After looking at the cost of hotel rooms in and around Cincinnati for our larger than normal family, we decided to look in to renting a house. We went through Deborah’s Guesthouses. It was an absolute score! The price was much less than two hotel rooms. We were five minutes from the Creation Museum and the little area we were in was nice, quiet and near a park!
I’ve mentioned before how we decided for Christmas this past year to give the kids an experience rather than a bunch of gifts…because ya’ll, our house is covered in stuff.
Well, the experience included a trip to a home school convention in Cincinnati to hear and hopefully meet our favorite author and singer, Andrew Peterson, a trip to the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. We made our trek in April.
About a month before the trip, we had a family movie night and stumbled upon a cute little movie on Pureflix called Little Ponderosa Zoo. We soon learned that the Little Ponderosa Zoo wasn’t just a movie but an actual place and it happened to be “pretty close” to our route to Cincinnati. Since I needed to get out every two hours, we decided to include this little zoo in our trip.
Ya’ll, it was the best decision. A perfect break during a long road trip and an opportunity to see some pretty neat animals up close and personal…and feed them! It’s a wildlife sanctuary and most of the exotic animals were “pets” before the owners realized they were actually real wild animals.
If you are ever in the middle of Nowhere Tennessee and want to get out of the car and rest for a couple of hours. Little Ponderoas Zoo is THE place to go!
Rabbits! Ready and willing to be loved on.
We walked out of the barn and Emmie saw all the goats. She ran up to them and began proclaiming, “I wuv you! And I wuv you! And I wuv you!” She was in heaven.
Liam and Silas were super excited to feed the ponies.
We fed kangaroos too!
My super excited treat was seeing a little rescued monkey as everyone was leaving. He was very curious about all of us and played peek-a-boo with me, running away from me and then eventually getting a little closer as I continued to talk to him. And then, oh my, then he looked at me and gave the biggest grin. I flipped out. And no one was there to witness it or get it on camera! Most of the monkeys are generally from abusive or neglected situations. This one, was just absolutely adorable!
At the end of March and first of April, I had the great privilege to attend the NF Symposium in Seattle. Not only that, but I also participated in the Children’s Tumor Foundation’s Volunteer Leadership Committee. It was a great experience and, as it turned out, my roomie for the weekend was also newly pregnant. We were able to commiserate together and I succeeded in getting us a little lost too!
We go there Thursday afternoon and were able to do a little touring before the training started the following day.
Of course we visited the Space Needle. This was my second time there and just as neat as the first time.
We also hiked down to Pike Place. This was a vat of fresh cheese. I really wanted it but my pregnancy belly said, “nope…you don’t.”
A scalpie for Facebook. This is an ongoing joke about my parents who are also known as the self-proclaimed “Scalpie Pros.”
I don’t know what I was doing here. Proof positive that I take the corniest pictures.
After walking endlessly, we finally found a place to eat…
We had pizza…and it was so good ya’ll!
The coolest thing was finding Benedict Cumberbatch’s doppleganger on the train. Well, Cumberbatch as Sherlock.
Mark didn’t agree but from a distance, trust me, Random Train Guy looked like him.
Aside from the fun touring, I learned a lot about what exactly Children’s Tumor Foundation is doing and there is so much hope for treatments for Emmie in the future! It is great to be raising funds for an organization who has a passion for research and integrity. I told Mark that after learning all that CTF does to fund research, I am even more encouraged in supporting their efforts to end NF!
Speaking of CTF, join us on our next walk coming up in September OR donate to Team Super Ems’ Sidekicks! https://join.ctf.org/events/-/e129272
Liam had a great chance to strike out with his grandparents, Papa and Grandmere and his cousin buddy (the one closest in age to him). They adventured around Florida, visiting family, and took a couple of tours.
This was March. It was still a little chilly in Florida but it didn’t bother Liam too much. He loves water! And fast water slides.
They got a great tour of the Kennedy Space Center.
They also got to tour the Wycliffe Bible Translators campus. The boys were quite impressed and Zoe was very jealous.
One of their last stops was to visit cousins. These are special cousins to us as they have been praying for us and Emmie and our adoption for so long. So grateful for Facebook to get to know them and then for an opportunity for Liam to visit them and see all of their amazing plane memorabilia!
I know they had a blast and made a lot of memories but all of us were so glad to get our Liam back! As an added bonus, we got to visit with cousin H at our drop off point!
And cousin H tried to take my dog!
A quick and fun trip to the zoo during our Christmas break!
Pet the snakes!
Emmie thinks she is big enough for the front seat.
Our traditional Lion statue picture.
Mark met up with us and we explored the Christmas lights as well.
for free doughnuts…
On October 31st, Krispy Kreme gives a free doughnut to anyone dressed in costume. The kids were game and went to work the day before to find things around their house for their costumes. We have Anna (the mama), Alice in Wonderland, Spiderman and a slew of characters from The Wingfeather Saga book series.
