Hocking Hills!

We took the kids on an outing to Hocking Hills last month. Brandon and I had such a great time there in April that we were eager to go back and take the kids.

B had the kids on the bridge that goes over the upper falls at Old Man’s Cave. Abby is too small to have toddling around on her own so she spent the majority of the day riding.

Gavin seemed to understand that he needed to stay away from the cliffs unless he was with one of us and holding hands. I think he was rather amazed at the sights he saw.

We are astounded by how fast Gavin is growing and how much he can and wants to do on his own. He climbed up and down stairs and hiked his way around so well.

Brandon and Gav skipped a few rocks before we continued on with our hike.

The Little Miss was confined to her place on high. She was a bit tired so she didn’t fight being stuck on Daddy’s back too much.

Gavin loved the bridges. There are plenty of bridges to cross at Old Man’s Cave.

There is something exciting in seeing a child’s face light up at the sight of something new. It’s almost like seeing things again for the first time.

The photo isn’t that great but the story is amusing. This is Devil’s Bathtub. I’ve posted a better picture before from our first Hocking trip. We told Gavin about Devil’s Bathtub and he thought it was pretty cool. The rest of the day he would mention Devil’s Bathtub and call it Devil’s Toilet. For some reason he just couldn’t get the proper bathroom fixture in his mind. Granted, the swirling water may be reminiscent of a toilet flushing but the shape of the rock is definitely more like a bathtub, or I suppose a really long oblong toilet. Either way, he was pretty funny to listen to when he called it Devil’s Toilet.

This spring, the water that is now only trickling down the rock was a nice little waterfall. The area where B and the kids are standing was full of water. All of our spring rains undoubtedly contributed to the volume of water flowing through Hocking Hills but the summer weather clearly has the opposite effect.

“Look mom, a tunnel!”

This is a different tunnel that was much lower than the first so Brandon had to duck pretty low to clear Abby through it.

Gavin kept saying, “This is fun!” He did great and walked the entire time by himself. It was only at the very end and the last set of stairs to climb out of the gorge that he said he was tired and didn’t want to walk anymore. I could relate. The humidity was so ridiculously high that we are all sticky, gross, and worn out. But, he champed it out all the way back to the car.

I can’t wait to go back to Hocking again. Things need to cool down a bit first. There are a few more places there we’d like to take the kids to see and a few other places we’d like to see ourselves but can’t take the kids because of the cliffs. We will definitely need to go in the fall when the leaves start to turn. I can only imagine the beauty we’ll see then!

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In more recent news, I think it is downright sweltering everywhere right now. The kids have been stuck inside all week and the blinds and curtains have stayed shut in an attempt to keep the house cool. So how hot is it? Well, hot enough that the hot, humid air coming in through the dryer vent in the laundry room caused the inside of the dryer to become drenched with condensation. Imagine my surprise when I opened the dryer to toss some clothes that I’d hung to dry and found the dryer soaking wet. I keep it closed with cats and small kids around. We don’t want anything or anyone getting stuck in the dryer. I’ve kept it open now and things seem to have dried out with some circulation.

Last night we discovered it is also hot enough that the exhaust fan in our downstairs half bath developed condensation on the metal plating holding it in the ceiling. So much condensation built up that it started to soak part of the ceiling and pooled some water inside the fan cover. We keep the bathroom door closed. Whatever the weather conditions outside, you tend to experience the hot/cold/humidity in that bathroom because with the door closed, the only air flow is from the exhaust vent outside. Things seem to have dried out there this morning after leaving the bathroom door open all night. Apparently we’ll have to open it overnight more frequently to keep this from happening in the future. Who knew that could happen?

We were supposed to get the kids one and four year pictures taken today. Turns out we had to cancel the appointment. On Wednesday morning Gavin had been in Abby’s room while she was still in her crib and I was changing the sheets on his bed. At some point, he clawed her in the face for a yet to be determined reason. First I thought she did it to herself. I heard a bang before the screams and sobs and I thought she’d banged her head on her crib and maybe busted her cheek open. Upon closer inspection it is a scratch and not a split. I didn’t think there was any way she would have done that much damage to herself. There were marks that started above the right brow, a red mark on the eyelid, and a nasty scratch that starts just under the eye and runs down the cheek. I inquired as to how this occurred and received three stories. The first Gavin told me was that Abby scratched herself. The second was that Stormy came into the room, jumped in the crib, and clawed Abby. I told Gavin that never in four years had Stormy ever jumped into the crib. Finally, Gavin said he had scratched her because she was banging her head. It wasn’t until Friday when I made the connection that a big scratch on Abby’s face plus pictures on Saturday equaled not a good idea. So, we shall wait until it heals and try again. Her nose healed beautifully after her accident several months ago. Hopefully her cheek does the same. It’s not as bad of a cut but it is much longer.

Gav has been a lot to handle recently. He’s gotten very frustrated with his sister and had a bit of a temper. He’s also been crying when we leave for work. At six in the morning he will run screaming and crying from his room for hugs and kisses when we are trying to get out the door for work. Brandon has been in training this past week and will be in training next week as well so he’s been leaving early also. This morning Gavin did the same thing when I was headed out the door and I told him Daddy was off today and he said that he wanted me to stay home too. He seems desperate for family time with all of us there together. With our opposite schedules there isn’t much of that kind of time to go around. Last night after dinner the kids were having cookies I’d made after I got home from work. Gavin said that we should eat our dessert too. Brandon said he’d rather wait until later. The poor little guy’s face fell. His eyes welled up and he said he wanted to have dessert as a family. So we did. I’m not sure what is going on in that little mind but it seems he is in need of some extra attention and TLC. He pushes our limits and tests every boundary but he’s four. I constantly have to remind myself, he’s only four. He can do so much, like go downstairs in the morning and get himself a yogurt to eat if he’s hungry, dress himself, and put on his own shoes. But, he still has a long way to go and we can’t expect quite as much from him as we sometimes do.

Abby is very busy. She runs around all over the place and is working on more teeth. The last week as been painful for her with a molar coming through and it seems she has some other swollen areas on her gums where we could see more teeth soon. It’s been painful for us because she is extremely vocal about her discomfort, especially at night. She’s also taken to not wanting to go to bed. She’s been crying at bedtime every night. Normally we lay her down and she puts her hands behind her head and goes right out. She’s been working on words. If we ask her to say a word she does her best. Even if she only gets out syllable noises it is clear she is working on building her language. Hearing her say “sorry” is the cutest thing! She loves books and will bring them over to us so we can read to her but we get a few pages in and she runs off again on her next adventure.

That’s all the news for now. I uploaded more photos the other day so future blogs are coming. Stay cool wherever you may be!