The Ohiyoh's Blogspot: September 2024

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Wayne County Fair

Normally, we are at the fair 2-3 times – to watch goats, to ride rides, to eat food, to look at stuff, maybe a concert. This year? We went once. And for a very short time.

We had just come off of being at Cedar Point all day Sunday until late at night. My feet and body were exhausted from riding rides and walking around. So, to wake up Monday to head to the fair was a hard thing. But Madison is in band and was performing at the fair. We wanted to watch her. So, we went.

We caught Sam and Lilli showing their turkeys. Checked in on their goats – Harry, Mary, and Lloyd (Dumb and Dumber allusion).

We went to check out the fair art

Ellie’s art

Madison’s art

and the 4H display.

Ellie ran into her friend, Clara, who joined us for awhile – to watch their friend show her pig and to eat lunch. And then I just shut down and so did Madison, but Ellie was not and so that was a conflict and was not a good end to the fair, but it was what it was.

We came home and the girls had volleyball practice yet. They had Tuesday off to sleep in and recover, so that was helpful.

Visitors

Jeremy’s extended family from Florida had planned to come through town on Labor Day. They were planning to see Gloria that day. Because this was attached to another trip, they came out anyway. And we were so glad to see them!

The girls both had volleyball games that day, but we took them after their game and met Ned and Judy (his aunt and uncle) and Ryan, Lori, Piper and Pace at the hotel restaurant where they were staying. The girls were so excited to see new baby Pace, born in July.

Piper is also entertaining. They got to read books and play hide and seek with her as well.

The adults talked and enjoyed each other’s company. It is always good to see family.

Jeremy’s birthday

Sometimes in the midst of school starting and the fair, Jeremy’s birthday gets lost. This year it is both was lost and celebrated.

He had signed up to ride in the VeloSano (Latin for “swift cure”) Bike for the Cure that he has participated in the past few years. He rode in honor of so many people, which is hard to come to grips with … how his list keeps getting longer of those he knows affected by cancer.

This year, his uncle David rode with him. And I am so thankful. We have had beautiful weather – almost no rain (which is not good, but does make for being outside nice!) with some comfortable summer days. However, September 7 was NOT beautiful in Cleveland. (It actually was kinda nice here though…) It rained the entire ride. The wind was super windy. The temperature was in the 50s. It was definitely not good riding weather. He said it made him stay motivated to keep riding knowing that those he were riding in honor of had gone through so much more. He and David made it, but it was not easy.

They got home around 3pm, unloaded the bikes, and then Jeremy realized that he did not have his wallet. He had left it on the bench where he had been eating after the ride. So, instead of going to the fair as we had planned, we all went back up to Cleveland to get his wallet and celebrate his birthday with some good food! He chose Mabel’s BBQ. It was delicious! (Some lady really wanted to take this picture of us with our menus)

We walked around that area of town a bit, but mostly ate and came home.

I made dirt pudding for him on his birthday which Madison enjoyed with him between volleyball games, youth group, practices, and everything else. The forgotten wallet was a blessing in disguise because we were actually together to enjoy each other!

Mini Vacations

Our first mini-vacation was to go to Blossom. We went on Labor Day weekend. Last year, we had done a Disney with the orchestra with Gloria the same weekend. This time it was Cirque du Soleil with the orchestra. We left quickly after church, packed some food for the night, and took off… without taking a look at the weather. We got to Blossom in good time, found a good parking spot, hauled our stuff in, and relaxed…

until it started to sprinkle. Madison and I had headed to the car to grab some warmer clothes/blankets/whatever we could find. We also bought the $5 ponchos because we needed something. And then we sat. In the rain.

But not all night. It did let up. And it was a cool evening, but otherwise nice. It is incredibly relaxing to just sit out and enjoy the music. (Makes for a late night, but it is worth it occasionally).

For our second mini-vacation, Christi Michaels invited us to go to Cedar Point with their family on September 8. She said it would be quiet that day because it was 1) after Labor Day, 2) before Hallow-Weekends, and 3) it is the first Sunday for NFL games. And she was right. There were hardly any lines, the day was gorgeous, and we could do whatever we wanted. We were definitely spoiled. It was the girls first time to the Point. Jeremy and I hadn’t been there for almost 10 years when we were SYF sponsors.

We got a medical pass so we could carry a bag that held snacks in case Ellie when low. It allowed us to stash the bag at roller coaster loading zones; it was really nice. We also bought two meal passes to be able to eat every 90 minutes – an entrée and a side dish. It was a great deal! We just grazed throughout the day, sharing the meals between the four of us.

We started with some older rides (Iron Dragon and Corkscrew) - which I thought would be so fun, but really just hurt my body because they were kinda rough. Christi, Mariah, and Jeremy had headed to a big ride (Steel Vengeance) that had basically no wait so they could knock that one off their list. The girls and I headed to the Cedar Creek Mine Ride. They loved it. I think they circled back and did that one at least 3-4 times in a row.

Then, we did Gemini, two tracks racing each other. Madison and I won :)

From there, I lost track of the order of how things went down, but we started in with the bigger rides – Gatekeeper (a scary first big coaster, that ended up being a top ride pick), Valravn, Raptor. Pretty sure that since there was basically no wait time, we did most rides twice in a row. Christi and I did the Power Tower. We did some smaller rides – bumper cars, Cedar Downs Racing Derby (amped up carousel), and Cadillac Cars (the girls drove!).

Finally, towards the end of the night, Christi and Mariah headed off to ride Maverick, and we worked to convinces the girls to go on Millennium Force. They did not love the look of the hill or the fact that it is just a lap brace and not a shoulder harness; to be fair, I am not a fan of that set up either… even though it is completely safe. But they did it – somewhat reluctantly – and they were both super excited (and proud) when it was done.

The ride winner was either Gatekeeper (rode that one 3x in a row to end the night – the last ride, Madison and I sat in the very front seat together!)

or Valravn (a ride where you literally hang facing down the hill for 3 seconds before being released… the girls were scared about that, but then embraced it!)