Our Trip to Ohio: Part 1 of 3

We went on a trip to Ohio in August. It was literally the longest I had ever been away from home so it was definitely a new experience for me. I took plenty of pictures while we were on vacation so I have to separate this trip into 3 posts so it won't be quite so overwhelming!

These first pictures are of Debbie's house and property. Debbie is Aaron's older sister.

This was the view from one of the windows in the room we stayed in.

More of a view from that same window.

The view from the other window in our room!

This was in the driveway. Weird!

Some of Skip's tractors and stuff! Skip is Debbie's husband!

A part of the back yard!

Some of the pool and back yard!

More of the pool and back yard!

Another view of the pool and the deck!

The house, the pool, and the deck! It was a big, nice pool and deck area!

The pool house and the "outhouse" by the pool!

The playhouse, sandbox, and swingsets in the back yard!

Another view of the yard!

The laziest dog I've ever seen...Diesel. He hardly ever moved! He actually spent most of his time laying on a lawn chair so seeing him on the deck was a special occasion!

This was the other side of the house!

Here's a view of the inside of the "outhouse"! Pretty nice "outhouse", huh?!

Skip has lots of "heads" around the house. These pictures are fairly self-explanatory!

He even has African animal heads like this warthog (Pumba)!

The bear as you go up the stairs!

Skip is VERY creative! He hung a strand of lights from one tractor...

...to another! It was nice to have the light!

Sitting around the fire out back!

Now that you've seen the house and property, here's how everything went down! We left for the airport in the morning on the 15th. It was going to be mine and Berkley's first time flying. I'm not gonna lie...I was SO nervous!

Berkley was pretty happy and excited about the whole thing!

Pushing Berkley into the airport in SLC! Notice the condition of the stroller! (More on that later!)

In line for our boarding passes!

Ready to eat some breakfast! Waiting in the terminal!

Mine and Aaron's boarding passes!

Berkley's very first boarding pass!

Getting ready for take-off!

Our first family flight!

Aaron spent some time playing Angry Birds!

I spent some time feeding Berkley!

The view out our window!

When Berkley wasn't tearing apart the skymall magazine or eating, she was SLEEPING! Such a good girl!

We had a 6 hour layover in Denver! It was only supposed to be 3 hours but the replacement plane they sent for our broken plane needed a replacement plane so we made ourselves at home for a few hours! Thankfully they had a decent steakhouse!

Berkley was very well-behaved, especially considering how long the layover was!

Aaron got bored and decided to watch some movies on the laptop!

Aaron feeding Berkley at the airport!

We finally got to board the plane!

This was the view as we flew into Columbus! It was so relieving to finally be getting there.
Unfortunately it was another hour and 45 minutes to Dresden, where Debbie lives.

Berkley finally got to meet Aunt Debbie!

When we went to pick up our luggage and stuff we also had to pick up a loaner stroller and a loaner car seat because they managed to leave ours in Denver. We couldn't figure out how to adjust the handle so Aaron carried Berkley like this for a while. We didn't figure it out until the next day or the day after.

This was the loaner stroller. GHETTO!

Aaron was creative and stacked our luggage in the stroller and put Berkley on top!

Berkley was very worn out on the way to Dresden!

Berkley crashed hard when we finally got to the house. Poor thing!

She woke up in a great mood on the 16th!

While we were shopping at Wal-Mart Berkley fell asleep in Sadie's arms! SO PRECIOUS! Sadie is Debbie and Skip's girl!

Berkley got to meet Ryan (Debbie's youngest boy) and she loved him!

Berkley enjoyed a napkin for dinner! HAHA!!!

Berkley with Tyler (Debbie's oldest boy)!

Sadie, Nicole, Me, Aaron, and Berkley in the pool! We had a blast swimming!

All ready to go to Amish Country on the 17th!

Playing with daddy!

Funny faces!

Sadie with a mouthful of food!

Berkley loved falling asleep with her daddy's hand in hers! She loved spending so much time with him too!

An Amish man walking down the street!

It was weird to see so many horse-drawn carriages as we traveled!

An Amish home. They have a small building for phones that a few families share as needed. You can see their laundry hanging to dry. I learned that they are allowed to ride in vehicles if they aren't the drivers. It's a very interesting culture!

Amish farmers working in the field!

These are Amish haystacks. They are weird looking!

We were driving behind these boys who were hauling a big piece of equipment on this trailer pulled by horses. They were super SLOW!

This was the Amish store where we bought yummy doughnuts and other pastries! My favorite was the strawberry-rhubarb fry pie! SO GOOD! We also got Berkley's toy here! Their stores close at 5 PM. I figured that it's because they don't like to use electricity.

The Amish make some amazing food! We also bought pumpkin butter and a loaf of cinnamon bread...YUM!

We bought 1.5 lbs of fudge! It was so yummy! We got orange chocolate, Snickers, Heath, Butterfinger, chocolate chip cookie dough, and pralines and caramel!

Yummy cheese from Heini's cheese factory! They have probably at least 30 different flavors to sample! My least favorite was the smoked horse radish. Aaron didn't like the goat cheese! Even though some flavors were nasty, it was fun to taste so many kinds of cheese!

Berkley's souvenir from Amish Country!

Berkley loved her cute little cow who says "MOO!"

You would never believe where this was.

Yes, it's parking for horses and carriages...at Wal-Mart! Good old Amish Country!

I was pretty swollen by the end of our drive through Amish Country!

I didn't get any pictures of them but the trees along the roads in Ohio are covered in smething that looks like a giant spider web ball. Bag worms attack the trees and kill the branches. Its really interesting looking! When we got back to the house we had gravy burgers! They are a new favorite of mine. In fact, I was craving them at 4:30 AM 2 nights ago!

"Yummy Oreo!"...Yes, this mess is from just ONE Oreo! That's my girl!

Uncle Skip sure does know how to get Berkley to LOVE him!

At the end of the day Berkley was more than ready for bed!