Coney Island

As summer is coming to an end we're trying to fit in all of the fun things that we've wanted to do that we never actually got around to doing. A lot of these things will be closing on Labor Day so we have a lot of unchecked items on the to do list to hit up! Should be a busy couple of weeks!

One of the things on my list was Coney Island, or Coneyville as Abby called it. I had read about this place in a book about fun things to do with kids in Ohio and it was one of the top 10 things to do in this area. It's in Cincinnati, right along the Ohio river and the border of Kentucky. So, sort of last minute, we decided to head there Friday afternoon. Was it worth it? It's hard to say. For the price and drive, i would say no......but the girls had an absolute blast AND there weren't a lot of people there so they didn't have to wait in any lines for the rides and if they wanted to stay on to ride again....they could! That may have made it worth it, but it's only a one time thing in this household : ) I think it could have been more worth it if we would have spent the entire day there and taken advantage of the water park as well (it was about the same price if you included it). Or we were right by Newport, KY and it would have been fun to go the the aquarium there....still one thing we have to do before we move (yet another to do list that I have!)
It's funny because I made one of these lists when we were at Scott and we waited until the last few months to try to do everything then too. We've really got to start now!!!

Here are the pics from Coney Island (there are a lot....so many good ones it was too hard to choose which ones to post!)

There was a kids town at the park and all of the girls really enjoyed their very own pint sized town!





There were actually a lot of rides just their size. I think their favorite ride where they could ride by themselves was probably the airplanes (least favorite, at least for Allie.....the frog hopper) I have a video and she was saying "done"! Their favorite overall ride was the giant slide, which they had to go on with an adult. We didn't get any pics of that b/c our awesome camera's batteries had already died.

Goodbye to a FUN day!!!

Monkey Joe's & Tropicanoe Cove

Since we were going back to Indiana for Avery's birthday anyway my Mom called and asked if we'd like to spend a whole week there either before or after the party. We decided to go the week before and it worked out great since Derek was gone at Scout Camp. (Derek even sold the jet skis and other boating stuff while we were gone, yay we have room in the garage now!)

Well, Derek's truck hasn't been running all that great lately and since he would need to get to Indiana later on in the week he needed the van. So....we met my parents just over the Indiana/Ohio state line at the World's Largest Candle (Warm Glow Candle Factory) and then we were off for a week of fun.

The week we were there was probably the busiest I've ever been while there and I didn't even have my car! My Mom took a day off and let me have her car a few days....so we were always on the GO.

The highlights of the week, besides Avery's b-day party, were visiting w/ GG, aunts & cousins and going to Monkey Joe's, Tropicanoe Cove, and Columbian Park.

At Tropicanoe Cove, Allie headed straight for this dolphin slide. I was so surprised! She loved it.

yelling @ the kid behind her b/c he's too close
Avery had a lot of fun too! She mainly just wanted to walk around, but it was a zero entry pool so she would walk right into the water. So cute!



Trenton, Jenna, Carma and Jon all joined us at the waterpark. Allie LOVED having Trenton there to play with her. Jon was so good with the kids!
Unfortunately, this was the only pic I got of them since my camera was acting up

Now on to Monkey Joe's. This was the first time we've really ever been to anything like this. I know that we have something similar to it here in Ohio, but we've tried to get Allie into a bouncy house before and she didn't want anything to do with it so I just haven't bothered with taking her there. I was so surprised at how fast she took a liking to this. Adults aren't supposed to play on them BUT I did my share of "assisting" Allie. It was so much fun!


notice her skirt and hair.....these slides were super fast!
We always go to Columbian Park while we're in town. It has a really cool playground and it's also where Tropicanoe Cove, the zoo, and a few rides are. This was the first time we've been while Tropicanoe Cove and the rides were open. Well, the girls and I were getting ready to leave the park and we walked by the rides. Allie really wanted to go on them, but I didn't want to go buy tickets. She was in luck though.....I had some in my purse from like 2 years ago when I took Morgan & Mason!
I only had enough for one ride though

Avery ~ 1 Year Old

I can't say it enough........this year has gone by so fast! Our little Avery bug doesn't seem so so little anymore. We still need to take her to the doctor for her 1 year check up to get all of her stats, but when we weighed her at home she was 18 pounds. I think she is similar in size to what Allie was at this age. I put Aves in her front facing car seat today and she was all smiles! So cute! She looked so tiny in her car seat.
I think Avery enjoyed seeing everyone at her birthday party, but she was really tired. She didn't even want to open her presents. Big sister didn't mind helping her out though! After opening presents we went straight to singing "Happy Birthday" so Avery could eat her cake and go take a nap. She was very content while eating (she downs anything in sight) but she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. Thank you everyone for cards, gifts and happy birthday wishes!

