Ohio Visit 2013

After spending over 11 months away from our friends and family, we were very excited to be able to spend some much needed time with them.  

I started to write a play by play of our trip, but I think it's going to get too long and boring.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but I think I was just too happy to see everyone and was caught up in the moments.   So here is a quicker summary of the time I enjoyed:
*Breakfast with Bryan's parents at Steak 'n Shake (apparently one of Bryan's favorites, that I was unaware of)
*Visited with Sarah and Jessee and their cute kiddos
*Spent time at Ash and Adam's, went to Gabber's gymnastics class and then lunch at Denny's
*My family all came to Ash and Adam's for a wonderful get together
*Dinner at Cantina Laredo with Brittany, Zach, Lydia, and *surprise!!!* Noll
*Visited Al and Jess at their new house
*Breakfast with Valerie and Tim at Cracker Barrel
*Spent a week with Bryan's family, including the Brennans (Fun night at the bar, wiener roasts, checked out Oxford real estate, lunch at BJ's)
*From here, Bryan had to go back to Japan, but since I was on summer break from work, I stayed and continued visiting more peeps.
*Stayed with Valerie and Tim, enjoying Raising Canes and Target
*Back to Ash's for more visiting, including spending way too long at the playground with Gaby.
*Shopped with Ash for soon-to-arrive Baby Owen! 
*Visited Steph and Alan, saw their new house, dinner at Piada, and had a party with Val and Steve, Jess, and Heather (Speed croquet and The Game of Things)
*Visited with Ashley and Thatcher and then met up with Jen and Lisa for dinner at Melt (best grilled cheese sandwiches ever) and then dessert.
*Stayed with Val, Steve and lil Henry, saw their new house
*More time with Sarah and family at Ash's and then went to the Columbus Zoo, Chilli's and Jeni's
*Lunch with Laurie at Pei Wei
*Back to Bryan's parents before heading out to the airport

Whew!  I was quite exhausted, but kept running on excitement.  The weather was pretty much perfect almost every day, right around 80 and sunny.  I was so happy to meet up with the majority of my favorite people in the whole wide world.  I wasn't able to see some of them, but that's to be expected.  There's always next time!

Here's a few pics, mostly of Gaby, but I thought I should share some photographic proof.

Gaby LOVES her swing set.

Me in my "room wear" (Japanese pjs) and Gaby in her dress that I brought her from Japan.

How fun is this?? 

And this would be the tree house, with Cooper, Quinn, Lizzy and Mason.  Such a great pic of them all.

Mean Girls is one of my favorite movies ever.   Aaron just bought the shirt, without even knowing where the quote is from.

Coco's Ichibanya (#1)  Curry House is one of my favorite restaurants in Japan.  They sell the curry in to-go packets, so I bought some to share with our families.  It didn't make nearly as much as I had hoped, but they all still enjoyed it.  Ash even asked if she could buy it at her grocery store.

We fed the ducks one afternoon. 

We went to America's #1 zoo, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  Gaby loves merry go-rounds, so we rode the one there a couple of times.

Someone is a daddy's girl!

Another good one while we were taking a break.

Me and Ash, before I had to leave. (Holy red hair, huh??  Apparently all the time in the sun changed my hair color!  It's back to brown now.)

Showing off her "flamingo" moves on the beam.

She is getting comfortable with the bar.  The goal was to swing out on the bar and knock off a tennis ball from the top of the cone.

We're happy to be back in Japan, getting back into the swing of things, spending time with Bryan and our new friends.