I’ve had an exciting couple of days. Our new baby girl, Paige Brianna, was born very early this morning at 12:31 A.M. Baby and mom are both doing exceptionally well.

Things got started yesterday after work. It was Kim’s family’s day with Trey, so after work she went to pick him up. She started having contractions sometime in the evening and her parents decided to drive her back home. Once we reconvened at home, we started timing the contractions better, and finally called the doctor around 9 P.M. She told us to go ahead and come into the hospital. While all of that was happening, Trey fell asleep at our house, so my parents came over to our house to watch him for the night. We arrived at the hospital right at 11.

That is when things really got going quickly. We headed to triage to get some measurements and such, before moving over to a delivery room around midnight. The doctor didn’t arrive until 12:20 or so and Paige was born in the next ten minutes. It was such a different experience form what we went through with Trey, where labor and delivery went on for over a dozen hours.

Paige

Proud Dad

We cannot wait to get back home and reunite with Trey. He came by for two visits today and really loved having his baby sister nearby. I think he is definitely going to be protective of her.

More pictures can be viewed on kimandedjr.com. Additional posting could be light the rest of this week and next.

Now that we have a place to stay the night, I think our trips to Williamstown Lake will be numerous this spring and summer. We kicked it off this past weekend and had a day filled with tree trimming and house cleaning. It wasn’t all work though, as we all found time to enjoy a boat ride on the lake. Then we capped off the night with homemade pizzas and a bonfire. With temperatures in the sixties already, I hope it isn’t long until the water is warm enough for swimming.

Our Captains

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Friday evening we took Trey to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Dragons down at the U.S. Bank Arena. This was my first time in years attending a performance of “The Greatest Show On Earth,” but I’m sure it won’t be the last. Overall Trey really seemed to enjoy the circus, though I think he will like it even more when he has an attention span longer than the typical two-year-old.

Ringling Bros.

All-Access Preshow

We arrived nearly an hour before the show was set to start and spent time walking around the merchandise filled concourses and eventually found our way on the circus floor for the all-access preshow. Here families can participate in interactive experiences such as learning juggling and balancing skills, get performer autographs, see one of Ringling Bros. majestic Asian elephant’s paint a one-of-a-kind masterpiece and meet the Ringling Bros. Clowns.

Live Orchestra Setup

My favorite acts from the two hours or so of entertainment were definitely the Alexander Lacey, the Big Cats Trainer and Presenter, as well as the Torres Family, who performs with 8 motorcycles in a 16-foot steel sphere, where speeds can reach up to 65 mph! I was also impressed to see that the entire performance is choreographed along with a live orchestra and not with music from a tape.

Big Cat Presentation

Motorcycle Globe Of Steel

I’m not sure why the show is called “Dragons” as there is very little to do with dragons. A large robotic dragon does peak its head out of the curtain just before intermission and it is sent flying around the circus floor at the end of the night, but that is the only real dragon aspects of the show. If I had to add any other complaints about the show it was that the ringmaster was often hard to hear, but that could just be due to our ancient arena’s poor acoustics. Even without fully understanding his introductions of the acts, it was easy to quickly decipher what was going to happen in each.

Unleashed Dragon

Typically the day before the circus opens up for performances, there is an animal walk from where the circus trains are parked to the arena. This year the train arrived in the middle of the night after being delayed on its route between tour stops. My wife remembers going to see the same event as a child and really wanted to take our son. Once we found out it was canceled for this year we thought of other ideas to get closer to the animals. Fortunately we had a nice bit of luck last night as we were driving home from the west side of town and spotted a few of the elephants being loaded on the train.

Circus Elephant

So Close

Walking By

Rail Cars

Three Elephants

Back Her In

This was very cool to see but I hope we can get the full animal parade next time the circus comes to town.

Kim’s sister, Bobbi, was married over the weekend to Doug Utecht. The ceremony was at Our Lady of the Visitation, where many of the Hais kids went to school, and the reception was at the Aston Oaks Banquet Center, below the golf course clubhouse. Kim served as the matron of honor and Trey was the ring bearer. We were all so happy to be a part of their wonderful day.

Golf Carting

Kim and Bobbi

Bobbi and Doug

Despite the frigid temperatures over the weekend, the Kentucky-Ohio Polar Plunge went on as scheduled. This event benefits the Special Olympics programs in both Kentucky and Ohio. Since the event became a joint fundraiser in 2005, the Plunge has raised more than $670,000 for programs on both sides of the Ohio River. This year they raised over $140,000!

