Martin Visit Part 2: Amish Country

Ryan was off on Monday as well so we decided to head to Amish Country.  One of my good friends gave us a bunch of recommendations and told us where we should go and what we should see.  We followed that exactly and felt like we got the whole experience!  We started the day by going to a cool store called Lehman's.  It's hard to describe what kind of a store this is.  They have everything from crazy soda flavors (see picture below), to furniture, to toys, to pottery, etc.  We then went to a restaurant called the Amish Door for lunch.  After that, we went to Heini's, which is a cheese place.  They have every kind of cheese you could imagine and Ryan left with some kind of funky cream cheese fudge.  We finished off with Hershberger farms where they apparently sell the best fried pies around, which we unfortunately missed out on since they were sold out by the time we got there.  We then went on a wild goose chase for amish fried pies and ended back up at the Amish Door restaurant's bakery where we bought so many fried pies I can't even count.  It was a fun day and I'm glad I finally got to experience Amish country.

 One of the many horse and buggies that were all around.

This is Big Ben.  The biggest horse in the county according to the sign.  I don't think this picture really shows just how huge this horse was.  Lucy loved him!

 ... until the horse reciprocated and then she got a little nervous about Big Ben.

 This was the cutest little Amish boy ever.  He had the cutest little face and was walking all around taking care of the animals and just picking up these mini goats, walking the mini horses... serious cuteness.  I wish I had a better picture of him.

Not pictured: approximately 15 fried pies. ;)

Martin visit part 1: Cincinnati

Ryan's parents came to visit for 10 days and it was so much fun to have them here!  It was nice to have company around so it wasn't so boring and Ryan got a lot of work off, too.  Lucy certainly loved the constant attention as well. :)  They got here late on Wednesday, June 5th, which happened to be Janae's birthday.  Friday was Ryan's first full day off of work and we went down to Cincinnati.  We started the trip by going to lunch at a place called Tom & Chee.  They specialize in fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, with their signature one being a glazed donut grilled cheese.  Ryan and I saw this place on Shark Tank and when we heard it was in Cincy, we knew we had to try it out.  It lived up to the hype.  Sooo good!  After that, we went to Jungle Jim's, which is a huge international food market.  They have regular grocery stuff but then they also have different sections of the world all over.  We hit up everyone's mission aisles (Brazil, Ireland, Portugal, Hungary, Africa, etc.) and bought a few things to try.  They also had a huge cheese section, produce section, candy section, and others.  I even found a big box of one of my favorite candies- tropical dots.  It was so fun walking through this store and we spent about 2 hours there, which was way longer than we expected but turned out to be the perfect amount of time.  After Jungle Jim's, we headed back to downtown to go eat dinner at another Cincinnati staple, Skyline Chili, and then head over to the Red's baseball game.  It was perfect weather that evening, Lucy did so well on this whole trip, and we had so much fun exploring new places.

 All of our different grilled cheeses.  I can't even remember now what they all were, besides delicious.

 Ryan checking out the grilled cheese glazed donut.  It was so good that we ended up making some of these ourselves at home later.  I shouldn't admit that.  

I just now realized that all 4 of us adults (including Ryan not in this picture) were wearing blue a blue and white striped shirt of some sort this day.  We got the memo.

 Cincinnati streets were cute and quaint and filled with trees, brick walkways, and old fashioned looking signs. Loved it.

 We actually had to drive into Kentucky and then back into Ohio to get to Jungle Jim's.

 Ryan got a cheese bread kit (like the kind you eat at Tucano's) and some drinks/juices from Brazil.  He loved them.

 Mark served a mission in Ireland so we made sure to swing by there as well.

 The store had huge decorations hanging up all over the place, which Lucy loved.  The plane behind her and Ryan in this picture was one of them.  Love her face in this one. :)

They had a whole huge room filled with aisles of different hot sauces.  We took this picture for Marc Rasmussen because he likes hot sauces... at least I think.  If I remember correctly.

 Lucy saw a few of these M&M guys around the candy castle section and with each new one she found, she gasped and ran over and gave them big hugs.

This bathroom pic is probably one of those "you had to be there" moments, but for my and Janae's sake, I'm telling the story because it still makes me laugh.  At the end of our trip Janae and I had to use the bathroom.  When we found them, we were kind of surprised that they were just port-a-potties and debated about actually using one.  Ryan told us just to walk in and that it was fine because he saw them earlier and they were normal.  However, we didn't quite get that he meant normal as in a normal bathroom and not a port-a-potty.  We then saw a woman go into the ladies one, so we stood back and waited while a guy tried to convince us that we both should go in.  We were thinking that wasn't possible because someone just went in to use it.  Finally, something clicked and we figured out that it really was just a normal bathroom with this door as an entrance.  When you walked in, there was a big room with all of the toilet stalls and sinks, etc.  haha.  We had a good laugh over that one.

Dinner at Skyline.  At this point, we were just eating because it was dinnertime, not because we were hungry.  I'd definitely recommend the vegetarian chili over the regular.

