What's Round on the Ends and High in the Middle?

OHIO!!!

That's a song. My mom taught it to me. She's from Ohio, so she knows all the "state-triotic" songs. (I totally just made up the word "state-triotic." Yay.)

Well, what a vacation we had! It was extra wonderful, because in addition to our regular cast of fabulous characters, there were also a few special guest stars. Here's a brief* recap of the trip.

*Far from brief.

The morning after Tim and Weston and I flew to PA, my mom and I left on a 12-hour roadtrip to Cincinnati to visit my uncle and cousins, while Tim kept Weston and stayed with his family in PA. I was SO EXCITED to see my awesome cousins again!!! I sure love those girls. Even though they're younger than me, and even though we only saw each other twice a year when we were kids, I still feel like we grew up together.

So, after spending some quality time with everyone, one of the first things that I did was hop in the car with my cousin Tricia to see my cousin Sarah's riding lesson. Here is Tricia with beautiful Whimsy (Sarah's horse):

And here is Sarah with her "Squirt":
We walked out to the field:

And took lots of pictures:

Then Sarah's trainer got underway with the tough stuff. Sarah regularly participates in competitions, such as dressage and hunter-jumper (her specialty). When she originally bought Whimsy, he didn't jump AT ALL. Now he's a total champ:

Woohoo!!! Sarah is AMAZING. She said that she falls off sometimes, but it's hard to believe after watching that great lesson. The two of them moved together seamlessly, as if they were attached. That, I imagine, is the mark of a skilled rider.

After the lesson, Whimsy enjoyed a much-deserved cool hose-down:

Although that day started out really well, my mom and I caught some sort of bug and spent the rest of the afternoon throwing up (and looking extremely attractive doing so). Fortunately, it came and went quickly, and I was able to keep my plans to meet up the next day in Indianapolis with one of my favorite people ever, Liz. YAAAAAAAY!!!! I met Liz back in Wymount, and it's been THREE YEARS since I've seen her, which is WAY too long, since no one should have to go even two weeks without seeing Liz. Needless to say, we were very excited to get together. (I must say, I love seeing long-lost BFFs again!!)

Naturally, because I am Jean and she is Liz, we met at a cupcake shop called The Flying Cupcake Bakery, one of Indy's finest. (After trying their famous red velvet, this cupcake conoisseuse determined that the Midwest can certainly hold its own with Southern California when it comes to cupcake scrumptiousness.)

Here is the Flying Cupcake Bakery's red velvet, which we both ordered:

And here is Liz, mirroring what I just did (hahaha... what can I say, we're bloggers!):

Liz will certainly kill me for posting this picture... but I just can't resist:

Anywho, after our initial gabfest/cupcake devouring/embarrassing photo-taking, we decided to explore downtown Indianapolis. We parked and then wandered over to this awesome, giant, monument thingie:

And of course took pictures of it:

Then we wandered around a whole bunch more, eventually discovered a seeeeecret mall!, explored H&M, and then took some more pictures (how cute are we):

We lunched at Au Bon Pain (soup in a bread bowl yuuuummmm), and took more pictures:

We wandered some more (becoming very acquainted with downtown "Indy"), and the longer we hung out, the goofier our pictures became (here, Liz is being extremely fringey):

I decided to be fringey too, and here I am attempting to open a (very cool-looking) locked door:

Hahaha! So, I had SUCH a great time with Liz. I still can't believe I actually saw her, because I've been wanting to get together with her again for so long. We got to hang out for four and a half hours, WITHOUT children, and we didn't stop chatting the entire time (I mean, three years is a long time to fit into 4.5 hours!). Liz is so, SO easy to talk to, and SO funny (especially when in the company of birds), and I love that we have so much in common, too. Two of the most obvious things that we have in common? (1) We are both very weird (it's why we're friends), and (2) we are both minimally vain (it's why we both left our get-together with a new collection of very embarrassing photos). LIZ!!! I miss you again. Come out here and visit me. And then kindly move in next door and be my neighbor forever. Thanks. :-)

Anyway, back in Cincinnati, I managed to persuade my mom to get Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Yum. (Sure, we enjoyed other favorites like Bob Evans, Cracker Barrel, and Panera, but it was of my Chick-Fil-A meal that I ultimately took a picture, hahaha):

I got another picture of my adorable cousin Tricia (who recently graduated in Social Work and is the total bomb diggity):

The next day, my Uncle Joe (who declared that his photo should NOT appear on the blog, heh heh heh) and I spent some quality time together at Meijer, which is this huge, Midwestern, Super Walmart-type store:

