Ohio recap: The west side

(At least I got this recap in *this* year, right?!)

Elle and I spent the first four days of our trip on the east side of Ohio, visiting my family and friends. After a night in Columbus, we continued our tour of the state.

Day 5:

Daddy joins us! Tim arrived in Columbus that morning and drove to Aunt Marti's in a rental car. Then we set out to travel west. We got lost stopped for lunch at a Panera on the way, and since we were making good time, we decided to make a stop in Lima.

We drove by some familiar places and then arrived at The Lima News.

It was great to see so many people we had worked with - this was the place where we met, and now we came back with our baby! Very cool.

We spent the evening with Grandpa Bob, Uncle Todd, Aunt Angie and Elle's cousins Nick, Cal and Sam (shown below). *Someone* had to watch the Reds playoff game, so we gathered there to see the Redlegs lose.

Day 6:

Grandma Barb arrived home early in the morning after a few days in Washington, D.C. She got some cuddles in with Elle before we headed out to Bluffton. First, we hung out with Daddy's friend Doug and his three daughters.

Then we headed over to campus to have lunch with Daddy's friend Tim. We went back to Tim's house so we could see his wife and three children (Mia, Kate and Seth).

Then we all went to the Homecoming game, which was more than half over by the time we got there, and met up with Doug, his dad and one of his daughters. (Elle's first college football game!) Bluffton ended up winning. (Go Beavers!)

We went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and then drove back to Lima for a big family dinner to celebrate Grandpa Bob's 80th birthday, which was the next day.

The actual dinner happened on Grandma Barb's birthday.  Here, Cal shows her photos that he took during dinner.

Since Tim can't check weather.com and pack appropriately it was unseasonably warm while we were in Ohio, we headed to Kohl's after dinner to get Tim some Bengals gear he could wear to the next day's game without sweating to death. While we were shopping, I realized we were in Elle's version of heaven - she has been drawn to the color red for months, and everywhere we turned was Reds gear and Buckeyes gear.

Day 7:

We got up early again - this time, we had to say goodbye to Grandma Barb and Grandpa Bob, and we set out for Cincinnati.

We got to cousin Jeff's house, and Daddy soon left to attend the Bengals game with Jeff and Jeff's dad, Toby. Elle and I hung out with Jeff's wife Allison, Jeff's mom Linda and Jeff's daughter Sydney.

Syd wasn't sure what to make of this other little creature, but we had a good afternoon, and it was great to hang out with the ladies.

Daddy came back a bit sad, as the Bengals had lost. But he remained hopeful that the Reds might pull out a playoff victory. We hopped back in the car and headed to Columbus to catch the game on TV.

We met up with Aunt Marti and Uncle Jeff again ... and watched the Reds lose, ending their playoff bid.

Day 8:

We headed to the airport and returned our rental car. The return trip to Florida was made a little more complicated because Tim insisted on bringing his computer for the trip, and the Columbus airport employees were not nearly as helpful as the Tampa employees in terms of folding up our gear, letting us go through the scanners, etc. But we made it with plenty of time and got lunch while Elle pooped her pants. After I cleaned her up, we hung out in Starbucks for a while before heading to our gate, and Elle slept the entire flight.

Looking back on how much she slept and how easy it was for her to go to sleep (as opposed to her now-five-months-and-very-distractable-personality), I am so, so glad we traveled with her when she was that young. There was no fighting her to go to sleep, she didn't really have much of a schedule to disrupt, and as long as we made sure she was as well-rested and well-fed as possible, she was golden. There was a 21-month-old behind us on our flight to Tampa, and he was less than angelic and easy to handle. I said a silent prayer that Elle would never behave like that, but I also was grateful she was so easy going on her first big trip.