our family vacation!!

We just got back from our first ever family vacation! At least, it was our first "vacation" that consisted of just Nathan and I and our kids (minus Layla...so I guess it wasn't a true family vacation). But anyway...it was a lot of fun! Kaine and Halle were super excited to go on our trip, and although we really missed our sweet little Layla, it was much easier to leave her at home. So...here are a ton of pictures from our family's Cincinnati trip!

Halle is ready to go in her carseat...ready for a nap! We were hoping she would sleep most of the way there, but she only slept about half. Oh well:)

Here is Kaine, ready to go and making one of his funny faces. He has so many funny facial expressions lately! This kid was a real trooper on the van rides! He didn't sleep any of it, but he was great.

Our kids' highlight...swimming! They LOVED it! Here they are, ready for the pool:)

I cannot adequately express what an amazingly wonderful daddy Nathan is! Wow, I feel so blessed. Our kids are incredibly blessed, too. Anyway, this is what he did a lot of:

Halle's personal favorite:)

Kaine learned some new things! He can go underwater so much better now! He actually swam almost the whole width of the pool underwater!! I was really impressed by that.

We called Halle the "Goggle Monster." She would come swimming at us with this HUGE smile and just laughing like crazy. She was sooo cute!

Another skill learned by Kaine...jumping in the pool by himself!

For supper the first night, we took K and H to Chuck E. Cheese. Wow, they love that place! Actually, Nathan and I do, too. It is really fun!

Halle isn't quite big enough for most of the games:) We had to help her out on this one--she just isn't strong or quick enough!

Kaine loves the racing ones:)

Our kids acting silly (see another of Kaine's funny faces that he likes to make!)

Halle's latest fetish..."parm-on cheese"!

Kaine and Halle got along soooo well. I feel like this trip was kind of a bonding experience for them (and all of us!) They are becoming such good friends!

Me and our little love:)

The next day we went to the Cincinnati zoo. Our kids loved this, too! This was the only time we went to the zoo all summer, so it was somewhat new to them.

See the hippo in the background?
Gotta love those zoo statues! Is there any parent who doesn't take pictures of their kids on these things? :)

This is what Nathan came up with when both of our kids got tired. It worked:)

Here we are ready to go into the 4-D theater!

Ready for the Dora movie! This was really cool...at least most of us thought so:) It was a "4-D" experience, which meant you could "feel" the movie. The "wind" blew in our faces, water splashed us...it was really cool! Unfortunately, Halle was a little too young for it:) She did not like getting splashed in the face by water--it really scared her! She started crying so hard.

We all rode the carousel..(and why is this suddenly underlining my words?)

Kaine and Halle in a turtle shell

Family pic (see the giraffe?)

Our cuties on the train:)

Natie and me on the train...can you tell this was taken by a 4-year-old? :)

In the gift shop

This was how Halle looked within 3 minutes of leaving the zoo! She was out cold:)

As you can see, Halle was still a little tired at supper:) We went to Cheeseburger in Paradise...a pretty cool restaurant!

Halle snapped out of her mood:) She loves her daddy!

What a fun trip! Of course, we were so glad to see our little Layla after we got back!

I love my family:)