 Lucy was really good this whole day trip and had a little entertainment help from Grandma's iphone later in the evening.

Piggies, french and painted

This morning we had some girlie time painting Lucy's toenails for the first time.  She saw me touching up mine and wanted hers done too.  Then I decided we needed some good ways to pull her hair back during the summer heat, since it's still a little too short on top/front for a full-on ponytail.  So, we did some french braid pigtails to help with that and I think she looks pretty cute/old!

Blurry, blurry, blurry.  Can't stand still. :)

 Showing me her painted toenails.

Oh, hello there!

Still examining her toes. :)

Crazy Coupe

We got Lucy one of those Cozy Coupe cars a little while ago because she wanted to go outside so bad but it was too bad of weather, so we thought we'd bring the fun inside until we could go outside.  The funny thing is Ryan kept messing up the name of it and calling it a Crazy Coupe.  In all honesty, when I push her in it, it's definitely cozy, but when Ryan pushes her in it, it transforms into crazy.  Lucy has gone up and down all of our stairs multiple times in that coupe.

Anyway, we had some time to spare after dinner tonight and took her car outside for the first time tonight.  Ryan figured out that if you took her to the top of the driveway and let the car go, it would roll down on its own.  Then we would push her car really hard back up the driveway and do it all over again. This girl did not stop cracking up the whole time!!  She was having such a blast!

Crazy faces in the crazy coupe!

Blurry picture, I know, but pure joy on her face.

I love Lucy's laughing at the end of the ride along with her "yeah" and lip licking in response to if she had fun. :)

Again, I love her laughing.  There is some serious crazy coupe-ing going on here.

Fort

Lucy has been waking up super early lately and so on Sunday morning, Ryan got up at 6 with her and let me sleep in.  It was glorious.  When I finally came downstairs a few hours later, Ryan and Lucy were in this awesome fort that they made.  They read books, played with Lucy's toys and stuffed animals, and went in and out of secret "doors."  Lucy couldn't wait to show me it when I came down.  Doesn't get much better than that, huh?  Dad is way more fun in the early morning- I guess he'll have to be the one to get up early with her every weekend morning. :)

The Crazy Coupe photo bombed this picture. ha.

18 months

We went to Lucy's 18 month appointment last week and I can't remember her exact numbers, but I have the percentages.  So here they are: Height: 90th percentile, Weight: 20th percentile (23.5ish).  Lucy is growing and developing so much that I don't think I can possibly remember even half of what's going on right now, but here's my best at capturing these last few months.

• Communication is definitely developing like crazy.  She says lot's of basics (yeah, hi, mama, dada) and a lot of random ones too (examples: drink, book, truck, etc.... she likes her "k" sounds).
• Lucy is totally addicted to her pacifier, which for some reason she calls her "baba."  By addicted, I mean it's all she talks about and begs for every 2 seconds if she doesn't have it.  We've drastically improved over the last few days with this though.
• She eats like crazy... like a teenage boy!!  For example, one morning for breakfast she ate two eggs, a bowl of applesauce, a handful of grapes, a piece of toast, and a string cheese and was begging for food an hour later.  She's not too picky, either, which is nice.  Drinking is another story though.  She doesn't like milk, is not a huge fan of juice, and will drink water sporadically as long as I'm constantly offering it to her all day.
• Lucy has not even made it two whole weeks since December without getting sick.  I really hope that changes now.
• She'll never ever turn down the chance to go outside.  She loves bikes and anything she can ride on... which means I'm usually bent over pushing her. :)  She could also swing/go down the slide for hours.
• Still afraid of going to other people and/or having us leave the room.
• Gives lot's of kisses.  We always say prayers with her before bed and afterwards she gives each of us a kiss, but lately she thinks she's hilarious by giving Ryan a kiss, then me, then back to Ryan, then back to me... funny girl.  We all end up laughing.
• Pats her bottom when she is about to have a dirty diaper.  Thanks for the warning. ;)
• Loves to dance, stomp her foot, spin in circles, and attempt to jump.
• She was sleeping awesome when not sick (12-12.5 hours every night, and two long naps during the day.  Heaven.), but lately she has not needed as much sleep and has been waking up way early and not taking as long of naps.  I can't complain about that though as long as she wakes up content and well-rested (but when she's not, it's frustrating).
• Always folds her arms for prayers.  The funny thing is that she kind of knows when to do it at church too, which is usually after the song when it gets quiet, but sometimes she'll do it after the rest hymn or something and wonder why we're not praying.
• Still has reflux and it makes her very fussy.  I could scream.

That's all I can remember for now.  I don't have any pictures for just 18 months, and though I may add some later, I think I have plenty of other pictures of Lucy on the blog.

Kiss!

I was outside taking some pics of Lucy a few weeks ago and told her to come by me so I could take a picture of the two of us.  Without telling her to, she just turned and gave me a little kiss on the cheek right when I took the picture!  Not my best picture ever (it's hard to take a selfie with a dslr), but I loved the candid moment and wanted to remember it.  Love that sweet girl!