We packed our coloring books, toys and other important items and headed off to 10 days of visiting friends and family in Ohio and then cousin Cameron's wedding in Chicago. Here we are, waiting to take off from the airport. We flew this leg on United, so every other plane in sight was of course a United plane as well. Hazel slept the first two hours of the flight and then colored the rest of the way to Cleveland - very nice since Daddy was sitting a few rows back.
Our first stop was four days with cousin Jenna & Andrew, their three girls (and the rest of the
Liptak family). Hazel had a blast playing with
Meredyth, Maggi and Emma Clare. Among other things, she learned to call me "Mom" while we were there, which somehow shortened to just "Ma" by the end of the trip. We're working on brainwashing her back to "Mommy." The girls fought over who got to sit next to Hazel, etc, and enjoyed playing with Daddy as well.
Here's Emma Clare in the midst of her beauty regime. She called Hazel a baby, even though she's only 6 months older than Hazel. Pretty funny. Hazel was very impressed that Emma Clare can already ride a real bicycle, albeit with training wheels. We practiced Hazel's tricycle riding a bit while there, but I can see we need to get cracking on those skills.
Here's adorable cousin Samuel. He was standing fairly sturdily and will be running after all his cousins soon, I'm sure.
Hazel listened to
Meredyth's lovely piano playing and decided she needed sheet music to read from. Richard
Scarry's books are perfect for teaching so many things. :)
Meredyth taught Hazel some soccer skills, but then I think they got distracted by some bugs.
And the most important thing Hazel learned from the girls was how to walk in plastic, heeled, princess shoes. She added the binoculars to the outfit and said she was looking for forest fires. (Maggi was at safety day camp that week and had learned how to stop, drop and roll, so fires were the topic one day).
We also enjoyed visiting cousin Cadence (and family). Cadence and Hazel's great grandmothers were sisters, and I could just imagine the two of them playing together almost a hundred years ago. Cadence has the most gorgeous ringlets.
I included this one, just because I love the point of her foot. Maybe I'll change my mind and let her try ballet sometime. It's just so
girly...
Next, we went on our way to Marion, OH and our long-time family friends - Harold and
Seleta. Hazel heard Harold's name and said, "and he'll have a purple crayon." Well... we didn't see a purple crayon, but Harold did take Hazel to their pond to feed the fish. And, after struggling to share toys with her cousins for so many days, Hazel got to play with the toys here all by herself. The Fisher Price castle was a favorite - I hadn't seen that one before.
Then it was on to Daddy's cousins Rick & Caroline in Kentucky (just across the river from Cincinnati), where Hazel called their two teenagers Will & Ben collectively "the boys." They had gotten out their old Thomas the Tank Engine table and accessories, and that kept Hazel happy for hours. We spent one day down at the aquarium on the Ohio River, which was very impressive. There was an entire room of different kinds of jelly fish. It made our local aquarium look pretty boring. And frogs were included as well.
Caroline made yummy chocolate chip pancakes. I think Hazel liked them. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the adorable baby Sam, cousin Rob & Linda's little man. Hazel played with all his baby toys, and when she claimed possession of the key to his little playhouse, she was nice enough to find him a ring of plastic keys, so he'd have some too.
Having only boys, Caroline enjoyed treating Hazel to some items to complete her fairy princess outfit, started by wings and skirt from cousin Joy. Caroline added a princess purse, necklace, bracelet, jewelled hair clips and most importantly, Hazel's very own Cinderella plastic, heeled shoes. (Hazel's still practicing walking in the shoes. They're apparently best worn one at a time, and she can only shuffle in them, since they're twice the length of her feet.) That's the very affectionate Sadie looking on.
Really, our only long driving day was from KY back to the east Cleveland area, about 6 hours. Hazel was happy in the backseat, amusing herself with books, maps, and toys. Good thing we had a backup system in place, in case our GPS failed. Hazel loves looking at maps right now.
In Aurora, OH we stayed with Daddy's Aunt Lucy and visited with her grandchildren Joe and Megan (and their mom Lynn).
We went to the Stan
Hywet estate (where cousin Jenna & Andrew got married) and had fun exploring the architect-designed dog house display.
Then it was off to watch Megan's baseball game. It was so hot. Joe introduced Hazel to some of his friends and then took refuge from the heat under an umbrella. He was quite taken with her - it was very cute.
We arrived early for our flight to Chicago, to discover that somehow our boarding passes were for the previous day. We bought new tickets for a flight four hours later, and then the power went out during a spectacular thunder and lightening storm. We did fly out about eight hours after arriving at the airport. And if you think that eight hours at the airport with a toddler was tough, you'd be wrong. Hazel was so good. Since she's interested in just about everything, we just kept suggesting new things. Here she is walking on the windowsills and "making photos" and visiting "her website" on Daddy's phone. She also sat and watched two boys playing catch with a football and said, "He caught it.
Yaay!" with every catch. I hope they were amused. We arrived at our Chicago hotel at 12:30 am. She had fallen asleep in the car, and this was the first time ever that she was so asleep that she didn't wake up while we set up the room, changed her into her pajamas and put her to bed.
