Cleveland Zoo

There is so much to catch up on.
I guess that is what happens when you neglect the blog...
Anyway- here is our trip to the Cleveland Zoo!
That place is HUGE- it was really fun!
We were there for 4.5 hours and we still didn't see everything....
But we saw the really cool stuff.

 Like the Reindeer fighting...

 And the seals!

 And the sharks- which were incredible awesome...

 We even got a little note from fellow Canadian friends (we assume...) They saw our license plate and left us this note one our windshield!

The end to a perfect day....  And once again.  I love Cleveland.

I Start Walking Your Way, You Start Walking Mine....

It was a magical moment when we headed to Hershey, PA to meet up in the middle with some long lost friends....

Our first stop was Wendy's of course.  What is a 'Snughes' adventure without Wendy's?  Nothing I tell you- NOTHING!  Plus we were famished.  Fries and a Frosty- is there anything better in this world?

It was a quick trip so we didn't waste any time- we headed to the Chocolate World and took a tour of the 'factory'.  There were singing cows and candy at the end- so it was pretty awesome.  Plus it was free....

CANDY!  (Which no one particularly liked- stick to what you know Hershey, stick with what you know...)

Stuck the kids in with the stuffed Hershey kisses- they didn't want to get out- and who can blame them?

Used the memorabilia, that we didn't buy, to cool us down...

And did our best to get all the kids in one picture together....

Met the Reese's Peanut Butter cup mascot- a dream come true!

We also headed to the amusement park- which was fun- for most of us...  Ruby discovered she is more like her dad than me- she got sick from the ride- no actual puking but no fun after that either...  We headed to Dunkin' Donuts for some hot chocolate while Mark and Henry finished up the fun having.

We also did some Hershey exploring- I love the light posts!

Trying to decide where to have our last meal before the dreaded good bye...

Houlihan's it is!

I think Justin's face says it best.  We had a great time in Hershey but mostly because we had great company.  (His face does say all of that, doesn't it?)  My favorite time was when we were just able to relax and hang out- order a little wendy's and watch a little modern family- while the kids were sleeping.  Just laugh and joke and have a good time.  And as an added bonus Kim and I were able to get a little bit of post Thanksgiving shopping in, which was nice.  We are just glad to have such great friends who are willing to drive 5 hours to meet up and have some great times and make some great memories.  Until next time Hughes', hopefully it won't be too long.....

Thanksgiving Tree 2011

I saw this at a friends house and decided it would be a great FHE idea and something to help us remember to be grateful.
Presenting our Thanksgiving tree of 2011.  (This will now be a yearly tradition)

Thanksgiving, isn't it a little late for that, eh?  That is what my Canadian friends are thinking right now- am I right?

Well it seems weird to me to but when you are in America you do as the Americans do.

So we completely skipped over Canadian Thanksgiving and jumped right into American thanksgiving.

Hence the Thanksgiving tree in November.

All I did was cut out a tree like shape from packing paper (Ruby thought it looked like a mushroom) and then cut out a whole bunch of leaves from various fall colored paper.

Then we spent an evening talking about all of the things that we are grateful for and wrote them on the leaves.  Noni and Ruby placed them on the tree and now we have a constant reminder of what we are grateful for.  It can lift a person's spirits just looking at it.  That is why I like it.

It can also scare a person half to death when they see it in the dark (it resembles a person lurking in the dark out of the side of your eye)

I am grateful for the constant reminder to be grateful, sometimes I need it.  It is important to remember to be grateful for the things in our lives, and I am.

I feel blessed and grateful.

At this time I am grateful for family and friends.

We had a great time getting together with all the 'orphan' families (those who don't have any family living out here) and celebrating thanksgiving.  There was so much food and laughter, it felt like family and it was great.

After dinner, instead of lining up for black friday specials, we headed to Gettysburg and Hershey to meet up with the other thing I am grateful for- old familiar friends.  (The friends aren't old, just the friendship)

More to come on that soon!

Cleveland Rocks II

I am in love with this city.  I don't know why- it just has charm, and it isn't crazy crowded.
I like it.
So we took another trip to experience more of the city that is Cleveland, Ohio.
You can see our other trip here.
This trip brought along a few surprises.
Including our chance to meet Carlisle Cullen.   (He has a real name but lets face it, it was hard enough for me to remember what his movie name was....)
We were heading to the terminal tower that overlooks the city when low and behold in the same mall was an autograph and picture taking experience with Dr. Carlisle Cullen himself.

Myers was super excited about it.  He's a huge twilight fan- I mean what almost 2 year old isn't?

There he is!

And here he is closer.

And signing autographs.

We didn't get to actually shake his hand or get our picture with him (that would have cost $40) but we were among the admirers, though technically we aren't admirers...  But we posed as such.  I enjoy myself some twilight but not enough to pay for a picture and an autograph...
And then we got sufficiently bored and headed to the terminal tower...

It was awesome!  It just recently reopened after it was closed because of some scares from September 11.

We all had fun taking turns pressing the buttons in the multiple elevators we had to take to get all the way up there.  It reminded me of when we went up the Empire State Building- though less supervised, less money, and definitely less people.  But both were awesome in their own right...

 All the way up to the 42nd floor!  Myers looks super impressed.

 Part of the view...

 I like this picture- she looks super cute.  We were trying to point out a limo that we could see by a church down there- she couldn't find it.  You know how hard it is to have a child find something that is only 2 feet from them- well imagine a tiny little limo that is who knows how for from her.  We eventually took a picture of it and then pointed it out in the picture and then had her find it in real life.  To this day I don't know if she found it...

 The crooked river.

 Even Scrooge, E. signed the register.  Who knew he was from Germany?  You can thank Justin for that!

 Next stop was a childhood dream come true.  The actual house that A Christmas Story was filmed in.  You know- 'You'll shoot your eye out!' or ' Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra, Ra Ra Ra Ra'.  And if you don't know then you should...

 My family will love the picture below.  That is the actual 'I can't put my arms down' snow suit.  I thought it was brown!

 There it is- the house!  Ruby was really excited to be there- though she hasn't seen the movie.... yet!

 The LEG LAMP!

 Hiding in the cupboard!

 Serving the turkey!

Randy's hat. 

 The Red Rider BB Gun.  I never would have shot MY eye out with that thing.  I'm pretty much a BB gun shooting genius!

 Justin's just plain awesome.

Careful or Ruby will shoot YOUR eye out!

 Token Leg Lamp Picture.  If I had endless amounts of money AND liked really ugly things I would have bought one....

 It was really a fun day.  Lots of memories and lots of dreams come true....

Who needs Disney World when you have Cleveland?