Cuyahoga Valley National Park

We LOVE National Parks and when I realized there was one only a few hours from where I grew up, I was kind of embarrassed that I hadn't been. When I started researching it, I found that it received that designation in 2000, so not too long before I moved away. Okay, then I didn't feel SO bad. There are no RV campgrounds there, so that was another reason it's taken so long to visit, because we did try two years ago.

So finally we made it to the park and because it is quite large and spread out, 

we just picked one area to explore, the Ledges. It was a fantastic selection!

The trail takes you thru all these amazing rock formations, caves and slots. 

The kids loved this section which dropped them about 8ft under us. They climbed thru it over and over again.

Look for Asher's red jacket below to appreciate the scale of this place!

This area is known as the Ledges Overlook and is a popular location to watch the sunset.

We were pleasantly surprised by this park, just wish we came a week earlier to see the leaves still on the trees. Next time we'll probably stay at a motel in the area so that we can explore more of the park.

Ohio Bird Sanctuary

Here's another place I had never heard of when I lived in Ohio, but I now love, the Ohio Bird Sanctuary in Mansfield. It's a rehabilitation facility for birds that also provides education about conservation to the public. My Aunt Jaci spent the day with us hiking the trails and admiring the birds.

There are opportunities along the trails for kids to learn about birds, the dangers they face and conservation.

Rescued birds that can not be released back into the wild are kept in enclosures at the sanctuary, some becoming animal ambassadors that are used to educate the public. Seeing different kinds of owls, eagles and hawks up close was exciting for all of us. A sweet, little chicken named Dolly lives here and will RUN to you when you call her so you can pet her. We were all laughing so hard at how quickly she responded to us.

But our favorite part was walking thru the songbird aviary where a variety of birds live and a quarter buys you a cup of food to feed them. The bluejays are not shy and will land on you!

This one grabbed Asher's cup right out of his hand!

The Sanctuary holds classes for kids and other events thru out the year. 

It's definitely a place we will return to again and again!

Autumn in Central Ohio

It's been a year since the kids have seen their cousins, so we thought it would be fun to spend 

our first weekend together camping at Wolfie's Campground for their Halloween party. 

Our first ever Cousin Campout!

They organized a potluck, an outdoor movie, campfire with hot dogs and s'mores, 

costume contest and trick or treating. We had such a fun time together!

At Grandpa's house, Grandma raked a huge pile of leaves for the kids to play in. 

Now that I'm into birding, I was looking for hotspots nearby and found this great, little trail system in Westerville called Boyer Nature Preserve. I also enjoyed exploring Mud Hen Marsh near Hoover Reservoir.

My brother hosts an annual Halloween party complete with a scavenger hunt, costume contest and games for the kids. It's fun to see everyone in costumes there.

Carving pumpkins!

Trick or treating at their cousins' house.

Taking a walk with Meemaw at Woodside Green Park.

We were blessed to spend lots of time with our friends Chrissy, Shaun and Wade in their gorgeous, new, built-with-their-own-hands home! Asher and Journey attended their first tykwando class with Wade and loved it. They also fell in love with their kittens and Asher says he's going to get a kitten when he's an adult.

The kids helped out with construction at Grandpa's barn. Here they're caulking the floor seams.

The Columbus Zoo offered free entrance to military on Veteran's Day, so of course we spent the day there. This zoo is one of the largest in the country and is always changing. This time the Australia's Nocturnal Building was new to us and we really loved seeing the tree kangaroo, kiwis and our first wombat! 

I spent quite awhile admiring the birds in the Australia aviary. I was particularly smitten by the golden pheasant.

We spent a weekend with our family, Susan and Ned, at their house in the woods.

The kids were excited to see how Ned cooked the chicken on a rotisserie for our dinner with Marty and Lynn.

We did a fun Christmas gift exchange where we all sat around the table and drew names to find out who we were "buying" for. We had an unlimited, imaginary budget and went thru a stack of magazines, cutting out our gifts to each other. It was a super fun activity where we all learned more about each other! I think it's something we should do every year.