Avery @ Columbian Park on 8/14 ~ her b-day!
party time!
opening presents

playing with cousins

Things Avery is doing now:

• walking! (she's been taking a few steps for a while, but really started taking off while we were in Indiana)
• added "papa", "oh", and "uh-oh" to her vocabulary
• knows how to be so totally cheesy ~ she's such a ham
• dance (when you're holding both of her hands she'll bounce and twist likes she's dancing)
• sits facing forward in her car seat
• loves talking on the phone
• is a great mimicker
• trys to color like her sister
• eats anything and everything!
• climbs
• this isn't something that she is doing, but something unique about her.....her curly locks!
• I think she's going to have crooked fingers like her momma (Sorry Aves)
• she will hold up one finger to say she's one every once in a while

Pre-Birthday Festivities

Avery turns ONE tomorrow!! I can't believe it! We're having a party for her on Saturday and Uncle Buddy & Aunt Kim can't make it so they came to celebrate early with Avery (what a sweet and thoughtful Aunt & Uncle)! They got her a cake and everything!

Isn't that just the cutest cake?!

She knew exactly what to do

A wagon from Mony & Papa

Her favorite thing, a phone, from Bryan & Kim

Pictureless

I know it's been a little while since I've posted anything. We really haven't been up to many exciting things lately and the few fun things we have done I've either forgot the camera or we didn't have any charged batteries. So, no pictures or anything exciting to really say. We went to the Cincinnati History & Natural Science Museum and IKEA last weekend, I think it was. Derek and I took the waverunners out one more time and the girls and I met the other Hubers at the splash park today.

The only other exciting thing, for us anyway, was Derek finally filling out his dream sheet for our next location. I don't remember everything or the exact order but it includes:

• Lackland (San Antonio, TX)
• Nellis (Las Vegas, NV)
• Colorado Springs
• Hawaii
• Florida
• Wright Patt (stay here in Ohio)
• Aviano (Italy)
• Lajes (Portugal)
• Ramstein (Germany)
• Indiana - anywhere where there is a university
• Idaho - anywhere there is a university
• Utah - anywhere there is a university

I'm really loving all of these options and I know Derek is too. I think we would be pretty happy at any of these places.......a few are still close to Derek's family, but we'll sure miss my family! But at least they'll be fun places to visit right Brooke's fam!? Anyway, hopefully we'll get one of these........I think it's pretty likely that we will (most likely Lackland or Nellis). Those last three listed are for Derek to be a ROTC teacher like @ Purdue or some other college. We would really love to do that at some point, but maybe not just yet.....a little later in his career when he's near retirement and we're ready to settle somewhere would be more ideal.

The Latest

We've been on the go so much lately I don't even remember half of the things we've been up to. I mentioned that my parents were here last week and that was sooooo great having them here. I'm really going to miss those visits (and us going to their house) when we move next year. We've been so blessed to have been stationed near family both times so far! But anyway....my brother, Bryan and his girlfriend, Kim came for the weekend last week too! We love having them visit (wish we saw them more often...hint, hint). Our plan was to spend Saturday on the lake but it rained ALL day! They got their pics taken by my friend that night. She was so great to just be open to take them whenever the rain stopped! We also got Allie's 3 year pictures taken. They ALL turned out AWESOME! You can check them out on Nicole's photography blog.

Oh, I almost forgot......another perk with being close to my Mom and Dad...they love to spend time with their granddaughters and I'm pretty sure they would rather have that one on one time with them so Derek and I almost always take advantage somehow and leave the girls with them and go out and do something ourselves. Well, this time we took our jet ski's out. We don't get them out very often, first time this summer in fact. It was a lot of fun. We've decided we're going to sell them though.....just because they are so impractical with little ones and we still have the boat. So, if anyone knows of someone that might be interested let me know!!

Sunday was our niece Kaiya's 1st birthday so we spent the afternoon over at their place celebrating the special occasion! Again, so great to be CLOSE to family!
Tuesday, we had a "girls day" shopping without the kids at the Gap Clearance Center (twice in one week for me!) Can't get enough of 25 cent swimsuits and $1 pj's though. Derek was a brave soul and watched all 5 girls while we were out!!

Last night we went camping with friends. We set up tents and stuff and then headed out to the lake about an hour or so before sunset. Just enough time to get some wakeboarding and tubing in. Then headed back to camp and ate a late dinner and s'mores. This was Av's first time camping and she was great. Allie acquired a battle wound while running around in the dark. It looks really nasty! Every time we camp at this place, Caesar's Creek, there are always tons of raccoons around. They were fearless little buggers last night! The girls and I were all getting a little scared and the boys were having a blast going after them. It was a good trip, although camping is always so exhausting and a lot of work for one night. I would love doing a 2 or 3 night camping trip sometime!! Anyway, that's the latest..........

