and so begins our vacation!!

 Friday night Kent got off work and he's off for nine straight days!!  Well- besides the one night shift he's covering for another resident who had a family emergency (grr! during our vacation!!  at least he's just gone while I'm sleeping! and I'm happy he was willing to help).

Early Saturday morning I went to a giant kid consignment sale with a friend and got lots of fabulous stuff for my rugrats.  And then I came home to a completely clean house.  I always feel guilty when Kent cleans.  Probably because it happens so darn often- even after he works crazy long hours. He knows I abhor cleaning- and he's just an all around perfect husband.

After a long morning of Kent cleaning and me shopping- we took off for a little adventure. It was the most amazing fall day.  Not hot. Not cold. Just perfect.  It even just smelled 'autumny'.  we ventured out to the Little Miami river to go canoeing!!  It was so much fun.

We packed our little family into one canoe and shoved off.  The trip was just under two hours- perfect for us.  I was really impressed that the kiddos didn't even once ask to get out or go home or be done! I was a little nervous about being stuck in a canoe on the river with screaming rugrats

  I didn't take my nice camera (for obvious reasons) but did take cell pictures and some with our point and shoot.  Most of our pics turned out pretty decent considering that when we turned on our point and shoot - we found the screen shattered and nonworking.  It still takes pictures- we just can't see what they look like.  Why don't digital cameras come with view finders!?

The canoe place piled us onto a bus and dropped us off up river somewhere.  Then we got in and paddled our way back.  Our boys paddled almost the entire way!  It was pretty impressive.  They loved it.

 We got out in a few spots to throw rocks, look at turtles, and just play around in the water.

Zeb loved that he got wear river shoes just like mine! I found him a pair of kid 'keens' at a yard sale for a dollar!  I love my keens- if you don't have a pair- you should!







Just as we got out of the canoe to head home- Ike walked right up to Kent and said: "I had so much fun, Dad!"  Here's his 'thumbs up'.  The exact same way Zeb used to do it!

After our canoe trip- we got a sitter and went out to dinner with friends. I'm a pretty boring eater and really just prefer basic American food. I decided I'd be a little adventurous and agreed to go to a famous restaurant here in Dayton called Thai9.  Kent had previously been- and loved it.

Not only did I eat some crazy thai dish (delicious cashew nut chicken of some sort) I actually tasted Sashimi.  Is that what it's called?  Our friends got a plate full of raw fish.  It looked terrible.  I can't believe people pay money for raw fish!!!  more than anything I can't believe that I agreed to taste it.   I took a teeny little chunk of something reddish (tuna? salmon? not sure.) and chewed it up as fast as I good.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd anticipated- but I honestly didn't like it at all. I felt like I'd bitten of a piece of my cheek flesh and was chewing on it.  Maybe my tastes will mature some day and I'll appreciate 'fine foods'.   I am getting better with fish in general- but things like sushi still terrify me. Is there a good 'calm' type of sushi to start with if I'm trying to learn to like it?

We'd be happy to take any visitors to Thai9- we just won't be getting raw fish.