While in Cincy

Our summer trip to Cincinnati doubled as our vacation this year. Vacation means three things.

1. We ate. A lot. Not only were we on vacation, but we were in the land of my familiar favorites. So, we ate a ridiculous amount of food. Between the Larosa's pizza, Skyline Chili, Frisch's hot fudge cake, Graeter's Ice Cream, Husman potato chips, and the White Castles fish sandwiches, we were pure gluttons. I probably ate enough to cover three years worth of my old favorites.

My favorite meal was shared with two old friends. We spent the day at a swimming pool with two of my best friends from college, both of whom were bridesmaids in our wedding. After a day of swimming, we went to eat at one of the restaurants I miss the most, Frisch's. It's not that the food is that great, it's just a familiar standard of my past. We had a great day together and laughed and shared stories just like the old days.

Note to self: take photos before spending the day in the swimming pool. Here we have the natural look.

Three families, a gazillion kiddos and one more in the oven. Fun, fun, fun!

2. We shopped. My favorite place to shop is the Cincinnati Gap distribution center. It is an amazing place to buy clothes, if you like to dig. And hey, I'm more than willing to dig when the end result is 25 cent swimsuits, 7 dollar Gap jeans for everyone, and all the toddler underwear I could possibly want for 25 cents a pair. So, we took not 1, but 2 trips to the outlet and spent a small percentage of the normal price for much of our fall wardrobe.

3. We wanted to do some vacationy things, like visit Kings Island which was a summer standard of my childhood. This is the place where I learned to love funnel cakes, roller coaters, and log flumes. I have more memories there than I could count and it was neat to share it with my kiddos. We opened and closed the park and had a great day.

When I was their age, the kiddie land was called Hannah Barbara Land and the characters were Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, and then later the Smurfs. Now it is the Peanuts.

Driving the cars.

The boy showed no fear of the 7 foot tall characters and expected everyone of them to acknowledge his presence.

Though the theme has changed, I have basically been riding this kiddy coaster for as long as I can remember. It's located directly across from the stand that sells the blue ice cream which was called "smurf berry" when I was a kid.

Another fun day on our trip was our day at the Creation Museum. This opened just after my parents moved down here, so we hadn't been before. It was really, really amazing and very well done. We had fun, but I have to say it was too crowded for my liking. By the time we left, it was clearing out. So, unlike most touristy places, I think the strategy is NOT to get there when it opens, but rather later in the day.

Isaac and Lily in the Garden of Eden.

The many, many dinosaurs were a big hit.

Abe enjoyed feeding the goats at the petting zoo part of the museum.

Ryan and I with our kiddos and my nephew Jacob, who I used to take on that same kiddy coaster at King's Island.

Normally, for our travels, I love going to new places, but it sure was a treasure to go back to visit some of my familiar family, friends, and places instead this year.