Avery ~ 11 Months

I'm always usually about a week behind when it comes time to posting Avery's monthly status....at least I evenutally get to it though I guess. I can't believe she's going to be ONE next month!! Crazy, huh?!
Her latest things:

• waving hi and bye (it even sounds like she's saying "hi" and "buh" while she's doing it)
• standing up anywhere without holding on to anything
• she'll stand in place for long periods of time with her cheesy little grin and then get excited and fall
• she took one step on her own .... she's soooo close to walking now!
• she'll walk with just holding on to one of my fingers really well
• she really likes to clap now
• when she hears music she'll start to dance and shake her head
• she eats ALOT, I don't know if she knows when she's full because she seriously keeps shoveling everything in!
• she is finally sleeping a straight 10-11 hours through the night (sometimes even 12 if she is up later than usual)
• naps are still great..she gets two 2 hour naps a day
• she goes down for bed and naps with no fuss whatsoever!
• she broke out in her first rash from poison ivy a week ago :(

I'm sure I'm fogeting a lot, but it's been a big month. She even just had her first camping experience last night! She was GREAT!

this is the only pic I've been able to get of her while she's standing (at cousin Kaiya's b-day party)

Coco Key, shopping and Children's Museum

Well, to start off I don't have many pictures because my new camera quit working while we were at the zoo. I was hoping it was just batteries, but I put new batteries in and still nothing. Then while we were at Coco Key our older camera quit working!! Derek ended up getting the new camera working....thankfully....but after our little trip.

So, we changed our minds I don't know how many times on what we were going to do on Wednesday and Thursday. We finally headed out the door for Cincinnati around 10:30 Wednesday...way later than we had originally planned on. Because of that we decided to go straight to Hebron, Kentucky to the Gap Clearance Distribution Center. We spent a few hours there and I definitely over did it BUT got great deals on tons of clothes. I got 3 pair of jeans, 4 shirts, and 3 tank tops for myself plus 2 capris, a dress, and 4 shirts for Allie AND pjs for Avery and a couple dresses for a friend.....all UNDER $100.

After we were done shopping we headed to the Sheraton hotel where we stayed the night. There was a waterpark in the hotel...Coco Key which is why we stayed there. We really thought Allie would love it since she's becoming quite the water bug, but boy were we WRONG! From the minute we stepped in she was crying and saying she was sick and wanted to go back to the room and take a nap. I made her go in the shallow pool to wade around and then took her under the mushroom waterfall (which she liked once we got to the other side). Then I forced her to go down some of the smaller waterslides with me. She sreamed her head off everytime we walked up there but once we were going down the slide she would laugh. I will say, she could have been scared about going up to the slide because the first time we went up there a HUGE bucket of water dumped right on our heads and some kid started spraying us with a water gun! She has never liked water dumped over her head! Anyway, the waterpark itself wasn't all that impressive but it had been a LONG while since I've been to one so I still had a good time even though the girls didn't really enjoy it. Oh.....Allie's favorite part was swimming in the deeper part with her life jacket on while my Dad and I played basketball.

The next day we could have went back to the waterpark, but Allie didn't want to so we headed to the Children's Museum in Cincinnati. It was pretty neat...way better than Boonshoft here in Dayton. Luckily we had my Mom's camera to get some pics!!

Columbus Zoo & Aquarium

So this week is going to be filled with lots of fun and exciting things because my Mom and Dad are here for the ENTIRE week! I know I'll be taking tons of pictures so I better update each night or I'll have one HUGE post! Today we went to the Columbus Zoo.....a couple days late for getting in with the free military deal, but we still got in 50% off with my Boonshoft membership card. I didn't really know what to expect because we were so spoiled with the St Louis Zoo (being free and fairly large) but this zoo really is pretty nice. It is big, there are a lot of animals and other fun things for the kids to do as well....like rides a huge playground, shows, and petting areas in almost every little area. We didn't even get to a couple sections of the animals and to the "ride" part of the park and we spent practically all day there. You'll see that our favorite part was the monkeys!!
When you visit the kangaroos they are all out in the open and could come right up to you if they really wanted!! baby Beco is only a few months old
Allie & Baby BECO
orangutan
gorilla

boat ride
carousel
The day wouldn't be complete without Dip n Dots!
LONG DAY!

More fun on the lake

Mom & Dad, Laurie and Kevin watching the little ones
Sol, Allie and Abby ready to tube!
Tami and Nicole
Rough Riding Joe
Lisa and Preston
Joe and Tami braving the front of the boat
First time riding double....and it was fun!
Abe, Adeline and Derek......where are you???