Nowland Staycation!

Last weekend, Jeremy had a 3-day weekend, so we decided we better do something fun. We weren't really feeling like a trip (between the money, not-sleeping baby, and Eli's Celiac) so I thought it would be fun if we had a little "staycation". Basically, playing like we were on vacation and shirking our normal chores to try out some fun things nearby and at home.

So Friday started us off! Jeremy gets home around lunch time on Fridays, which is the greatest thing EVER. We had gotten to the pool at 10 that morning, so he met us over there. After the pool, we had lunch, put the girls to bed, and played some board games with the boys. Our project of that day was to make peach jam, so we got started on that as well. (Not too exciting I know, but a good family project). We also had a delicious dinner trying out a new recipe for Carnitas (they were amazing) and then we finished up canning the jam.

After that we played one more game and then had a fun family movie night watching...

Can you guess? Sword in the Stone! Such a great one. The kids loved it. The boys had seen it a long time ago, but couldn't really remember it. "Hiccitus piccitus..."

Saturday gets its own post (below) because we took a day trip to a state park...and Sunday was just a normal busy Sunday (day of rest? not so much).

Then on Monday we had another great day! We had a tasty pancake breakfast and then we headed out for another day of fun. We drove down to Newport, KY (just across the river from Cincy), parked and walked along the levee and across the Purple People Bridge.

It was a gorgeous day!

We've done this before and it was really nice. It was a beautiful day on Monday too! The humidity was gloriously low and it was actually pleasant to be outside! Ah, so nice. When we got across into Cincy we went to Sawyer Point Park, which is a playground underneath another bridge. Eli and Jeremy had been here for one of Eli's field trips and they said it was fun, and it was!

Grace enjoyed getting out of the stroller for a bit too. After the kids played for awhile we walked a little more to an awesome "sprayground" along the river. It was so fun! I was really happy with it. The kids had a great time running through the water cooling off.

After that, we headed back across the bridge and ate lunch at Tom and Chee, a grilled cheese place that started in Cincinnati and appeared on Shark Tank a few years ago. It was cheesy! We picked it for two reasons - one, we had seen it on Shark Tank and thought it'd be fun to try it. And two, I found out it was a safe place to eat for celiac peeps. The owner can't have gluten either, so they are really careful about preparing the gluten free sandwiches on separate griddles and everything. Eli really like it so it was a win!

Then we came home, did naps and games again, and went to the pool again! I think we had it mostly to ourselves that night too. Those kids are getting to be amazing swimmers and it's really fun to see them develop. It was a great weekend!!