After our trip to Utah Tristan was able to get back into the swing of things at school. The first few weeks he had Thursdays and Fridays off. We took advantage of this schedule to have some adventures. First we visited a reservoir with some friends. It's a fun place to go and camp that isn't too much of a drive.
My friend Danelle offered to take some pictures of Kalia. They turned out pretty cute. I really wanted to share them. She's an excellent photographer.
For Tristan's second Friday off we got together with three other families to see the big Air Force Museum. It's huge! And FREE! A great place to spend a few hours. Though you could easily spend all day. I was particularly interested in their WWI and WWII collection. The collection has some pretty interesting pieces, including the aircraft that dropped the atom bomb.
Our next big adventure took us to Cincinnati. Our friend grew up there and we were able to stay at her parent's house, making a weekend out of the trip. We drove down Thursday night and went to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden on Friday.
I think I will label that zoo as my new favorite. It's beautiful! So green and hilly. You feel like you're trekking through the jungle. In fact there is a jungle exhibit that has dirt trails. We headed down the trail when suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my leg. I look down and I've been stung by a bee and it's stuck in my leg. Tristan swipes at the thing three times before he manages to get it out. Once out of my leg, the insect received a quick death under his shoe. It hurt pretty bad. Tristan check to be sure the stinger wasn't stuck inside and we went on our merry way. By the end of the day, my leg looked pretty bad. It'd swollen up and turned bright red. It was hot to the touch. I don't think I've ever had that happen before. We went to the art museum the following day, so I just kept the blood pumping. I thought it would just go away. By Sunday we were starting to get worried as the swelling was spreading, the heat wasn't going away, and the skin was feeling more firm. I made a quick stop at the clinic in the Walgreen's near by. The nurse practitioner told me she didn't have the means to treat me, that I needed a shot in the butt of steroids, and sent me on my way to an emergent care. I left in somewhat of a panic, thinking I'd developed an allergy and would need to carry and epi-pen for the rest of my life. After discussing the advice I'd received with Tristan, we opted to take me to the emergency room. Once there (really fast visit, much better than previous trips. Marysville is the way to go) the doctors told me that it was a localized reaction and a simple cream and some benedryl would do the trick. This wasn't the start of a serious allergy and I wouldn't need the epi-pen. I was pretty relieved and happy to hear that I wouldn't need the shot. I'd gotten Gardasil on Thursday, the sting on Friday, I really didn't want another injection. It took about a week of the cream for the swelling to go down and the redness to disappear. However, I have a small bruise-like mark at the site of the sting. I may have that forever. Unfortulately, after the weekend of fun, I had a dentist appointment Monday morning. More shots. Ugh. And she had to numb me twice. The fun didn't end there. Monday evening I took Saphira to the vet to have her vaccines updated and Kalia was scheduled for a well baby visit on Wednesday. I'm so glad the immunizations didn't bother either one of them. I think I had it the worst with the sting and the dentist.
Lucky Tristan was away for most of the fun. Monday morning he jumped on a plane to head to Utah for five days. The reason for the trip, not so much fun. His grandfather passed away and the funeral was held in Utah. He also helped with cleaning out his grandparent's home as grandma has been moved to a nursing home in Texas. Not a very fun time, but he was able to enjoy some time with family. Perfect lead into our trip (planned earlier in the year) to visit Texas in September. We were also able to procure some items that are part of Tristan's inheritance; a hope chest, a grandfather clock (made by Tristan's great-grandfather) and a desk (made by his grandfather). We're so grateful to Melissa and Thomas for caring for these items until we have a place to put them. Hopefully we'll have space in our next place.
Compared to July, August was pretty quiet. We visited the State Fair. Which is kinda a funny story. We tried to get some discount student tickets through the school for admission, but they were sold out, so I was looking for alternative ways to save money. I found out that the day we were looking to go was celebrate the lottery day. Just bring in a non-winning (ha ha, aka losing) lotto ticket and get in for $3.50. The price of regular admission $10. The price of a lotto ticket $1. We decided to give it a try. I walked into Kroger, feeling a little out of place having never bought a lottery ticket before, I had no idea what I needed to do. Luckily the girls at the counter were helpful. I walked in with $5, I paid two dollars and got two tickets. I took them over to the machine. Scan the first one... Winner! I handed it to the clerk and she tells me I've won $4. I scan the second ticket.... Winner! I hand the second ticket and I won $1. Just my luck. I didn't want to win. So I buy two more tickets. These were both losing tickets. I cash out and walk out with 6 dollars. What a strange experience. I got a dollar to save $13. We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the booths.
The other big event in August is, of course, Tristan's birthday. It's not just a one day celebration for him. He celebrates the whole week, the whole month. Everything we do is for his birthday. We went mini golfing with friends. We mall walked all three of the big malls. He also got a Cold Stone birthday club ice cream treat. At the mall we discovered the Godiva chocolate club that gives you one free piece of chocolate each month as well as other offers. He also got to eat at Cracker Barrel. Though Kalia made it interesting. It's the first time she's sat in the high chairs. She thought she needed to let everyone know she was there and yelled, very loudly, the whole time we were eating. I'd say it was a pretty good birthday, I mean birth-month for Tristan.
Tristan finished up the quarter with some pretty hard hitting the last few weeks. His midterm hiatus caused quiet the slip behind. He studied hard and finished the quarter, bringing us completely up to date. As finals were done on Wednesday. His break started Thursday with a game of golf with his buddies, and a visit to Delaware (a city about a half hour north) to check out their antique shops on Saturday. We've also spent the last week or so working on selling our OSU football tickets. That's been an adventure too. We're looking forward to this week and our adventure to Texas!
