Final Cleveland Pictures: Happy 7th Anniversary!

This final post of our October Cleveland trip is dedicated to Mommy and Daddy Jean.  I keep this blog all about the kids (mainly because these books are expensive to print out, so I have to censor what I post, so to speak....that, and our adult lives are totally uninteresting, haha), but I will make an exception this time, as without a wedding to celebrate, there would be no children.  So kids, when you are reading this, your father and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary while we were up in Cleveland.  Maw Maw and Pop Pop Sattelmeyer watched the kids for a couple of nights while Phil and I returned to the scene of the crime from seven years ago.  It was totally awesome.  As Dave Matthews sings, "You and me together; we can do anything...baaaaby".  I love you, Phillip Jean.

 

We spent a couple of nights at the Wyndham Hotel, which is where we spent our wedding night.  It is a couple of doors down from the Cleveland Athletic Club, where we had our wedding reception.

 This is a picture of us in our suite. As soon as we stepped into the room, we both went, "Aaah, I totally remember this".

This is a picture of Phil and I in the elevator in 2012....

 ...and this is a pic of Phil and I in the elevator in 2005, the morning after our wedding.

The Cleveland Athletic Club and Wyndham Hotel is on Playhouse Square, which is where there are four theaters.

 This is Phil and I posing outside of the Cleveland Athletic Club.

 And this picture made us want to cry.  The CAC apparently closed several years ago due to financial issues.  What a waste; that place was so beautiful.  The CAC was founded in 1908 and closed it's doors 99 years later.  What an absolute shame.

 

 Following our depression at viewing the CAC in it's disparity, we decided to cheer ourselves up with a visit to the West Side Farmer's Market, an establishment that is also almost a century old.

 We were pretty impressed with the size and PRICES of the shrimp at the farmer's market...not sure why we pay more for shrimp in a coastal area where shrimp is abundant.  But whatever.

 Remember this lamp from "A Christmas Story"?  The movie was filmed in Cleveland.  Not sure who the creeper is in the lower left-hand corner who is photo-bombing my picture.

 We had lunch one day at the amazing Great Lakes Brewing Company.  YUM.

 It's basement kind of creeped me out.  It kind of reminded me of the tour we went on at the Old Provost Dungeon in Charleston....lots of history in these old places.

 Taking a quick drive-by of what I will always call Jacobs Field.

 Cleveland is really trying to revitalize the downtown area.  This is a street called Live! on 4th Street!  I think they are copying off of Louisville's 4th Street Live! area, which is a pretty fun area of downtown Lousiville.  Cleveland must be doing a good job of all of the revamping, as we actually felt pretty safe walking the streets of downtown during our stay, which is more than I can say from 10 years ago.

 We walked over to Tower City one night to watch a movie and hit the new casino.

 Horseshoe Casino, which just opened up this spring.  It was pretty cool inside.

 Phil always has the best of luck at these slot machines.  He won over $30 dollars at the nickel slots.  Ker-ching!

 Loving this armored battle vehicle that is randomly driving the streets of Cleveland.  Is this why the streets of Cleveland are being deemed as safer??

 Aaah... October 15, 2005.  An amazing night.....and a fantastic trip down memory lane 7 years later.

Jean Family Photos: October in Cleveland

Photos taken by Paw Paw....with an appearance from Uncle Jon Jon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleveland Natural History Museum

Here are some pictures from when Avery and I visited the Natural History Museum in Cleveland.  I haven't been back here since I was in gradeschool, I think....funny how it seemed a lot bigger and scarier then.  Avery walked through the museum quickly at first and kept his distance from the dinosaurs.  He even said, "Mommy, they're kinda scary".  But after we visited the gift shop and he bought a "talking" dinosaur, he got excited about them and wanted to go through the museum again.  Way to conquer your fears, Avery Jean!

 

Happy 20 Months, Kayla

The Cleveland Zoo and Rainforest

While in Cleveland, we waited for a warm day and made sure we took a trip to the zoo (sixty degrees was the "high" that day).  Kayla had not been to a zoo since we went when she was a couple of months old and visiting Cleveland.  Yeah, Charleston could really use a zoo.

 

Avery and I rode the tram to the top of the hill to check out the gorillas.



 This poor, tired, old lion is catching some rays and Vitamin D before his seasonal affective disorder begins this year.

 Avery running in the rainforest, missing half of the sights.

 "DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!!!"  Sheesh.  Message recieved, kid.

 I am not sure what these things are, but they must be steroid-consuming, second cousins to the guinea pigs that I had as pets while growing up.  I also like this picture because if you look closely, the mom is doing all the work, feeding four kids, while the dad just sits there, oblivious to the dirty kitchen and dishes piling up.  Note: this is not a passive-agressive dig at my awesome husband, Phil, who does his share of helping out in the home.  It is merely an observation on the genetic wiring of most men, that apparently does not discriminate between species.

I tried to over-simplify some of the animals in the rainforest to the kids.  At this particular exhibit, I said, "Look Avery, there is a monkey!".  To which he replied, "No mom, that is an orangutan".  Oops, my bad.



 Maw-Maw and Kayla in front of the awesome waterfall at the entrance of the rainforest (my "photography" skills did not do this waterfall any justice). Sidenote: Phil and I almost picked the rainforest as our wedding venue seven years ago.

 Cute elephants placed around the entire zoo.

Avery in awe of the gorillas, his favorite exhibit at the Cleveland zoo.

 I wish I had time to switch to my zoon lens on the camera.  The things we don't have time for when we are "supervising"our children.

Speaking of "supervising", I thought I was being an awesome mom by letting Avery run free at the gorilla exhibit, to get all of his pent-up energy out from the 13 hour car ride to Cleveland....

 ....but apparently, I didn't see the big trip and head butt into the concrete coming.  After three and a half years, Avery had his first major nosebleed from breaking the fall with his nose.  I tried to play it cool in order to keep him calm, but the sight of all of that blood pouring out of my baby's nose wanted me to yell, "NURSE!!!!" (too bad I wasn't at work).  Check out my poor baby's swollen nose (that was still dripping with a little blood).

 You know your kid has seen "Madagascar" one too many times when he refers to this animal as "Marty" instead of, "Oh look, there's a zebra!".

 I give up trying to get pictures of my children.  Seriously????  Let me just go find a boring flower somewhere and click away.