, dining room, steep winding staircases, and tunnels. The castle is made of over 1 million rocks.





KOGT stands for Knights of the Golden Trail who are the active owners of the castle and are working to preserve it. Check out their website at http://www.lovelandcastle.com/

Outside the castle there were beautiful gardens and rock structures. Very impressive for one person to build!

Day Camp

The kids and I traveled back to Louisville last week so that Trenton could attend Cub Scout Day Camp with his friends. The camp theme was the Wild West, hence Trenton's hat. It was a hard week being away from my work at the house (and Nathan!), but seeing Trenton with his old friends made it all worth it (and the fact that he earned so many awards). The two days I volunteered it was 95 degrees! Go figure! Everyone else had 85 degree weather. Trenton was such a trooper in the heat. It was hard to stay outdoors everyday with little relief, but he did it and he earned a ton of Cub Scout belt loops/badges.

Archery was definitely one of Trenton's favorite camp activities. His goal each day was to be the first one down on the range so that he could get the white Webelo bow that shot better than the red Cub ones.

BB shooting was something Trenton was really looking forward to, but then found it very difficult. He tried hard all week though and showed great improvement on the last day.

Each day there was a guest speaker at camp. On one of the days I volunteered, the guest was a real Native American. Trenton was very excited about that! The man got "mad" at me for taking his picture without permission, so he came over and put Trenton in a head lock. This really made Trenton's day.

The boys got to fish at the end of the week for sports. Trenton was so excited that they were allowed to use cicadas for bait. Those nasty bugs were everywhere all week and lets just say I don't think anyone minded getting rid of a few for fish bait.

Lumberjack Dad

We lost our only big tree during this week's storms. We had some pretty strong winds that caused the tree to just split. Nathan spent most of the weekend cutting it down and cleaning up the debris with the help of a neighbor. Our neighbor rented a chipper so that we didn't have to deal with branches to get rid of. The guys seemed to like using the chipper, which was really loud and scary to the kids. This was a huge help because the tree was an Ash and is currently banned from movement due to an outbreak of a terrible type of insect called the Emerald Ash Borer that destroys these trees. It is most likely we would have lost the tree within the next year anyway due to the bugs that are on their way from Michigan (and we would have had nasty bugs in our yard--yuck!).
Here is the culprit. Nasty! Thank goodness for that storm!

Cincinnati Zoo

To keep the kids busy and having fun, we bought a zoo pass this past week and I have promised myself to take them once a week. I hope I can keep my promise in this heat! Trenton had a lot of fun this time feeding the lorakeets. In the past, all of my kids have been a little afraid of having the birds land on them, but Trenton was so excited when he got to hold one. This particular bird was more interested in eating the cup than the nectar inside which cracked Trenton up.


Someone gave Owen their extra seed stick as they were leaving and he was determined to find a bird to eat it. Here birdie, birdie...
Anyone?? Sad to say, but no one ate from his stick. I don't think the sticks are as tempting as the nectar.

New Favorites

Owen will sit forever in our front landscaping with our garden hose in hand ready to sprinkle water wherever he can reach. He is fascinated by the hose and does not mind getting soaked in the process.
The Kroger's near our house has kid-size shopping carts, which made Ashleigh's year! She absolutely loves them. She was really shy about pushing it around the first time and stayed right by my side the whole time. I love them because it makes shopping a breeze. She used to throw a huge fit everytime we walked into the store because she wanted me to push her in those huge shopping carts with a plastic car attached. I just hate those carts so much because they are so heavy and hard to push. They make shopping so much longer and louder (they roar as you push them down the aisle.) Maybe I'm a bad mom for that, but I am all about efficiency when I venture out to the store.

VOA Park

Our new home is near the Voice of America Park which has a really cool history. This is the first place the U.S. used to send broadcast signals across the world duing World War II. The broadcasts were very important for communication during the war. The broadcasts would always begin with, "this is a voice from America" hence the name of the park that commemorates this important time in our history. The park is huge and has a small lake where you can rent paddle boats and fish. The kids were so excited to go paddle boating and we hope to make it a monthly thing.

Owen and I had fun watching the baby ducks on the shore. There are ducks and geese all over our suburb. I think it's because of all the ponds and lakes that are here. Owen loves to watch them and isn't scared to get up close.

Final Days

Some memories from our last days in Louisville

We moved 14,400 pounds of "stuff" with us to our new home. That's a lot of "stuff"!

The Bats!

During our last week in Louisville, we went to see the Bats play one last time. We have spent a lot of nights there over the past eight years. We will miss them for sure! As we were heading to the ticket window, a man handed us four season tickets in the Diamond level seating. Wow!

It is such a beautiful park! I love how you feel like you are right on the field.

Owen's first merry-go-round ride.

and Ashleigh's billionth.

Owen loved the playground (there have been many games where we watch the entire game from the playground.)