Heading back west...

We're packing up the car and trucking off to the western end of the state this weekend for a friend's wedding. Schedule is already filling up (we're coming in late Friday night and leaving Monday.) We'll have pictures of the trip once we get home.

More Kings Island!

I swear, we should live there. We're honestly thinking about getting season passes for next year, we've been so many times.

Mom and Lee came up for a few days, so we decided to go Saturday and do both Howl-o-Fest and Halloween Haunt.

This necessitated getting Eliza a Halloween costume early, so we officially scrapped the Super Martian Robot Girl costume in favor of a duck ballerina outfit that is so adorable, it just might break your computer.

Once we got to the park, Janie, Lee and I got in what will be our last ride on Scooby Doo before Cedar Fair rebrands the entire kid section to Planet Snoopy. As is to be expected, I smoked both of them at the shooting game, because I have killer Duck Hunt skills.

After that, Janie and Mom took Eliza off for some kid stuff while Lee and I got in line for Diamondback, which is the seventh-fastest coaster in North America.

That fact, incidentally, was one that I didn't share with Lee until about halfway up the lift hill.

After a nice ride on Diamondback, we somehow convinced Mom to actually get on a coaster, which meant that Janie stayed with Eliza while the rest of us piled onto the artist formerly known as The Italian Job. Mom did surprisingly well, especially for someone with severe motion sickness and a bad back.

After a little walking around and some bumper cars, Janie tended to a now-fussy Eliza while we climbed on the red side of Racer (the blue side was closed.) As I love to do on wooden coasters, I made us go for the very back, and I've now done a 100 percent hands-up ride on both sides of Racer.

Mom swore off any more coasters for the rest of the night, and we decided to grab dinner at what is normally one of the best deals in the park, the Coney Mall Subway.

This time, however, the Subway was apparently staffed by people with no clue, as they asked Janie if she wanted a footlong sub even though you can't actually order one (we had to pay for two 6-inch subs at $6 a piece, which kills the good deal.)

After we ate, Lee and I tried to grab a quick ride on Invertigo, but we ended up in line for close to an hour. Very foggy from a combination of the fog machines that looked like they were spraying for mosquitoes and actual fog.

Then came what was something of a mistake, even though it was something we wanted to do: BEAST.

Riding The Beast at night is an amazing experience. Riding it, as I got to on our last trip, with the brakes pretty much off, is even more amazing, but it was still good Saturday. There's just something about tearing off into the helix in the dark that's thrilling.

What wasn't amazing, though, was the wait. The line was actually backed up to the arcade before you go up the hill to Beast Canyon, and when we finally got to Beast Canyon, the ride clock said 45 minutes. Oh, how wrong it was.

Lee and I managed to wind up onto the ramp to the ride building when the announcement came that The Beast was closing for fireworks. Janie then called to let us know that a park employee told her it was down 30 minutes because of the fireworks.

It ended up being an almost 2.5 hour wait, and by that time Eliza and Janie were freezing to death, so Lee and I hiked back to the front gate to head home.

Despite the wait on Beast (literally the longest ride wait of my life), it was still the best KI trip we've made yet, and we're already thinking about 2010.

Mother's Day at the Cincinnati Zoo

Yesterday morning, at the very last minute, I decided I'd like to spend Mother's Day at the Zoo. Since I was told I could do anything I wanted, Brian couldn't say no. We jumped in the car and headed up I-75 to Cincinnati. It's really not a bad drive at all. Eliza was extremely fussy on the way up, but one emergency diaper change later, we arrived in Cincinnati. Just as we were driving in, we learned that the Reds were playing the Cardinals. We almost ducked out on the zoo plan and went to the baseball game instead. Sadly, the game was 10 minutes in and I've heard parking for Great American is a challenge.

When we arrived at the zoo, we found out that Moms and babies get in free! Yay! Sadly, we also learned that this particular zoo is not at all stroller-friendly. In fact, the Rhino exhibit is down several flights of stairs. There are also several exhibit buildings (including the noturnal animal house) that do not allow strollers at all. We honestly didn't see much. At the exhibits that didn't allow strollers, I sent Brian in to take pictures for us. Eliza was below viewing level most of the day, so the only animal she really saw was the tail end of the Great North American Sweaty Redneck Guy.

We still had fun walking around and we did see some cool giraffes and a very hungry cheetah. Here are some of the better pictures Brian took. I was extremely disappointed that the Polar Bears weren't enjoying an ice cold Coca-Cola. I guess they only drink Coke in an arctic environment.

Lexington or Bust!

We took the baby back to the motherland this weekend. Cheryl and Aunt Margie were thrilled to be the first to get to keep the baby while Brian and myself went to the opening of The Dame.

Brian enjoying the show


How was The new Dame? Same As It Ever Was


We had a great time and I managed to only call about Eliza three times while we were out.

Saturday we went to Lawrenceburg to visit with Brian's former co-workers Mary and Laura and Laura's son Lance. I forgot to get a picture of Lance, but he has the coolest big blue eyes in the universe. We also saw Mary's amazing and newly renovated pad (you can click the Bud and Mary link on the side of the blog to see it yourself). After that, we went back to Margie's to take a nap and my brother Jimmy showed up unexpectedly. He invited us out to watch some football. We decided to hang at Spuds and watch UK fall just short in their bid to knock out the #2 team in the nation.

Brothers Greg and Jimmy watch the game




Sunday we went to have lunch with my Mom, Lee, Tracy and her family and Susan and Debbie. We had some chili and then headed home.

Susan and Eliza


Eliza with her cousin Scott


Eliza and Grammy


Susan and Brooke


Eliza being a ham (notice Lee's Ninja Turtle shirt)



Now we're home and it's nice to be home, but I'm always homesick when we get back. I'm glad Eliza got to meet the rest of her family and Brian got to see his favorite live band. I'm glad I got to visit home for the weekend. I really needed the escape.

Road trip!

That's right, after five weeks of staying close to home, we're ready to take the Eliza Jane Smith Show out on the road for a limited engagement in Lexington and Louisville.

Tomorrow afternoon, we're leaving for Lexington, where Eliza will get some quality time with Aunt Cheryl on Friday night while Janie and I get to act like adults for a night and visit The Dame to see Same As It Ever Was.

Saturday, we're taking her to Lawrenceburg to meet Mary and Laura and Lance, then it's back to Lexington to see Heather and Sally. We'll probably try to let Savannah, Bransen and Greg meet her too, if they want.

Sunday, we're making the trip to Louisville so Eliza can see Betty, Tracy, David and their kids and Lee before we come home.

This ought to be an interesting weekend.