We were all fairly sleep deprived by the wedding weekend, and I took very few pictures. Hazel had fun playing with several cousins and enjoyed whatever amusements our tired brains could still come up with - like riding on the suitcase. She was very
binky dependent on the trip, but we're back to the
binky only at bedtime. Just wanted to add that Hazel took a daily nap for two weeks after we got home, catching up on sleep. Back to the normal no naps now. :)
Our first stop was four days with cousin Jenna & Andrew, their three girls (and the rest of the Liptak family). Hazel had a blast playing with Meredyth, Maggi and Emma Clare. Among other things, she learned to call me "Mom" while we were there, which somehow shortened to just "Ma" by the end of the trip. We're working on brainwashing her back to "Mommy." The girls fought over who got to sit next to Hazel, etc, and enjoyed playing with Daddy as well.
Here's Emma Clare in the midst of her beauty regime. She called Hazel a baby, even though she's only 6 months older than Hazel. Pretty funny. Hazel was very impressed that Emma Clare can already ride a real bicycle, albeit with training wheels. We practiced Hazel's tricycle riding a bit while there, but I can see we need to get cracking on those skills.
Here's adorable cousin Samuel. He was standing fairly sturdily and will be running after all his cousins soon, I'm sure.
Hazel listened to Meredyth's lovely piano playing and decided she needed sheet music to read from. Richard Scarry's books are perfect for teaching so many things. :) 
Meredyth taught Hazel some soccer skills, but then I think they got distracted by some bugs.
And the most important thing Hazel learned from the girls was how to walk in plastic, heeled, princess shoes. She added the binoculars to the outfit and said she was looking for forest fires. (Maggi was at safety day camp that week and had learned how to stop, drop and roll, so fires were the topic one day).
We also enjoyed visiting cousin Cadence (and family). Cadence and Hazel's great grandmothers were sisters, and I could just imagine the two of them playing together almost a hundred years ago. Cadence has the most gorgeous ringlets.
I included this one, just because I love the point of her foot. Maybe I'll change my mind and let her try ballet sometime. It's just so girly...
Next, we went on our way to Marion, OH and our long-time family friends - Harold and Seleta. Hazel heard Harold's name and said, "and he'll have a purple crayon." Well... we didn't see a purple crayon, but Harold did take Hazel to their pond to feed the fish. And, after struggling to share toys with her cousins for so many days, Hazel got to play with the toys here all by herself. The Fisher Price castle was a favorite - I hadn't seen that one before. 
Then it was on to Daddy's cousins Rick & Caroline in Kentucky (just across the river from Cincinnati), where Hazel called their two teenagers Will & Ben collectively "the boys." They had gotten out their old Thomas the Tank Engine table and accessories, and that kept Hazel happy for hours. We spent one day down at the aquarium on the Ohio River, which was very impressive. There was an entire room of different kinds of jelly fish. It made our local aquarium look pretty boring. And frogs were included as well.
Having only boys, Caroline enjoyed treating Hazel to some items to complete her fairy princess outfit, started by wings and skirt from cousin Joy. Caroline added a princess purse, necklace, bracelet, jewelled hair clips and most importantly, Hazel's very own Cinderella plastic, heeled shoes. (Hazel's still practicing walking in the shoes. They're apparently best worn one at a time, and she can only shuffle in them, since they're twice the length of her feet.) That's the very affectionate Sadie looking on.
Really, our only long driving day was from KY back to the east Cleveland area, about 6 hours. Hazel was happy in the backseat, amusing herself with books, maps, and toys. Good thing we had a backup system in place, in case our GPS failed. Hazel loves looking at maps right now.
In Aurora, OH we stayed with Daddy's Aunt Lucy and visited with her grandchildren Joe and Megan (and their mom Lynn). 
We went to the Stan Hywet estate (where cousin Jenna & Andrew got married) and had fun exploring the architect-designed dog house display.
Then it was off to watch Megan's baseball game. It was so hot. Joe introduced Hazel to some of his friends and then took refuge from the heat under an umbrella. He was quite taken with her - it was very cute.
We arrived early for our flight to Chicago, to discover that somehow our boarding passes were for the previous day. We bought new tickets for a flight four hours later, and then the power went out during a spectacular thunder and lightening storm. We did fly out about eight hours after arriving at the airport. And if you think that eight hours at the airport with a toddler was tough, you'd be wrong. Hazel was so good. Since she's interested in just about everything, we just kept suggesting new things. Here she is walking on the windowsills and "making photos" and visiting "her website" on Daddy's phone. She also sat and watched two boys playing catch with a football and said, "He caught it. Yaay!" with every catch. I hope they were amused. We arrived at our Chicago hotel at 12:30 am. She had fallen asleep in the car, and this was the first time ever that she was so asleep that she didn't wake up while we set up the room, changed her into her pajamas and put her to bed.
We were all fairly sleep deprived by the wedding weekend, and I took very few pictures. Hazel had fun playing with several cousins and enjoyed whatever amusements our tired brains could still come up with - like riding on the suitcase. She was very binky dependent on the trip, but we're back to the binky only at bedtime. Just wanted to add that Hazel took a daily nap for two weeks after we got home, catching up on sleep. Back to the normal no naps now. :)
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