I adore my Uncle Joe, and he's one of my favorite people to chat with, EAT with, and scan for sales with (hence the trip to Meijer... we're definitely both bargain-hunters!!). But eventually, it was time to say goodbye, so my mom and I packed up the Cramermobile and vacated the Red Roof Inn (our regular Cincinnati home-away-from-home). I love Cincinnati. I miss Cincinnati. I want to go back to Cincinnati. (Tricia and Sarah, you still owe me a trip to Trader's World.) :-)

FYI, on the drive back to PA, we passed Big Mama Green. When my brother and I were kids, we drove out to Ohio often, and we referred to this bridge as Big Mama Blue. One time, we discovered that Big Mama Blue had been painted white. So it became Big Mama White. And this time, we discovered that Big Mama White had been painted green. Therefore, say hello to Big Mama Green:

Meanwhile, back in PA...

Tim got to spend a week with Weston, his folks (Gangy and Grandalf), and his siblings (at least the ones who haven't abandoned the homestead for supposedly important things like "college" and "mission" and what not). I made him promise to take lots of pictures in my absence, since (I admit it) I suffered from serious Weston Withdrawal while in Ohio.

Here's Weston on the little play structure in the backyard (which he LOVED):

He and his cousin Killian had many a good time:

Killian is such a freaking cutie:

They even got into high-fiving each other (AHHH so cute!!):

There is also a trampoline at Gangy's house. Weston didn't really get it when he and I visited in June, but this time, he was in love with it:

To be fair, much of the fun that he and Killian enjoyed at Gangy's house was due to Tim's brothers Jeremy and Brett, who are probably the best babysitters in the world because (A) they're energetic and willing, and (B) they're family, so they're free (yay). :-)

One of the very special guest stars of our vacation was Finn, our new nephew (and Killian's new little brother). Look at that precious little squishy face!!! I think Gangy likes him:

In keeping with Lansdale tradition, Tim took Weston to Merrymead multiple times with my dad (Grandpa). Weston LOVES running around and looking at all the animals:

I was so glad to see that Weston became really comfortable with Grandpa during his visit. I love these pictures:

Look at the joy in this precious little face:

And after several days of Lansdale fun for Tim and Weston, I arrived back in town for one final day!!! First on the agenda: meet new nephew! (Check.)

Next on the agenda? See my favorite Lauri!!! Lauri and I have been close our entire lives, so she is definitely one of my PA staples. Fortunately, she still lives close enough to Lansdale that I can usually see her when I come home (YAY!!). She, being totally awesome, drove down to see little ol' me, and we ate hoagies together and then we took pictures. Here's the normal, sweet picture:

And here's the freakish, what-is-wrong-with-them picture:

Lauri also snapped a few of Weston. Yay! She is SO amazingly talented; seriously, Lalee Photography is the way to go if you ever need professional portraits:

Last on the agenda (after doing all my other required PA things like getting Merrymead ice cream, buying Tastykakes, seeing my family again, etc.), was spending quality time with Gangy, Grandalf, and the whole Anderson/Carlin crew. We went to Outback in honor of my brother-in-law Jay's birthday, and (crikey) we had a shrimp-on-the-barbie good time!!

Here's Weston, sporting a brand new, really bad bump on his head (which - sorry Weston - fortunately occurred after the mini photo session with Lauri):

Los hermanos Jerebrett:

Our lovely Gangy:

The birthday guy and his rib feast:

My most favorite sister-in-law Dana and me (the nice picture):

Aaaaand.... the scary picture (I love that you are all such troopers with my picture requests):

Killian tried fruit punch (a.k.a. toddler cocaine) for the second time in his life (following a very successful first try):

And little Finn slept the entire time!!!

By the end of our dinner, Weston had made his way over to Killian's side of the table, and they were both staring at the various Aussie decor on the walls:

They also got really cute and cuddly with each other. (I am posting this picture in full awareness that both Killian and Weston will absolutely kill me when they are teenagers.)

And they got really silly with Uncle Jem:

All in all, we had such a great PA/OH trip. I, for one, have decided that it is actually NOT that fun to fly cross-country with a toddler. But, at least I only have to do it one more time. The key for us is constant stimulation: snacks, books, toys, stand-up-and-look-around, and repeat. Even with that winning line-up, though, Weston gets pretty exhausted. Here he is upon our arrival back in California:

What a little dear. Thanks for a great time, folks! We miss you all!!!