Cleveland History Center

Hi!  I know it's been a long time, but I've had a lot of stuff going on lately (fun stuff, not so fun stuff, etc) and I really haven't had time or energy to blog...and frankly I kind of forgot about it.  Oopsy!  So, because I'm a bad blogger I'm just going to photo-dump some really old photos on you.  Yep, it's happening.  These are from early 2015 when I went to Cleveland to visit my dear HLP for her birthday (I think...it's been so long!).  She had the brilliant idea of checking out the Cleveland History Center, which neither of us had been too.  It was very cool and I would recommend it to anyone!  Now, commence photo dump of cars, planes, dresses, and a carousel (all located in the History Center)...

Drooling over this ceiling!

With admission into the History Center you also get two tokens to ride the carousel!

My favorite horse!

Second ride on the carousel...

My bestest, Amanda.

Hopefully I'll get back to this blogging and sharing photos on a more regular basis soon.  I'm actually taking a photography class this fall, so hopefully I'll have photos to share on the regular!  Truthfully, it's been ages since I pulled my camera out of my camera bag and I feel horrible about it.  So, that should be remedied very soon!  Until next time...

Hiking in Yellow Springs

Happy day-after-Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope you all had a great holiday?  Ours was pretty low-key and involved some tasty food, including a turkey breast that Antoine smoked (delicious!) and my first ever attempt at key lime pie (I used this recipe and it turned out really well).  While Antoine and I usually get into the Black Friday madness, this year we didn't really see much that caught our eye...though we might have to run to Petsmart/Petco to get the kids some Xmas toys (shhh! don't tell them).  Instead we went to a practically deserted Kroger this morning to get the fixings for one of Antoine's scrumptious breakfasts and as I'm typing this he's in the kitchen working his breakfast-magic.  I'm pretty lucky, aren't I?!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the rest of the photos I took from our day in Yellow Springs.  After pumpkin picking and some food to fuel us, we all packed up in our cars (with many pumpkins in our trunks) and headed a couple miles down the road to John Bryan State Park.  Now usually when we go to Yellow Spring we always go hiking in Glen Helen Nature Preserve, but since it had been years and years since I had last been to John Bryan (and Antoine and Aaron had never been), I suggested we go there...

We really had no idea where we were going and just decided to stop when we spotted the gorge trail.

An ordinary occurrence: Gatsby and Aaron going running off together, Amanda and Antoine walk at a normal pace while Cheese smells EVERYTHING (though you can even see him here because he's busy smelling), and I get distracted taking pictures and get left behind.

So regal!

As we were walking someone in the group (all I know is it wasn't me because I was too engrossed in talking photos of fungus) spotted small trails leading to the remnants of an old building.

Another less pristine wall/building.

This crazy tree's roots had grown through this rock...the picture definitely doesn't capture how cool it was in person!

"Come on Dad, it's time to explore!" - Gatsby

"Umm, will someone move this large branch out of my way?!"

All in all, it was a pretty great day!  I mean, how could it not be...pumpkins, friends, ice cream, cute dogs, and hiking.  That's just a recipe for Fall awesomeness!

Camping Weekend in Instagram

What a great weekend, but man, I'm tired!  And, is it just me, or did the weekend just fly by?!  Camping was a big success, but I think I need a couple days just to recuperate.  I took a bunch of photos this weekend, including some night-sky photos that I'm hoping turned out well, but until I have a chance to edit them here's some photos from Instagram...

 Antoine and I were in charge of all the food/cooking.  I was in charge of the coffee, something I've never made when camping before because Antoine doesn't drink coffee.  But since we had some serious coffee drinkers in the group this time I got this and this (which also came in handy for making some warm spiced cider Saturday night!) and some tasty coffee from Stauf's...and it turned out really well!  Plus my sister gave me this sweet set of metal mugs, bowls and plates (thanks sis!).

 These photos are from Saturday morning.  Antoine and I made an egg bake (somewhat similar to this one) with potatoes, onions, and peppers from Amanda's garden.  We topped it with Parmesan and aged white cheddar and it was very tasty!  Cheese, of course, wanted to help with the cooking process and kept getting way too close to the fire...but he managed not to burn himself, somehow.

 On Saturday we went to Apple Hill Orchards in Mansfield, OH, which was about a 30-40 minute drive from where we were staying near Mohican State Park.  I had never been to Apple Hill and just found them online earlier that week.  It's a great little place that I'd highly recommend (and they are dog-friendly which is awesome!).  We went apple picking, feasted on apple donuts, and sampled some delicious cider.  Good times!

 After Apple Hill, my sister and brother-in-law spotted a sign for the Ohio Bird Sanctuary just down the road.  It turned out to be a really great impromptu stop!  Cheese was allowed in most of the areas, they had a cool selection of owls, hawks and falcons, and they even had an enclosure that you could walk into (but no dogs!) that had all kinds of birds in it, quails, blue jays, chickens, killdeer, etc.  And then as we were getting ready to leave we spotted one of the very friendly staff exercising one of the hawks.  And then another one of the staff members brought out this little screech owl, Lazarus, to talk about!  I have better photos that I'll definitely share later!

 As you can see Saturday night got a little silly!  We were all drinking and playing cards against humanity and then this happened...don't worry, that's not cocaine it's powdered sugar for campfire pies!

It was a fun, but exhausting weekend...especially for the Cheese-man!  All the smells, all the random people petting him and rubbing his belly...it's so rough!

Stay tuned for more camping photos, though it might take me a while to get to them since this weeks is Midpoint!  Happy Monday everyone!