Benny's first road trip to Ohio!

Last week we left on Wednesday to go to Wooster, Ohio, a small town about an hour and a half southwest of Cleveland, where David's parents live. We had a fabulous time. Mimi (my mother in law) threw an open house style party the next day. Several of our NE Ohio friends and family came to visit, including David's close friends Joan and Marie (former co-worker and college buddy, respectively), my dear friends Karin and Tamara, and a whole slew of Woosterites that hadn't yet met Ben. Jim and Betty Blue drove down from their retirement community in Avon, Ohio. Jim is the brother of Bob Blue, one of my Grandpa Phil and Grandma Ginny's best friends, and Jim and Betty attend the same Unitarian Church in Rocky River that I went to while I was still freelancing in Cleveland years ago, and we've kept in touch. Small, small world! They had a lovely time holding Benjamin and it was such a treat to see them. Ben also got to spend some more quality time with his cousin Sara, who is exactly 4 months older than he is to the day, and had the treat of meeting his third cousin Hayley (daughter of David's 2nd cousin, Jenn Schlumbohm) at the open house.


From there we left for Columbus, Ohio, where we stayed with my brother Phil and his wife Julie. They have an 8 month old, Elise Madeline Hamlin, whom we had never met, and they hadn't yet met Ben. It was such a fun time! I took some pretty hysterical video of Elise's reaction to seeing Ben for the first time, and I'll try to upload that soon.

The last leg of our trip was Cincinnati, where my parents and sister's family live within a few blocks of eachother. We had a ball! My dad let me play two movements from the first cello suite that I had been working on, which was fun, and our niece Jenna had a lot of fun with her new little cousin. I got to see Kim and her new little one Julia, who's 6 weeks younger than Benny, and you should have seen him babble at her! Also got to see my parents' friend Jane, who is one of Benny's many honorary aunties. It was a lot of fun.

What a bountiful and loving extended family our little guy has already! Lots more to write - I'm majorly blogstipated, since I haven't written in ages - but it'll have to come in shorter spurts since I don't have long blocks of time to write anymore!