A couple of Saturdays ago, I took Trey to the Newport Aquarium with my parents. I’ve been to the aquarium before but it has been a number of years since my last visit. I don’t recall ever seeing the Rainforest exhibit, which appears to have been opened on May 24, 2004. So I’m guessing that my last visit was in 2003. Since then they have also added the Frog Bog along with a 14 foot, 800 pound alligator named Mighty Mike.

Throughout the 70 exhibits and 14 galleries, there are plenty of opportunities for interaction. There was no stopping Trey in the hands on tanks where he could pet horseshoe crabs, starfish, or even small sharks. There is also a play area with tubes and slides in the previously mentioned Frog Bog.

The real stars of the aquarium are the five seamless acrylic tunnels through some of the larger tanks, as well as a huge viewing window in the theater where you can sit and watch sharks for as long as you’d like. Also the penguin exhibit is always a huge hit with both kids and adults.

The aquarium continues to be a great place to spend a few hours, especially during one of those rainy days of spring.

This Easter was filled with Easter Egg hunts. They had one after mass at St. Francis Seraph, but Trey was much more interested in the four huge dogs than he was in collecting eggs. Then he slept through the hunt at my in-laws house, though when he did wake up we hid some eggs for him to find.

When we headed to my grandparents house after dinner, we found that my two youngest cousins had hid more eggs for Trey to find.

The weather over the weekend was fantastic! Plus the weather for the week ahead doesn’t look too bad either. I hope that I get the opportunity to take advantage of this heat wave.

5 Day Forecast

Fortunately we took full advantage of the weather over the weekend. Saturday afternoon we headed down to Williamstown Lake in Kentucky. Kim’s uncle has a small cabin on the shores of this 300-acre reservoir. Though we didn’t take the pontoon out during this visit, some of the group took rides on the paddle boat. Other activities included shooting a BB gun, grilling some food, and sitting around a campfire.

As nice as Saturday’s weather was, Sunday may have been even better. I took Trey on an early morning walk throughout the neighborhood. We then followed that up with some outside play time before heading to a very nice playground outside of the Pleasant Ridge Recreation Center. We then wrapped up the weekend with another grill out with Kim’s siblings. Bonus!

Pleasant Ridge Park

One of my brother-in-laws is currently studying Aviation Technology at the University of Cincinnati. He already has his private pilot certificate for single engine planes, and eventually will receive his commercial certificate as well as part of the program. This past Saturday he rented a plane for an hour to give family members a ride.

The Rented Aircraft

He took both of his parents and younger brother for rides first. Here is a video of one of the takeoffs.

Fortunately after they were all finished with their rides, there was still time for me to take a quick ride!

Instrument Panel

First Officer Paff

View From The Air

Commander Hais

Also, here is a video of our smooth landing despite a shifting headwind.

Thanks for the ride, Chip!

Today is Trey’s first birthday, as unbelievable as that might sound. I know that it is definitely hard for me to believe that an entire year has already passed with him in our lives. It seems like just yesterday we were heading to the hospital, not really sure how great this new adventure was going to be. I often hear parents say that they wish their kids would stop growing up so fast, and as much as I can relate to that, I think future years are going to be even more amazing than the last has been.

Give Me Cake

Over on kimandedjr.com I posted a slideshow of photos that my mom took of our celebration party at our house on Saturday, so be sure to check those out. She also posted some videos along with the photos on her flickr page. It was a great party and we, along with Trey, are lucky to have so many caring and helpful people surrounding us.

I Need A Bath

We had a couple of ugly Christmas sweater parties this year, the last one being this past weekend. I wore the same outfit to both. It consisted of a sweater from my mom’s closet, a women’s button down shirt that Kim bought for me from the Salvation Army, a pair of blue pants that I’ve had in our costume bin for a while, and my old racquetball shoes. Pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.

While walking into mass this past Sunday morning, I was told that we were on the list of people who weren’t expected to show on New Years Day. I guess that is what having a kid will do to you. Normally I would have agreed, but after barely staying awake past midnight, getting up early the following morning was no problem. To ring in the new year we did bundle ourselves and Trey up in warm clothes and walked up to Oakley Square for the annual party there. They do a 9 PM ball drop with fireworks for all the families in the area and their kids. It’s a nice touch and turned out to be perfect for us. Trey was able to celebrate with us at 9 PM and then fall asleep on the walk back home.

