Fun in Richmond

Will and I went to Richmond over the weekend to visit Aunt Andrea and Richard and to (finally) get my hair cut and colored.  After my hair appointment Friday we found a really cool inflatable play center called Monkey Joe's.  It was a huge room full of bounce houses and inflatable slides.  Needless to say Will had a ball!  Of course I forgot my camera so you'll have to suffer through blurry cell phone pics.

This was only half of the play area - I was impressed by the size.

 

Motion blur amputated Will's arm!  I don't think he stopped moving the
whole three hours we were there!

Aunt Andy couldn't resist Will's pleas to join the fun - for one round anyway. 
The slide about made her sick!! 

By the time she recovered Will had made another trip down the slide
and they both tried to squeeze through the exit!
(she'll kill me when she sees this post!)
hahahahaha!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday we rushed to finish making Valentine's Day gifts for Will's teachers at school.  I saw the idea on the computer but didn't have time to do them exactly as they were depicted so we ended up decorating these with heart stickers instead.

Will was really concentrating on cutting out the heart shaped tags   : )

Our finished bottles of Valentine's Day hand soap!

We woke up this morning to a beautiful coating of snow paired with sunny blue skies that made the snow sparkle like glitter!  I briefly hoped to take some pictures, but I quickly remembered that I had an appointment at Jerry's work for a health screening.   : (   Needless to say, I would have much rather been taking pictures than suffering though blood work!  I did snap a few quick pictures before the snow melted this afternoon!

 

This evening we enjoyed what has become our traditional Valentine's Day dinner, steaks, sweet potatoes, green beans, and rolls with chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.  Plus, Jerry bought me flowers! 

Looking back I am amazed at how many Valentine's Day activities we did:
 - Will filled out 32 Valentines for his classmates at preschool
 - We baked cookies
 - Will wrote and decorated five Valentines to mail to family
 - We made special gifts for his teachers
 - I made a Valentine for Will that he could paint with watercolors to reveal a special message
 - Will gave me a princess pencil he had received at preschool (explaining that he couldn't make anything, and couldn't draw anything, and wasn't allowed to go to the store by himself to buy anything.)
 - Then he painted two more Valentines for me!

All for a holiday that I've always felt like was created by Hallmark to boost card sales!  I have to laugh!

Wait, What Did I Get All Over My Head?

Will saw this picture when I had it open on the computer and he said,
"Awe, look at that picture of me and Perry eating breakfast in my robe!  Wait,
what did I get all over my head?  Oh, that's my hair!!"

Valentine's Day Baking

We baked Valentine cookies with Lindsay, Natalee, and Brady today.  It was really bittersweet because Lindsay and I realized while planning that with kindergarten fast approaching for Will and Natalee this will be one of the last times we can easily get together for making cookies.  And just when we have the process down to an art form!  I know I'm going to miss the freedom Will and I have to do special little things during the day.

 

When we baked Christmas cookies I bought these squeeze bottles thinking they might
be fun and less messy.  Afterward Will commented that he liked painting on the
icing.  So this time we made sure to have icing to paint on and can you guess
which icing he preferred this time - the bottle of course!!   : )

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How Did I Forget?!

Somehow I overlooked posting a picture of one of the best parts of our trip to Erie.....

The "HOT DONUTS NOW" sign was on at Krispy Kreme!!
We made short work of that half dozen fresh donuts (these two didn't
last long after I took the picture)!  If you've never had one you don't know
what you're missing!

Splash Lagoon

We took a short trip to Splash Lagoon in Erie this weekend.  It's an indoor water park, which was especially enjoyable considering how cold and snowy it's been. 

We played laser tag, which Jerry and I enjoyed as much as Will did!

Of course, Will loved the racing game in the arcade.

 

One section of Splash Lagoon.

Will rode every water slide (multiple times) and wasn't afraid the first time!
I can't believe what a dare devil he is, because a couple of the body slides
were too much for me!

Will practiced swimming in the pool, and was able to tread water by
himself for a few seconds.  He'll be swimming soon!

You can tell by his smile that he was only doing this to humor me, but I
really wanted a picture of all the snow outside while we were swimming.
It snowed the whole time we were there.

The wave pool was huge and Will really had fun swimming into the waves.
You can see a little of the snow falling through the windows here.

 

 

Before we drove home we also visited Presque Isle park, a peninsula on Lake Erie. I went with hopes of seeing ice dunes along the shore. This is one of the few places they form outside of the Arctic.  They result from layers of snow, ice and wave spray building up along the shore from wind and waves.  They look like huge snow drifts on the shore but many are actually hollow (making them dangerous to walk on).  With the cold weather we've had I was hopeful we would see some.  Unfortunately it looked like too much water along the shore had frozen, preventing the wave action that is necessary to build the ice dunes.  

Will catching a ride on Daddy's shoulders.  I forgot to bring his snow boots!

It looked to me like this was the beginning of a small ice dune, and illustrates
nicely how they can be hollow.

Seeing the frozen shore was amazing to me.  Before moving up here I knew
open water could freeze but it doesn't seem possible until you see it.

A lighthouse on the beach.

The line of  "hills" here are actually ice dunes.  You can see the snow covered erosion control rock piles in the background.  For perspective look at the summer photo I found online showing how far from shore the rock piles are.  These were small dunes.  They say they can get 12 - 15 feet tall!

This is the beach in the summer (courtesy of the Presque Isle State Park website).  You can see how far off shore the rocks are to give an idea of where the ice dunes formed.

Now I want to go back in the summer to fully appreciate the drastic changes!