Road Trip--Stop #1: Ohio

I can't believe it's already the middle of August--this summer has flown by! But I'm finally posting all the great pictures and stories from our month-long road trip....

Stop #1 was Ohio for my dad's family reunion. We spent a lot of the time cleaning out my grandma's house, getting it ready to put on the market. It was hard being there and not having Grandma there--she would have been so happy to have all of us there together.

Lara, Rob, Cathy and Adam:
Mom and Linda:
Pierre Bear is part of the family (and has been every since I've been around) and Lennon took a quick liking to him:
Grandpa and Lennon:
We did a mini 1st birthday party for Emery while we were there, since we weren't able to make it to Philly to celebrate his big day. Emery wasn't too thrilled about the cake, but I'm sure Lennon ate enough of the cake for both of them.
Lennon still wasn't thrilled to be in Emery's presence, much to Emery's confusion. Lennon would be as happy as could be, and then when Emery would enter the room it all went downhill.

It's amazing to see the personality difference between the two boys. Emery is one of the happiest babies and he loves to be around people. Lennon, we realized, needs his alone time. At the reunion when he was really cranky, I put him on the floor with some toys and everyone left him alone--he was happy as could be for about an hour. After that, he was much more willing to be around people.

However, there were glimpses that someday the boys will be the best of friends!
It was a mandatory bath for Lennon when the toilet lid was left up and he decided that would be a fun place to play--no picture of that scene, as I went into clean-up mode when I discovered him!
Lennon loves music:
Aunt Leah got several good cuddle moments with Lennon. Here, Lennon nuzzled into Leah so much that, at first, we guessed Lennon thought Leah was me, but he saw me sitting right there, and continued to love on his aunt!
Emery, at Keri's softball game. Emery actually allowed Leah to watch the game, whereas Lennon just wanted to walk up and down the bleachers.

Stop #2: New York

We spent a few days in Canandaigua at a cabin near the lake. Lennon had fun in the lake (as he does with all water)!
While we were in Canandaigua, we stopped to see Adam's aunt and uncle, Jan and Mike, and got to see Adam's cousin, Taryn's little girl, Chloe. They are about 7 or 8 months apart, and Lennon played really well with her--plus, she's the cutest thing!
After Canandaigua, we headed on to Albany. On our way there, we stopped in Cooperstown to visit the Ommegang brewery and the Baseball Hall of Fame.
With Papa:
With Great Grandma:
Lennon loves the puzzles Grandma and Papa gave to him.
Brenda brought over the pool for Lennon and they had a great time playing together.

Traveling...

Lennon did really well with all the moving around and sleeping in different places. Of course, just like at home, he always ended up in bed with us half way through the night.

Lennon has always traveled really well in the car, but we didn't know how he would do with being contained for hours on end. However, we were amazed at how great he was. The first and last legs of each day, Lennon usually took a nap, so whoever wasn't driving was able to sit up front. The rest of the time, one of us would sit in the back and keep him entertained. We would make stops about every 3 hours and would let him get out and run around. And surprisingly, we didn't have one tantrum when we had to get him back in his carseat!
Our big drama was on our way to Wisconsin. We stopped in Cleveland over night between New York and Wisconsin. My parents were coming home from visiting Leah, Drew and Emery in Philly, so we met up at the hotel to caravan the rest of the way to Wisconsin the next day.

Here's a picture of our much-loved Subaru as it passed over 200,000 miles. It was a very exciting event for us, however that excitement was soon crushed...
Right after we had all stopped for lunch, about an hour outside of Chicago (3 hours away from my parents' house) our poor car started making a horrendous sound--we both looked at each other then looked at the dash where the Check Engine flashed on. We immediately pulled over and my parents followed.

I think both Adam and I knew that it was the end of our car. We called for a tow and while we were waiting we switched the car seat and a few other things to my parent's car. My mom, Lennon and I then set off towards Chicago so that we could beat rush hour.

My dad and Adam waited for the tow and then heard the bad news from the mechanic that our engine was fried and that it would cost at least $3,000 to fix. Obviously the car wasn't worth that, so they started clearing out all of the belongings (and we had a lot of stuff packed in our Outback for our month-long trip) and putting them into a rental car to head to Lake Geneva.

We had to rent a car to get back to Colorado. We are now a one-car family, which will test our family as Adam has started school again. We are hoping to be able to afford a car by the end of this year.

It sounds silly, but there are moments when I grieve the loss of our Subaru--I think it fully hit me when we were dropping off our rental car once we were back home. With all of the stress of our broken car on the side of the interstate, I didn't get to take a picture of it or say goodbye. I really loved that car and Denver is saturated with Subaru's, so I get constant reminders that we don't have it anymore. Needless to say, there's a good chance we will buy another one!

Wisconsin: Last Stop

We always have a great time in Wisconsin--it's usually busy with seeing family and friends.

Lennon and Nathan in a very small pool--poor Nathan barely fit:
Lennon loves to play in the rain:
Kisses goodbye:
With Great Grandma:Lennon thought the walker was a great toy!

Playing with Grandpa--his Grandpa is one of his favorite people. I think both of them went through withdrawal after we left. The first week we were home from our trip, he went through the house calling out "Pa"

Lennon's Baptism

We had Lennon's baptism in Lake Geneva, in the church that I grew up in. I was anticipating that Lennon would start crying when Pastor Keith took him. However, Lennon had fallen asleep about 15 minutes before the baptism and he slowly woke up with each drip of water.

We really enjoyed having family and friends there to celebrate with us, and Lennon seemed to enjoy being the center of attention for awhile!

Getting ready for church with Grandpa:
Here's a short clip of the baptism--you can't really hear much, but your can see Lennon's reaction:


Grandma and Grandpa:Aunt Diane and Mom:
We finally had a break from the heat and humidity, so being outside was really enjoyable.
Lennon and Jenny: