Newport Aquarium and IKEA

We had a great weekend--errands and yardwork on Saturday and Newport Aquarium and IKEA on Sunday.

But first, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge an exciting find I had at Goodwill on Friday--a train/activity table (and quite a few wooden train track pieces, farm animals, trees, etc. that were left in the drawers) for Lewis for only $25!!! It's in good shape, structurally--I'm really excited to clean it up and give it a fresh coat of paint. I couldn't quite get it to fit in the Highlander with Lewis' carseat installed, so Kevin went out after dinner on Friday to pick it up. I'm so excited--it was one of the things I was going to look for at the big consignment sale in a few weeks. His Aunt Paula and Uncle Jim got him a train set, too, so we can just keep adding to it as we go!

Also on Friday, I put him in the Wranglers that his Auntie Em got him. I think he still has some growing to do to fill these out. Not quite the Wrangler Butt just yet. :)

To the weekend--Saturday we ran errands, had lunch out, and went back to the park to swing, go down the slides, and explore the grounds some more. There are some really great shady picnic spots and a shelter--perfect for a child's birthday party (outdoors) IF the child wasn't born in mid-February (like Lewis was).

Here is Lewis swinging, the wind in his hair:

And going down the slide with Kevin (I took video, but it was literally 3 seconds long because it was such a short slide):

Saturday evening after Lewis went to bed, Kevin helped me tackle (and finish!) taming the wildest and craziest (and crabgrass infested) flowerbed that I'd started a few nights before. It was out.of.control. It feels nice to have tamed it again, for now. We're going to try to thin it out and transplant some of the daylilies this fall.

Before

After

We spent about an hour doing yardwork most nights last week, and I feel much better about how things are looking. We still have some trimming back to do for the fall and some transplanting, but I feel like we are in a much better place. Plus, for me, there is (usually) something very therapeutic about weeding.

We finished weeding, Round-upping, and mulching the mess-of-a-flowerbed just as it was getting too dark to see what we were doing on Saturday, so we went in and watched Hall Pass and each had Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby for the first time. I think I'm hooked, unfortunately...luckily it is only carried at Meijer, 10-15 mins. away, and I never shop there. Maybe that will slow down my consumption of it.

On Sunday morning, we took off for Newport, KY, (across the river from Cincinnati) to meet up with the Okrzesiks for a day at the Newport Aquarium. We had a really nice time--we spent a few hours at the aquarium, followed by lunch. Then we said our goodbyes and headed to IKEA to get a few things.

The aquarium went well, I thought, for Lewis and Colin (he'll be 2 in a few weeks). There were a couple of large tunnels we walked through with fish and sharks and rays swimming above and around us, which worked well with the boys in their strollers. We also walked through the rainforest area and no one got pooped on and no birds were harmed (two thumbs up!). [I kept having a vision of Lewis reaching out for a bird and doing it harm, by accident of course.]

Also in the rainforest exhibit, they had some river otters that were running around and diving through their tank that caught Lewis' eye. Snakes, slow-moving fish, frogs, notsomuch, but the fast-moving fish, penguins, otters, and sharks definitely caught his attention.

Overall, it didn't take quite as long to go through as we all anticipated it would, but we had a great time!

I think these were Japanese Spiny Crab (lit by black light, of course).

They were big and pretty nasty-looking.

The penguins were probably our favorite. Lewis connected with one up close--it hung around for a few minutes and showed off a little for him. He seemed interested in it and probably would have loved to pet it and give it a big ol' hug. :)

Lewis' new penguin friend

Then at the end, there was a concave viewing window that Lewis could lay on and see above, in front, and below. I didn't really capture it with the camera, but hopefully you get the point--it was pretty neat.

Hello, sea turtle. Hello, fishies.

After lunch it was off for Lewis' first trip to IKEA. We didn't have any major furniture purchases to make--I just wanted to get some picture frames, look at toys/storage items for Lewis, and pick-up some random household items. It was pretty crowded but cheerful as usual. Kevin guessed it was probably a busy time for back-to-school shopping for the college kids (the desk section was especially busy). A successful trip!

Riding the gigantic elevator

Then it was back to Louisville for us! A great weekend.