Billy did not have to go to work on the 12th, and we enjoyed a lunch time date while the kids were both at school. That evening, we had family photos taken through the Operation Love program. Operation Love is an awesome program where photographers donate their time to photograph deploying soldiers and their families. They do not charge a sitting fee and the soldier is given an album with 4x6 prints of all the photos from the shoot to take with him or her on the deployment. Here's a few of our favorites!
Alexa did not have school Friday the 16th, so we headed down to Cincinnati on Thursday and stayed until Saturday. We explored some amazing parks, visited their children's museum, and ate Korean food!
The following Monday was yet another afternoon 'date', and this time we tried an awesome sushi place and then went to Jeni's ice cream for dessert! Jeni's ice cream is an Ohio original, and I never would have known about it if a friend who was in Columbus last summer for a conference had not recommended it. They offer ice cream flavors for the adventurous, combining flavors you would never dream of putting into ice cream, yet every single flavor is yummy! They are very generous with the sample spoons, and we probably tried about 8 flavors before deciding on one! We sampled Salty Caramel, Wildberry Lavendar, Cucumber Honeydew Cayenne, Riesling Pear Sorbet, Sweetcorn and Black Raspberry, and Smokey Chocolate Marshmellow (or something like that) among others! Every ice cream is made with fresh ingredients and you can literally taste all of the flavors in the name. It was fun and will be a definite place we take family and friends that venture to Columbus while we're here!
Wednesday the 21st Billy's family flew in from Utah! It was great to see all of them, especially Kellen who has changed the most since we last saw them in August (babies do that, I guess). Still such a mellow boy with contagious smiles! We of course took them to Jeni's that evening for ice cream.
Thursday while Billy worked, Linda, Chad, Kellen, Mom Hill, and I visited a park I have wanted to see since reading about it in June - it is the Topiary Garden in downtown Columbus, which is a "topiary interpretation of George Seurat’s famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte." The weather was perfect and the fall colors were gorgeous! The topiaries are amazing and it was so much fun to walk through and around them, with some being 12 foot tall!!
We decided to take Billy's family on a picnic that evening for dinner, but completely under estimated the fading daylight and found ourselves eating in the dark. Despite the falling night, the kids still didn't want to leave the playground!!
Friday evening Billy and I were able to have a date night, complete with dinner and a movie, and I don't even think the kids noticed we were gone since they had Komo, Komobu, and Halmoni to keep them entertained.
Saturday was the long awaited "Boo at the Zoo." It was probably the least crowded the zoo has even been for one of our visits, most likely a combination of the bitterly cold winds and the fact that Ohio State had a home game that afternoon! Despite the cold, it was a fun afternoon, and the kids never complained.
Sunday we took his family to do some hiking at Hocking Hills State Park, the same place we had spent a weekend in August. Once again, the fall colors were gorgeous and I think we got some great pictures! LOVE LOVE LOVE these first ones of my little nephew!!
Monday morning they had to fly back to Utah, and Monday afternoon was the farewell luncheon for Billy's unit. Despite the emotions of the day, I managed to hold it together when talking to the soldiers (I'm the Family Readiness Group Leader for the Ohio detachments). A local VFW has adopted our unit and they hosted the luncheon. It went really well, and thanks to those of you who were able to send posters to decorate the luncheon room - we had a great response and the soldiers were surprised to see the support covering every wall of the room!!
Tuesday morning at 4:30am, Billy left to head back to Ft. McCoy to complete their mobilization training. The kids and I will head to Wisconsin in a couple weeks to see him one more time before they deploy. We appreciate any prayers as we endure the time apart. It is hardest for Brody who asks me every day if Daddy is coming home, or if we can go to Daddy's work to see him.
We have several great distractions in the coming months, including my parents arrival this evening and my mother in law's return visit in November.
Lastly, here are a few photos from trick-or-treating with the kids. We've learned as we've moved from place to place that trick-or-treating is not automatically done on the 31st! In Iowa, it was done on "Beggar's night", and in Ohio, it is staggered, with different cities choosing different 'official' trick-or-treat nights. We went trick-or-treating Thursday night (29th) with Alexa's friend Maddie and her family. The kids had a blast, but it was hard to photograph moving targets, so I only have a few!
