After a great night's sleep at our hotel, we headed down to their free breakfast. The standard fare was offered... cereal, toast, eggs, biscuits, gravy, etc. The breakfast attendant was awesome. She made waffles for whomever wanted them.
After breakfast, we headed back to the pool for some fun before we hit the road. The kids LOVED the pool.
After swimming and then changing into regular clothes, we checked out and headed to our next destination of the day... the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm.
The F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm is one of the parks in the Summit County Metro Parks system in Akron. It was a diamond in the rough. It offers hiking trails in which you may find a suspension bridge, several ponds and other attractions. We saw lots of wildlife on our walk...birds, turtles, deer, and a snake!
They also have a visitor's center which was awesome for the kids. When we arrived, the naturalist was bringing out salamandars for the kids to see.
They had a bird watching area that was amazing, with lots of different types of birds, as well as some red tailed squirrels and 2 raccoons who were eating the bird food. LOL
This was a great stop and if you are ever in Akron I would highly recommend a visit. I am so glad we decided to check it out. After leaving the nature realm, we headed home and back to reality after our 24 hour getaway!
Yesterday I mentioned that we took a quick 24 hour trip this past weekend with the kids. We surprised them with a trip to Akron to see the Rubber Ducks play. We left shortly after Bill and Rebecca got back from their "Wizard of Oz" duties.
We headed up to our hotel first. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites by Radisson in Cuyahoga Falls (less than 10 minutes from downtown Akron). The hotel was great and the customer service was top notch. Since we arrived about 3 hours before game time we let the kids check out the pool and swim a bit before we left for the game.
After swimming it was time to head out to the park to see the Akron Rubber Ducks take on the Erie Seawolves. The Akron Rubber Ducks are a Double-A minor league affiliate of our favorite major league team- the Cleveland Indians. Their games are played at Canal Park in downtown Akron.
We chose to go on Saturday night for a couple of reasons. We wanted to take the boys to their first professional ball game and we had heard wonderful things about the atmosphere of Canal Park. They were having lots of promotions that night as well, including free jerseys for kids 12 and under, the ZOOperstars were performing, and there were Katy Perry themed fireworks after the game. So something for everyone in our family.
The night exceeded our expectations. The whole experience for the family was great. The weather was fantastic. Benjamin and Rebecca enjoyed the ZOOperstars, although Jacob was unsure of them. He even cried when "Mackerel Jordan" ate one of the workers before spitting him out without his clothes on (instead he had on a tshirt and red hearted boxers) LOL.
Bill loved that one of the ZOOperstars was "Harry Canary" after the famous announcer Harry Cary of the Chicago Cubs. They even had him do the "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" song like they do in Chicago.
The kids loved the ballpark food. (And it was reasonably priced in my opinion.) The kids enjoyed nachos, hot dogs, hamburger, popcorn, crackerjacks, and peanuts. All the yummy ballpark food.
The game itself was well played. The kids got to see a home run, a stolen base, some great defense as well as some good base running. Unfortunately the Rubber Ducks lost 2-0. After the game was over there was more to look forward to as they were having fireworks. The fireworks after the game were great and the music was great as well.
We were able to park right across the street from the ballpark and we waited a little bit before we left so we had no problem with traffic as we headed back to our hotel for the night. The kids kept saying it was an awesome night and kept thanking us for taking them. Rebecca, especially, kept saying it was an awesome night and she LOVED the atmosphere. After getting baths, all three kiddos fell asleep wondering what adventures awaited us on Sunday.
Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Ours was busy as we took a quick 24 hour trip out of town but managed to pack in a lot. I will recap our trip tomorrow, but today I wanted to give you a sneak peak at the "Wizard of Oz" production that Bill and Rebecca are in. (Opening night is in 2 weeks!)
Saturday morning the cast of "Wizard of Oz" had a meet and greet at our town's farmers market on the square. They sang a couple songs, mingled among the crowd and did a lot of good publicity for the show. There were balloons, cookies, punch, and treats for the kids. I took Jacob and Benjamin down to see Bill and Rebecca and to check out the other cast members. Jacob was unsure of the people in costume and did not want to get his picture taken but Benjamin was all about seeing the characters!
Benjamin said his favorites were his dad, Rebecca as a munchkin, and the Lion. When Ben met the lion, the lion gave Ben a pack of animal crackers and told Ben NOT to eat the lion ones. LOL
The boys and I can't wait to go see the show when it opens. This week starts their long practices and full run throughs. It is getting close!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday. I am going to be spending the day taking Rebecca to an eye appointment, doing massive amounts of laundry, cleaning house and other fun things! Make today a good one!
Yesterday the weather was P.E.R.F.E.C.T.! The sun was out all day long, temperatures around 75 with a nice breeze, and fluffy white clouds. After what seems like weeks and weeks of rain, it was so nice. A perfect way to bring in Summer.
The boys had their last day of Summer Quest camps and they both had a great week.
While they were at camp, Rebecca and I ran some errands. We stopped in at a new candy store in our town and a new bakery. We got their half-baked cream puffs to try and OH MY WORD they were delicious! I got a coconut cream one and Rebecca got a cookie dough one (we actually got 2 cookie dough as I wanted to try it, but I let her have most of it!). We took them back to the university where the boys had camp and sat outside and enjoyed them while we waited for the boys to be done.
After babysitting, Bill and I took the kids out to the Kokosing Gap Trail at Kenyon to take a walk and to see how high the river was.
And the River was HIGH and moving really fast. To give you and idea here is a picture I took last time we were there...
and here is was yesterday....
After looking at the river we continued down the path and headed to the Brown Family Environmental Center where we saw pretty flowers and wildlife. We left Brown Family and walked back (so a total of 2+ miles) to the train so the kids could play on it. Ben was so proud of himself that he climbed up to the top and rang the bell this time! Overall, it was a great way to welcome in Summer.
Today I have been busy taking the kids to see the "Wizard of Oz" characters at our town's farmers market this morning. Now I am getting our stuff together for another adventure that we are taking part in later today. Hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday!
