Oh My, Ohio

I've just returned from two big trips, most recently from Austin, TX, but most importantly from Marietta, OH, and an amazing week with my sister, brother-in-law, and our new niece, Elle.

Our trip got off to a bumpy start when our flight from Portland was canceled due to mechanical failure. After flights to Salt Lake City, Minneapolis (including an overnight stay at Delta's expense), and Columbus, followed by a 2-hour drive to Marietta, we arrived!

A day late and a couple suitcases short. No worries once we saw this sweet face.

Elle was born in September, and it's been torture not to meet her until 6 weeks later, but we made up for lost time. We spent most of it hanging out at the house, dancing to Bobby's incredible music collection and figuring out what that nasty smell outside was (turns out it was a dead deer). 


 

I taught Sara the basics of crocheting so that she could start whipping up cute outfits for Elle. And to give her something to do on long car trips (when you live in South Ohio everywhere is a long car trip away).















We  made a batch of soft pretzels (they didn't last long).






And Mike even picked up the guitar again.


 

Bobby has a great collection of guitar, ukelele and banjo, and rocks them all.

Since Bobby and Sara also run a business (Just a Jar Design Press) out their house, we got to spend a little time in the studio. Last time we visited I got to play on the letterpress, but this time Mike had some fun. He helped print up birth announcements, then tried his hand at wood carving and printing his own piece.

While Mike carved I held Elle. She was very indulgent of me - letting me take lots of photos.

 

 

Until she'd had enough.

While we unfortunately missed trick-or-treating due to the plane delay (Marietta schedules theirs for the Saturday before Halloween), I did get in a little carving too, of a different variety.

Sara, Jamie and Mike's jack-o-lanterns.

Bobby & My jack-o-lanterns. Recognize mine? It's from this post.

When we did get out on the town, we were extremely impressed with how well Elle did (Sara did great too).

We introduced Elle to the Marietta Brewing Company. She was quite taken with the PawPaw Porter.




 
We took her shopping at Easton Town Center in Columbus, to dinner at Betty's on High Street, and for dessert at Jeni's!

It's worth noting that Sara and I had two great beers at Betty's:

Founders Porter & Southern Tier 2X Milk Stout

And four great ice cream flavors at Jeni's:

Goat Cheese with Roasted Red Cherries
Salty Caramel
Root beer
Yazoo Sue with Rosemary Bar Nuts














While we ladies were out indulging, the boys headed to Athens to catch a Ohio University Football Game. Mike brought back a video of the halftime show. As a person who's seen a lot of sports games, I can say that I was thoroughly impressed with the band!





I think it goes without saying that we were really sad to leave when the week was up. This is how Elle felt about it. Sorry baby girl - see you at Christmas!