As they’ve done many years in the past, a couple of Kim’s brothers participated in the plunge. This year they were part of the Frosted Fruit Loops team for Hamilton County Special Olympics. We went down to Joe’s Crab Shack to watch them jump into the pool of water that was actually frozen earlier in the morning. Brrrr.

Plunge Site

Keep It Classy

Another “Classy” Group

Ready To Jump

Frosted Fruit Loops

More Fruit Loops

My family and I hadn’t traveled together for an overnight stay since our trip to San Francisco in September and we needed a quick getaway. So we made plans to spend a full day this past weekend in Columbus with an overnight stay at the Westin downtown (booked on Priceline.com). Among the stops on our trip was the Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark. Sure they have a onsite hotel that we could have stayed in, but after reading some nasty reviews of their accommodations, we decided to stay elsewhere. Besides, even after paying the $21.95 per person for waterpark entry after 4pm and just under $80 for the Westin, we were still saving money compared to the cheapest package I could find on the Fort Rapids website.

Due to our busy day, we didn’t actually get to Fort Rapids until around 7pm and with a 9pm closing time we didn’t have a ton of time. However, I felt that our two hours there was enough for our group. My wife took our two-year-old to the kiddie korral children’s activity area and the rascal roundup 40-foot interactive play structure. I took my twelve-year-old brother-in-law through the cowboy creek lazy river and onto all four of their water slides two times each. It seemed that most of the crowd really thinned out during the duration of our visit.

This was my first visit to one of these large scale indoor waterparks, so I don’t have much to compare it to in that regard. The water was definitely highly chlorinated and therefore seemed extremely clean. We did encounter one of the water slides in the rascal roundup was closed, but other than that all the attractions seemed to be well maintained. The air temperature is warm and the water is a nice cool temperature. We had a good time and wouldn’t hesitate to go back again when in the area on a cold winter day.

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays!

Over the weekend we took Trey to the Behringer-Crawford Museum for their annual Holiday Toy Trains display. I had never heard of this museum in Devou Park before reading about it on Family Friendly Cincinnati.

Permanent Train Display

Before we could make it upstairs to the temporary Holiday Toy Trains display we were fascinated with a model of old Covington complete with a few model trains of its own. There are a couple of portholes that you can see in the picture above, where children can climb into and get a look of the city from inside.

Trains

The first floor is dedicated to trains with a play area for kids and plenty of information and history for the older children and adults.

Street Car

The holiday toy trains are in a separate space on the third floor. This display wasn’t as large as the one in the Cincinnati Museum Center, but this one was way more interactive. Trey spent a solid fifteen minutes running along the display case pressing various buttons to see what would happen inside the display.

Holiday Toy Trains

The second floor is full of information on the early automobile era. While the third floor contained all sorts of history on river transportation. And the very small fourth floor has information on the area’s aviation history. Throughout the museum there is all kinds of historical artifacts. I found this case filled with brewing history that was fun for me to look at for a few minutes.

Beer History

We easily could have spent even more time at the Behringer-Craword Museum than the hour and half we were there. There is so much to see that an entire afternoon could be easy to fill.

This past Sunday was the day for our annual Christmas tree hunt. Previously we have always gone to farms in Indiana for our trees, but I really wanted to try elsewhere after having very slim pickings last year. Kim and I found Dirr Nurseries website the day before our search and were very excited when our large group agreed to give it a go out in Goshen, OH.

All cut your own trees at Dirr are $40 and this year they offered white pine, canaan fir, balsam fir, and scotch pine. I think most of us ended up with a white pine this time around. One of Kim’s uncles is notorious for cutting down the largest trees he can find. This year’s seventeen footer may still look large but I think it’s five feet shorter than what he had last year. I settled for a nice eight and a half-foot tall tree.

Uncle Mike’s Seventeen Foot Tree

Our Tree – Ready To Go Home

Merry Christmas Cincinnati

Once I got the tree home, I had a much easier time with it than I did last year. The guys at Dirr had already trimmed off most of the lower branches leaving just a couple that I had to do myself. Plus with the tree bundled up it was much easier to get inside and into the stand. Trey was around to help measure the tree and then to put his ornaments on it. I think it turned out great!

Standing It Up

Trey Helping

Silly Boy

Lights On

All Done

I’ve brought kimandedjr.com out of retirement today for a very import news announcement. Exciting times are ahead!