Trip to Cincinnati

disclaimer: Dave can't be held responsible for the content of the following post, nor I am sure does he agree with the length... =) please read at your own risk:

We are home from a great trip out to see Azure and her family in Cincinnati. We flew out on JetBlue to NYC and then on to Pittsburgh, where we picked up our car. It was a 4 1/2 hr drive but the kids slept the whole way, so we drove straight through. Azure has a beautiful house and Matt did an awesome job on the kitchen. The top floor has beautiful hardwood floors (which I just LOVE) and the basement is unfinished. I was alarmed to discover that my blood has thinned somewhat, because it was pretty cold for the first couple days. The boys played together pretty well, but we discovered that they played much quieter and got hurt less when only two were playing together at the same time (Azure's boy Wade is 5 1/2). We stayed in a hotel for a few nights, and spent the rest at Azures.

The night we got in Azure had a holiday themed enrichment activity where she was planning on making a wreath. Against my better judgement, I worked on a wreath for Azure's friend who wasn't able to make it. In my defense- I hadn't been to bed for about 36 hrs- needless to say, the wreath was huge and when I held it up there was a rather significant amount of (hysterical) laughter. Just imagine a sizable bush and you get the general idea. We took it over to the friend who is considerably more artistically inclined than I am and the end result was quite pretty. I wisely sat on my hands during the process, though. =)

Azure took us to have Chili "Cincinnati Style". You can get in a bowl, but the best way to have it is over spaghetti with cheese, onions and beans. Dave also had fried jalapeno rings on his. The chili wasn't spicy, but I loved it! Very different flavor than what I am used to.

Camden was blessed on Sunday and we had a chance to meet a few people that we had heard about. The CFO of the company Matt works for is the Stake President, who we were able to meet, and he has a couple other co-workers in the ward as well. They have a great ward.

We went to see the zoo lights there and the 3 big boys got pictures with Santa. Very cute. I think it will be fun to go back during the day when we visit next time to see everything else.

I really liked the architecture in the area of the zoo. We have so many sprawling houses here, but most of these were straight up- very narrow and tall. Almost all of them had "sittin' porches".

On the way back we missed our New York- Salt Lake flight by a matter of minutes because of weather. I was a bit freaked out. It was 9 at night, the kids were all tired, and I just knew that a hotel and food would cost an arm and a leg, that is if we had anything left over after we got lost and mugged. =) I know, I know, not very rational. Dave was awesome through it all but I am pretty sure that is because he saw how close I was to breaking down. One of the crewmembers at JetBlue suggested a hotel, we got some help in finding where the shuttle was from a few kind strangers (long, long walk and the airtrain) got to our hotel and only had to spend 20 bucks, tip included, for a huge pepperoni pizza that was delivered to the counter at the hotel. We were up early the next morning and caught a flight going JFK- San Diego other than wait an additional 12 hrs for the nonstop into SLC. Wick didn't sleep as much as I would have liked but we did okay. When we got into San Diego it was BEAUTIFUL! We were tempted to stay for a day... We were wandering around the airport working out the knots from our legs, and there was a walkway that went over the baggage claim area. Errol said "that's our bag down there. And there, and there." I thought he was just seeing things, but when I looked, sure enough, the bags had been re routed to San Diego! Thanks to Errol we were able to retrieve them and check them back in for the flight to SLC. The only problem was that when we got home, we realized that we hadn't written down where we parked the car... fortunately Faris finally piped up with the location of the car. Finally, we were able to get home.

I can't wait to go back! There were so many trees in the area I can imagine it is just beautiful in the spring or even the fall with all the colors. There are a lot of things we didn't get a chance to do this time around.

Other than that, all is well at the Litster household. We hope all is well with you!
Sabrina