O-HI-O

Two weekends ago the boys and I packed up the van (well, I did most of the packing) and headed to Ohio to visit our friends Phil, Corrie, Corban and Silas Vander Ploeg. They left this area at the end of the summer and we have missed them greatly. I had the whole weekend open and the boys had been asking about them for weeks, so I couldn't think of anything else better to do with our free time. The drive went extremely well and the boys did wonderful. All the boys were so happy to see each other and it was so much fun to see them play together again. The first day we just took it easy, but that night after the boys were in bed Corrie and I got to get away and go watch a movie. Saturday morning we got up and headed to an outlet mall that had a train running around all of the stores. This place was built for my children. We loaded all the boys up in a wagon and Phil pulled them all around for us. We kept laughing because we looked like a mormon family. A man with his two wives and a bunch of kids....we were quite the sight. The rest of the day we took it easy and just enjoyed our time together. Sunday morning we got up and headed back on the road for our 4 1/2 hour drive back home. It was a lot of work, but well worth it!

Silas, Corrie and Phil

Brayden, Me, Jett and Corban

(The train wasn't loud, but I think Brayden was just preparing himself. We were in the train a good five minutes before it starting running and he sat there the whole time like that).

The train ride was great. It lasted about 15 minutes and the track was about 2 miles long. We freaked out at first because we had been pumping up the boys all morning about this train ride and then we got there and it was broken down. Us adults were like, "NO! What will it take to get this train running...money is no object." BUT thankfully it started working about a half hour later. Pretty sweet train!

Thanks for having us Vander Ploeg's. We had a great time!