Passionate Fruit

After Timm family vacation at Lake Winnipesaukee, we flew back to Cincinnati, and the next day Rich flew back home to Palo Alto (isn't work the worst!). Valerie and I stayed in Cincinnati with my mom for the last few weeks of July. It was a whirlwind few weeks and we jam packed our visit with activities and all the friends we could see.

Playing Rummikub with GD

We got to see GD when he came to visit and had a great dinner at Incline Public House with its amazing views overlooking downtown Cincinnati.

Our friends the Schmids threw a get together with some other friends at their house and it was total chaos with all the kids running around in the yard. It was wonderful to see everyone. Valerie and Hannah had their first sleepover together and it went pretty well. Both girls were tired out from the party and actually went to sleep.

One of the few mornings we didn't have plans with friends, I took Valerie to the Smale Riverfront Park downtown for some water play, to ride the carousel and have lunch at Moerlein Lager House. We had a great morning, it was a beautiful, hot summer day, and I was blown away by this gorgeous park. After the water play I couldn't find Valerie's dress anywhere, so we walked over to the Reds apparel store and bought her a Reds dress to wear so she could ride the carousel. Amazingly, right before we headed back to the car, it was starting to rain, and we did a quick walk back toward the park to see if we could find her dress.... and sure enough there it was on the ground! It had fallen out of my purse! I couldn't believe our luck finding it again, just as the sky opened up. It started to pour and we dashed out of there in the nick of time.

water play at Smale

We had Holtman's donuts and pizza with Valerie's old friend Gavin (they are just 3 weeks apart in age) and got to meet his new baby brother Ross.

with Gavin and Ross

Our babies have grown so much! I can't believe what big kids they are!

meeting baby Ross!

I even got to have a few nights out by myself while Valerie stayed home with Nana and check out the Metropole rooftop downtown with Karen and meet some friends at the Rhinegeist rooftop in OTR. There are so many amazing new spots open now! Nanas are the absolute BEST!

Fun fancy date night, rooftop cocktails and dinner with Karen

Valerie got to have a sleepover with her BFF Harper and we took the girls to Kings Island the next day. They had an absolute blast there. We rode rides in Snoopyland and water slides in the water park, ate giant hot dogs (well, the girls did, haha) and ice cream cones and got their faces painted. The sleepover was more touch and go, with the girls being too hyped up to sleep. They just have too much fun together. Kings Island was awesome though, we will definitely get season passes there this summer!

Playing at Sophie's house is always a highlight, of course. The girls tore it up in the backyard in Sophie's motorized car.

We sure missed daddy for our long summer vacation but it was so fantastic spending time with great friends and family. We went to Mazunte with Sarah and Peter, got to see Jackie's new house and pool, met up with Jillian and Lorelai, got ice cream with Elizabeth, celebrated Ja'Mier's birthday, hung out with Glen at the pool, the park and the Felders', and I also had a blast on the adults only canoe trip that Kate organized one day. I got to meet up with girlfriends for dinner and brunch, Valerie got to go to a Reds' game, and I even made it to a book club night to which I brought "poptails" - whiskey and prosecco with Streetpops popsicles in them.

It was the best summer ever and we are all so excited to finally be back home in Cincinnati for good this summer!

We started our summer vacation with a weeklong trip to Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, for Timm family vacation 2016, the first week of July. It was a great week on the lake with all of Rich's brothers and his dad and stepmom Susan, and we got to see some of her family as well as Rich's friend Amit from MIT and his girlfriend Kelly who drove up from Boston one day to hang out.

We enjoyed boating on the lake and some fishing, which Valerie was super excited about, but mostly it was a week of family time and enjoying the cousins playing together. Valerie's cousin Aubrey, who is a year younger at two and a half, was really interested in playing with her for the first time. It was great fun to see them run and play and have a ball together.

Lake Winnipesaukee is a beautiful, clear lake which also runs a cool 75 degrees. Refreshing to dip the toes in but I didn't submerge my entire body too often except on the hottest day when it got up to 90 degrees. We had several cool days, a few hot ones and a bit of rain, but overall pretty nice weather for the week.

Some of the highlights (for me) were Joe's bananas foster, my boozy ice cream milkshakes that I made on the 4th of July (white with red strawberry stripes and blue sprinkles), and of course lobster rolls. Mostly, though, it was just fun to all be together.

We are so fortunate that Gerry and Susan got us all together from all over the country for the week. I was so lucky to marry into the Timm family and so glad we have this week every year and our kids will know each other growing up. A family of wonderful people and I love them all dearly.