Summer 2011

We're all moved in!  But still had boxes everywhere!  We had two weeks to unpack before Bill started his job so we tried to work fast but we weren't fast enough.  (11 months later we JUST unpacked the last of our wardrobe boxes but to be fair, we were waiting for our master closet to be built - another blog on that later.)  I actually struggled when we first moved because being in Ohio, 2 hours from home hit me like a ton of bricks.  You could almost say that it paralyzed me into inaction.  Before my mom's first stroke she was looking at all of the houses online that were available in Cleveland and jotting down her notes while promising to help us unpack and make the house homey (especially the laundry area which was likely going to be in a 1920s CREEPY basement!  We dodged that one!).  We also had big plans to go to the zoo, Cedar Point, etc, basically everything now that I'd be only 2 hours away.   Well, as we all know, God had other plans and I cried myself to sleep every single night for the first 4 months we were here.  But!  This is to be a happy blog and I eventually snapped out of it.
 

Our neighbors are fantastic!  There are tons of kids on the street - many Audrey's age.  Apparently, our street requests the most block party permits every year (they block off the street so the city has to be made aware).  At least once a month in the summer there is a formal block party plus many impromptu ones.  At the end of the summer there's a day long party complete with a bounce house, DJ, breakfast, lunch, dinner, fire pit, parade, fire truck drive by.....I'm sure I'm forgetting something.  Oh, and there's a clam bake each Fall.  Did I say I love my neighbors?  I do.  Just yesterday (May 2012) our next door neighbors had a playdate for Audrey's age group.  7 kids, 10 parents and tons of grilled food.  It was great.

There is an elementary school at the end of our street with two different, really nice playgrounds.  Audrey loves the slides (there are 7!) so we can often be found there with a million other kids on nice afternoons.  Better yet, a little over a mile away is a POOL!  It's huge and comes with a really big kiddie pool, little lazy river and water play area.  Audrey loves it!

Here are some pics from our first few months here.

 After a bath!

 Audrey's bike was decked out for the parade during the day long block party.

 Lounging at the pool.

 For Father's Day, we went to visit my dad and Audrey had a blast at the neighborhood park.