Today was Kid's Day at the fair and for the first time ever, I took the girls and went. I'm glad we did as the girls had a blast! It was to be a very hot day, but the clouds stuck around for most of the morning and even looked very threatening at times, but all we got were some sprinkles. There was also a nice breeze. By the time we were getting close to being done, the sun did come out, and the temps and humidity began to rise quite a bit.
I was debating on if I should get a wristband for all of the girls or just Allyson as I didn't think the other two would ride as much as Allyson. I was wrong, and I'm glad I did get all three a wristband. I didn't count how many rides they went on or how many times they repeated rides, but I believe I got our money's worth.
It was also nice in that Allyson was tall enough to be able to ride all of the rides alone, so that meant her sisters could ride the same ride even if they weren't as tall as they needed to be (they did have to be taller than the minimum requirement though).
When asked what their favorite rides were:
Allyson - the roller coaster, the slide, the drums (kinda like the tea cup ride), the train
Janae - the roller coaster, the swing, the train, the drums, the bears
Kaycie - the roller coaster, the train, the drums, the bears, the swing
As you can tell, I think they loved almost all of the rides they rode on :o)
It was also neat to watch Janae. She's always the one who doesn't like to try new things (whether food or some activity). It usually takes a lot of coaxing, and then you aren't guaranteed that she will try it. But today Allyson wanted to go on the roller coaster. Janae didn't want to, but Kaycie did. So Allyson and Kaycie went on the ride. A short time later Janae said she wanted to go on the roller coaster, and she loved it :o) The same thing happened with the drum ride too. I'm sooo glad she decided to give some of those rides a chance and then liking them too.
I don't have any pictures :o( At one point before we left home, I had thought about taking my camera along, but as it goes sometimes, I forgot until we were almost to the fair. Just imagine lots of smiles and waves :o)
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Family Roots
Today we attended a family reunion that has been an annual event for a long as I've been alive, and I learned today that it was actually started back in the 1930's or 1940's! This would be my mom's mom's parents - my great grandparents.
For the past couple of years, my brother has been working on a family tree website, and today was the first time I was on it. It's been a great website to get a good grasp of how to place where each relative belongs and see how big our family really is. I'm thinking that it wasn't until Rodney came into my life that I really made an effort to not just know who my relatives are but to know which family they belonged to (to which of my grandma's siblings).
Today's reunion seemed fairly large - either that or the building we had it at was a bit too small ;o). Anyway, I decided to go on the website and count how many blood relatives there are for just two generations. Of course there were the original two (great grandpa & grandma). They had 10 children (my grandma was #8). Of their children who lived to get married and have their own children that number totals 46. That means my mom has/had 42 1st cousins and that's just one side of the family! Compare that to my girls who have NO 1st cousins and to me who has only seven 1st cousins on one side. Now take into account that the majority of these 46 people got married and had children of their own (this would be my generation) and on and on.
Ok, I decided to do it. I went on the website and counted EVERY person who is under the family of Jacob J.C. Miller whether it is by blood or by marrying into the family or just a little kid. Are you ready for this? The total number is 712 people! Granted not everyone is still living (there is only one son of my great parents that is still living), but that is still a lot of family heritage from my great grandparents. I'm fairly sure that this is not a common occurrence for most people especially if you don't have an amish/mennonite background, and to have your ancestry mapped out for the past 100+ years is quite a feat too.
With this all said, I guess I'm discovering that the older I get, the more I realize how special my family and relatives really are. And even though I may not see some of them except once a year or maybe even longer, they are still a part of me and who I am.
For the past couple of years, my brother has been working on a family tree website, and today was the first time I was on it. It's been a great website to get a good grasp of how to place where each relative belongs and see how big our family really is. I'm thinking that it wasn't until Rodney came into my life that I really made an effort to not just know who my relatives are but to know which family they belonged to (to which of my grandma's siblings).
Today's reunion seemed fairly large - either that or the building we had it at was a bit too small ;o). Anyway, I decided to go on the website and count how many blood relatives there are for just two generations. Of course there were the original two (great grandpa & grandma). They had 10 children (my grandma was #8). Of their children who lived to get married and have their own children that number totals 46. That means my mom has/had 42 1st cousins and that's just one side of the family! Compare that to my girls who have NO 1st cousins and to me who has only seven 1st cousins on one side. Now take into account that the majority of these 46 people got married and had children of their own (this would be my generation) and on and on.
Ok, I decided to do it. I went on the website and counted EVERY person who is under the family of Jacob J.C. Miller whether it is by blood or by marrying into the family or just a little kid. Are you ready for this? The total number is 712 people! Granted not everyone is still living (there is only one son of my great parents that is still living), but that is still a lot of family heritage from my great grandparents. I'm fairly sure that this is not a common occurrence for most people especially if you don't have an amish/mennonite background, and to have your ancestry mapped out for the past 100+ years is quite a feat too.
With this all said, I guess I'm discovering that the older I get, the more I realize how special my family and relatives really are. And even though I may not see some of them except once a year or maybe even longer, they are still a part of me and who I am.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Vacation
For our vacation this year we headed to the Cincinnati Zoo. Overall the girls traveled ok especially when they are watching a video :o) (they are not the best long distance travelers)
Here are some pictures of our HOT zoo experience.
Here are some pictures of our HOT zoo experience.
We rode the train twice and the last time Rodney wanted to ride in the very last car as the last seat faced backwards, but the girls won out. They wanted to ride in the very first car :o)
Feeding the goats.
Poor thing! Can you tell he's hot?!
See the baby zebra? The sign said she was born 2 days after Allyson's birthday.
Janae loved the flamingos. I think the main reason why is that a few days before I had bought her a new shirt and it has a flamingo on it :o)
Like the train, we rode the carousel twice.
Janae rode the bench both times :o) but she definitely enjoyed it.
Just some of the very pretty flowers near the entrance/exit area.
On the way home Rodney wanted to stop at the Air Force Museum in Dayton. The place is huge and I bet we didn't see half of all that was available to see. I didn't take a lot of pictures inside as the lighting was a bit too dark for them to turn out very well.
They had a fuselage of a fighter jet that basically only kids were allowed into due to the cramped area.
We Have A Bike Rider - somewhat
The other week something in Allyson finally clicked and she discovered that she can ride a bike without training wheels (something I was beginning to wonder would ever happen). We haven't been practicing a lot lately as it has been way too hot, but here are a couple of pictures of her first two-wheel bike experience.
She started on Kaycie's bike, then Rodney took off the training wheels from Janae's bike and now the training wheels are off of Allyson's bike. She's not quite as comfortable on her bike, but she's definitely doing it - somewhat.
She started on Kaycie's bike, then Rodney took off the training wheels from Janae's bike and now the training wheels are off of Allyson's bike. She's not quite as comfortable on her bike, but she's definitely doing it - somewhat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)