Penrod's Rock!

A huge thanks to Matt and Jenny Penrod (and Jonathan, Allison and Elaina!) for hosting the Dobra's this weekend for the first half of our vacation! We had an amazing time and it was so nice to just relax with great friends. We arrived Friday afternoon about 4:30 and Ma stopped for pizza on his way home from work. After dinner Jenny and I went out for pedi's and mani's...it was just like old times! We had a great time just catching up and hanging out! Friday night when we returned, we put the kids to bed and the adults just hung out watching a movie. Luke and Jonathan wanted to sleep together, but when 10:00 rolled around and they were both still jumping on the beds we decided to separate the big boys. They both crashed within minutes of being put in separate rooms and everyone slept great!

Saturday morning we got up and meet Matt's parents and the kids cousins for breakfast about 8:00. There was a local restaurant doing a church fundraiser for the high school kids mission trip later this year. Breakfast was great, and the kids all did really well. We left breakfast and went back to the Penrod's and let the kids play for a bit before everyone crashed for a nice, long 3 hour nap! When the kids got up, we headed to one of the local malls for Mick's birthday dinner. The Penrod's treated everyone to dinner and dessert at The Cheesecake Factory. It was oh, so good! You should see the looks we get tho, when we walk in asking for a table for 9, 7 seats and 2 highchairs. Everyone was very accommodating tho and the kids did a excellent job, especially for being so wound up and excited from the busy weekend! We let Mick choose the cheesecake flavor and his pick was Vanilla Bean, and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!! The waitress, was going to bring it out, but realized it was frozen solid, so we opted to just take it home and eat it later that night. During dinner, the baby girls really enjoyed the mac and cheese and the older 3 loved the chicken fingers and french fries...who woulda thought? LOL We actually received a compliment on how well behaved the kids all were from a person sitting behind us...gotta say, that makes a mommy's heart swell! We headed home and the kids played games and went to bed about 8. Matt headed upstairs to bed after having 2 slices of cheesecake, saying he was not feeling well....hummmmm, I wonder why???? Jen, Mick and myself hung out and watched a movie before calling it a night.

Sunday morning was typical, getting ready for church...well as typical as can be when you have a house full. LOL...Actually it went really smooth and we even made it to church 10 minutes early! The kids all had a great time in the kids classrooms and the adults enjoyed some Sunday morning worship time. We went to lunch at a sub shop after church before hitting the road.

We arrived at our hotel about 3:20 yesterday afternoon, and it is awesome! The view of Cincinnati at night is spectacular! Luke and Em, both love looking out the balcony window over the city. We are on the 13th floor, so of course the elevator rides are exciting! We grabbed dinner in the restaurant downstairs last night and then headed back to the room to get ready for swimming. Luke loved it and was jumping into the pool for daddy to catch him, but Emily was not too sure about the water. She cried a bit at first, but warmed up to it about 20 minutes later. Both kids had a great time splashing and having fun, and burning some energy. We came back to our room and everyone showered and out in jammies and we all snuggled in the king size bed and watched a movie before putting the kids to sleep. Luke loves the size of the bed, he told us that it is huge bed for karate kicks! LOL.....

Well, I am off to jump in the shower before we head to breakfast and then to the Creation Museum for the day. I am going to try and talk Mick into stopping at the Old Navy, GAP, and Banana Republic outlet on the way home...fingers crossed....oh and we forgot to bring the adaptor for the camera, so we can not upload pics until we return....sorry!!