round on the ends, hi in the middle

At some point last week (I guess the week before at this point!) we took off in the cr-v (what we call the "curvey" or also "the insect slaughtering mobile") to Ohio.

We picked up a few hitch hikers along the journey:

Jared and I (in all of our bacon loving thoughtfulness) contemplated what members of PETA think of such journeys. I mean, that group just lost by like... 210,000 animals. I appreciate them helping out the chickens and such but... maybe they are racist against the insect variety. Or maybe they really are all Frogs!

Back on track... We went to Ohio for some family visiting!

I think my personal favorite was maybe the tractor ride out at grandma and grandpa's

Grandpa's seat cushion...

g-ma and g-pa:

and their dog Lady. She was VERY fond of Ben. It is hard to believe that a dog who chases out rodents, birds, any other living thing threatening the garden would be So in love/gentle with a little Benjamin. She's a good girl.

Ben's favorite was probably the mass quantities of fresh blueberries:

or possibly pulling this towel in and out of the pool 231243423512356 times.

I mean it. He would take it out. Put it on the ground. Pick it up and throw it in. Repeat. 20 minutes at a time. It was fantastic! He didn't even care if anyone was around, watching, helping... something about it fascinated him and I really wish I could have been in his head at that moment...

He did however end up with soaked pants/shirt from all of this hard work. Of course he then chose to sit in a mud puddle. The result was a delicious bottom:

Benjamin wasn't alone as a young'n. Two of his cousins were there too! It was really helpful having some other young, energetic souls (and their parents) to help harness Ben's energy and entertainment needs.

We also ate more melons than... I have probably had all summer. And they were AMAZING melons. I don't think we took pictures of them though... but we should have because they were Great.

That is all for now folks!