I know these guys are probably not familiar to many people, but to us, well they represent hours of audio books in the van. Since we tend to accrue audible credits, we splurged on a four book series called The Wingfeather Saga written by one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters, Andrew Peterson. The kids hung on every word they heard (and Christmas brought the actual books which have been slowly making their rounds among our readers). The fun part of this picture is that we shared it with Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Facebook page. He, in turn, shared it with his personal performance page and on the Wingfeather Saga blog. My kids had their 15 minutes of fame. Yes, the doughnuts and this bit of fame definitely made their day.
We absolutely love taking trips to the zoo. And that means I love sharing pictures of our adventures at the zoo.
Feeding some super excited lorakeets.
Touch a snake. I love petting snakes! At least a couple of the kids were willing to pet too.
Sky high kids.
Saying hello to da birds.
Trying to catch a glimpse of sea lions.
3…2…1…SLIDE!
Ya’ll, I might actually be caught up before 2018 hits…okay, don’t hold your breath. Here’s the end of August…and our randoms.
Emmie got “Pwincess” pjs from Ge…and we just had to show them off. A.dor.a.ble
Ice cream at Bruster’s is better if you’re in your swimsuit. Just saying. Don’t forget the pink bow.
Having a crown is just as good.
Mr. H goes to church with us and has notarized untold numbers of adoption documents and been rewarded a couple of times with supper on us. Then there was that one day he had enough notarizing like a normal person and decided to do it in style. With a box on his head.
Smudge sensed something was up. Again. And did everything in his power to keep us from packing for our Ukraine/Grandparent trip. He was not happy with any of us.
Cute contemplative cookie eating.
Girls in rollers…it’s a rite of passage in our house.
Just because Zoe is pretty and can do some pretty amazing things with her hair.
Princess Emmie surrounded by lots of knights…traipsing through the fields.
We enjoyed a subscription to Genius Box for the summer (and then three months after because I forgot to cancel it.). Okay, we have four boxes sitting in our school area because I forgot to use them up but they will get used when we are at home with nothing to do. Stop laughing ya’ll.
Malachi’s first grown fruit…watermelon. It was left too long on the ground and split. But at least it was something.
We got home from Josiah’s hospital stay and I walked in to the girls’ room and realized that one of the cats had used the bathroom in it. Which resulted in me cleaning out the entire room and cleaning all the carpets upstairs. Which resulted in rearranging the room. Which resulted in the discovery that Emmie’s crib (bought used) was starting to tear up). Which resulted in Emmie getting to sleep like a big girl…on the mattress…on the floor. Which resulted in Zoe, Ceili Rain and I brainstorming how we could re-decorate their room. Which we did this past December…and are still doing…so you have to wait on pictures of that.
The night after we got home from the hospital. Josiah wanted to crash on the couch. So, we did.
Zoe celebrated Urkainian Independence day in her traditional shirt and with a traditional hairstyle.
My kids are awesome.
And Emmie has shades…Her right eye (which is effected by Horner Syndrome from her first surgery) is very sensitive to light. She finally agreed that wearing glasses was a good idea.
This is pretty much how she spent her August. At the water table, in a diaper. 
Smudge is eating her toe???
We trapped a Emmie.
And a Bryant.
And an Emmie and a Bryant together.
“Small but Mighty” Yes, indeed.
The big news in our ‘hood in August was that Kroger opened up a marketplace with a Starbucks. Um, yes. Grand opening meant a cow was there to pet (some kind of creamery or something). Anyway, my kids enjoyed getting up close and personal with the bovine species. It takes very little to entertain my city kids…okay, me too
After Silas’s court date, we were blessed beyond belief when he was allowed to stay with us during our waiting period. I stayed in country until that Friday and Mark stayed the rest of the time until Silas could come home. Hopefully, eventually, Mark can blog about his time in Ukraine. We were thrilled that they got to be there to celebrate their Independence day and that Papa was able to fly over to spend some time with them and seeing Ukraine!
For now, here are some photos from our adventures while I was there.
We found a great park in Bila Tserkva with a fun ropes course.
Just because he was standing there all handsome.
There was a park near our apartment too. Plenty of space for soccer and basketball…
And climbing!
Cotton candy in Europe is a bit different than the US. It was straight up just sugar. No flavors, no artificial dyes etc. Not our favorite but still edible.
My cooking went up a notch thanks to Google translate making sure I grabbed the right seasoning packets.
The sign in our elevator let’s us know not to use the bathroom in there. Just an FYI.
Silas insisted we grab these tiger hot dogs. Mark said they were terrible and only after he cooked them did he realize the stripes needed to be peeled off.
When I made it to the airport for my journey home, these beautiful art pieces were on display. A photographer had taken classic art and re-shot them with Ukrainian scenes. So much patriotism and pride for the country could be seen in each photograph.
Papa and Grandmere did a great job watching our other babies while we were away and making sure we got to see all of their fun antics.
Ace, Liam, and Josiah worked hard building a retaining wall.
Papa cuddles were good subs for Mama and Daddy hugs.
Ceili Rain did a wonderful job helping with Emmie. Word has it, she was able to get her to sleep for naps.
While visiting, Josiah was able to celebrate his birthday with Papa and Grandmere.
