Chris, Kelly, Lily, Olivia & Grandma all made the trip from NY over to Ohio for the July 4th weekend and it was a blast to have family in our new place to celebrate independence day. We packed a lot in during the extended weekend, by going to the famous Columbus Zoo, seeing fireworkds, playing in the backyard pool and eating lots of good homemade food that Grandma made.

Mateo was able to finally meet his two cute cousins in Lily and Olivia. He had a blast with both of them and there were lots of laughing and giggling as they played the whole weekend. Olivia and Mateo are only one week apart and both are growing like little rabbits so it was fun to see them face to face.

On saturday we decided to celebrate with a good ol' BBQ and some sparklers/fireworks show. The babies fell asleep for the light show but Lily was having a ball with the sparklers and watching daddy make short order of the small fireworks we were allowed to light in Ohio.

Sunday was the day for the world famous Columbus Zoo. The zoo lived up to the hype and we didn't get to see it all, but what we did see was great. The kids were excited (mostly Lily) and saw everything from Snakes to Gorrillas to Tigers and all. Surprisingly it wasn't too crowded and we'll definitely be making plans to visit again this year and see the rest that we missed. The Aquarium as well was nice and we got to see huge Manatees swimming around as the big attraction.

The next day we had some fun in the blow-up pool we put together for the kids. The water was a wee-bit cold so the little ones were not too excited about jumping in, but Lily was in and out of the pool and slip-n-slide all day under the hot sun. Maybe next time the water could be a lttle warmer so the babies can have a better chance of splashing around. But it made for good photos all the way.

We finished up the short week with a fun trip at the huge park/playground next to the house with the kids (and adults) playing in all kinds of fun contraptions. I wished I had this kind of park when we were kids but the little ones enjoyed themselves for one last day before Chris & Kelly had to leave to head back home.

 Again, thanks to all of the family for making the long drive out to Ohio. We loved having everyone over and can't wait to see you all again for the holidays.

We posted up tons and tons of pictures here in the gallery since its too much to put into this one post.