I spent the day off work yesterday putting together our new grill. While packing our things for the move back to Cincinnati earlier this year, I decided to leave our old grill behind and give it to one of our friends out there. So when asked what I wanted for Christmas, a new grill was one of the items on my list. When opening gifts at my parents’ house, one big box for me to open was saved for last and I was surprised to unwrap this beauty. Well it wasn’t assembled, and that took longer than expected, but now that it is together I’m looking forward to getting it outside and cooking up some grub.

Our New Grill

Speaking of Christmas gifts, my brother and his girlfriend got us some really great stuff too. Another item on my long list was a TV mount that can extend out and then rotate. Another friend in Denver had this kind of mount and I loved that he could put his TV away out of sight when not needed and then pull it out when he wanted. Though ours isn’t out of sight, I think it looks pretty good tucked back in our built-in bookshelves that sit on either side of our fireplace. We can then pull it out about two feet off the wall and rotate it either towards our couch in one direction, or towards the kitchen in the other direction.

TV Mounted

Trey received so many fantastic toys as gifts and he loves playing with them all, but we are quickly running out of space for them. My brother heard me complain of this multiple times before and he came up with a toy chest idea that turned out wonderful. He and his girlfriend bought the chest and then painted it (with the help of a very skilled friend) before turning it over to have it stained. The quote on top is from the Dave Matthews Band song “Grey Street.”

Toy Chest

It’s easy to see that we were really spoiled this year, and that’s before I even begin to mention things from Kim’s family such as a remote start for our new car as well as a membership to the Cincinnati Museum Center that we have already used multiple times. This year is already looking great and it has just started. Here’s to another great year for all!

Slowly but surely we are finally decorating parts of our new home. After long days of working, cleaning, let alone decorating, is the last things we want to do. We would much rather sit down for a nice meal and spend the evening playing with Trey. That has left us with weekends and those rare moments during the week when Trey isn’t around for our decorating needs.

World Travels

We also just recently finished moving all of Trey’s bedroom stuff into a bigger room, as he was quickly outgrowing the smallest room in the house. Now the office is in the smallest room and I have already grown to like the layout and have started hanging decorations on the wall. The first thing to go up was our cool world travel map that we got for Christmas a few years back. Next up will be my gold record along with a selection of my coolest O.A.R. posters, all of which can be viewed in pictures from the last time I decorated our Denver office. I’ll try to get more pictures of this office online once the transformation is complete. Plus I probably owe some photos of Trey’s new digs too.

Despite the fact that I’ve yet to hang our outside lights, our house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Yesterday was the day for the annual Christmas tree hunt with Kim’s family. Though we lived out of town for eight years we still managed to tag along for a few of these adventures over the time-span. It typically involves stops at a couple of different tree farms and yesterday was no exception.

First we stopped at Pine Achers (11469 County Farm Road, Aurora IN 47001) a place that I immediately remembered from prior visits. To me it seems that the owners of this farm are not planting any new trees, and most of the remaining trees are really big. In my opinion it is not worth stopping here again, though one of Kim’s uncles always seems to get his over twenty foot tall tree here.

24 Foot Tree

After only cutting down one tree at this lot we moved over to the somewhat nearby Mount Pleasant Christmas Tree Farm (21797 Mount Pleasant Road, Lawrenceburg, IN  47025). Again I immediately remembered this place from a visit quite a few years back. Unlike Pine Achers, the owners here seem to be growing new trees for future year sales. At first our group wasn’t finding many good ones for this year, and Kim and I decided to settle on one of the few decent looking bigger trees we could find. Later most in the group eventually settled on a tree from the lot, but overall the selection was again disappointing. Maybe we were just too late in the season, for this lot especially.

Our Tree

With the help of one of Kim’s brothers and one of the employees on the lot we got our new tree on top of the car and secured it with a strap I borrowed from a family member. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have anything to bail it together with, but we managed to get it on top of the car and only a little mud in the car. After a stop at my in-laws house for lunch, Kim and I took our tree home. Unfortunately along the way one of the clips on the tie down strap busted loose and the tree fell into the street. Luckily a couple of passersby stopped and helped me to secure it to the roof again and then we made it home with no further issues.

Decorated Tree

Since this was our first time dealing with a live tree, I was a little unprepared as to how much work it would take to get it setup inside the house. First I had to cut a foot off the bottom since it was a little too tall, even for our nine foot ceilings. Then I trimmed a bunch of branches off the bottom before dragging it through the front door. Once inside I realized just how big the tree was. Funny how seeing them out in the woods they don’t look so big, but once inside they become huge! Anyway, after messing with the stand for a half hour, our tree was finally standing upright. I quickly threw some decorations on it and called it done. Our old star shaped tree topper might not be big enough for this massive tree, and the two strands of lights I had may not be enough, but I think it looks pretty good.