But before the summer is all gone and winter sets in we're going to have to go visit a few other "beaches" around the Great Lakes and there's always Niagra Falls which is about 5 hours away and may be well worth the drive up north.

More pictures can be found here in Gallery under the Columbus section.

Needless to say, we were very well comfortable and there was room for all 14 of us to sleep and play throughout the huge cabin. Most of the family arrived on Thurs afternoon-evening but Rene & Rose could get in till later Friday due to work. But after everyone staked out their place to squat - we began the weekend's activities of eating, drinking, playing and catching up on the year's events.

Friday we ate a hearty breakfast and then took a family hike from the cabin down to the nearby fishing ponds. Going down was much much easier than climbing back up. Everyone was on the lookout for the local area bears and wildlife but alas, no luck this year. We came back, played some horseshoes and ate lunch and settled in playing relaxing while the teens played video games down in the media basement. We corralled some wood nearby and then chatted the night away by the campfire drinking Jr's Happy Juice concoction.

We all woke up on Saturday to the smell of a good Dominican breakfast that was followed by an army-sized pot of Sancocho that Rose cooked up for lunch that could've fed half the mountainside.  That is going to have to be a recurring meal from here on out it was that good. We relaxed on the hammocks and the hottub was getting good use most the day while Jr. and the boys went off adventuring looking for the local swimming spots by the river.  More horseshoes, dominoes, foosball and other fun was the order of the rest of the day while we got a roaring campfire going for that night.

All in all it was a blast and all the kids and family had a great time.  The drive was long but well worth it and the cabin was pretty much perfect and had everything we needed. We will definitely be back again and can't wait till next summer where we'll meet again for our annual gathering.

All the rest of the photos can be found Here within the Gallery.

Grandma cooked up tons of food, pies, deserts and side dishes - all of it was delicious. I think she started this year making homemade pies 5 days early - that may be a record.  We had traditional Dominican food most every morning, which alone was well worth the trip :) But after a whole week back home - there were a few more notches to use on our belts.

And to top off the fun weekend - we got to celebrate the Baptism of Olivia and Lily on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The girls looked very pretty in their white dresses and through it all - behaved well having the priest bless and baptize them during the ceremony.

We took lots and lots of pictures throughout the whole weekend. All are posted here in the NY section of our gallery.

Since they were celebrating Veteran's Day at the HoF, we got in free :) The had exhibits for different eras of football and lots of team information so naturally we went over to look at the NY Giants section. Got to see the old great Hall of Famers like Harry Carson, LT, Y.A Tittle, and Phil Simms. They also had the David Tyree's helmet and ball from the famous catch in the Superbowl two years ago when the Giants beat New England.

The rest of the pics from our trip are here in the Columbus section of our photo gallery.

Thank God Mommy found an outfit that also happened to be warm as well since it was in the low 40s for trick-or-treating. We made a few walks around the block and Mateo got to ring the doorbell and get some good treats. We then came back home and handed out candies to all the kids in the neighborhood. We saw plenty of Spidermans, Wolverines, Princesses and one little girl in a Scooby-Doo outfit.

Hopefully next year he'll be able to walk up to the door himself, but overall it was fun to get out and get some good treats.

It rained the day before so it was a little bit muddy but nothing terrible to walk through. There were lots of decent size pumpkins of all different shapes, sizes and colors but what look great on paper to pick your own pumpkins comes to a quick realization that you have to carry that heavy monster back from the patch to the cashier :) So our thoughts of getting a winning state fair 50 pounder was dashed and we settled for a more manageable 20lb pumpkin..lol

Now it is up to Mom to find a better Halloween outfit for Mateo since Dad's little Yoda outfit last year didn't really fit a 1mo old :) I'm still gunning for him to be a Pirate Ninja (c'mon what's better than that?!) - we'll see..

Rest of the pictures here in our Columbus section of the photo gallery.

Wow! What a wonderful gift! Our baby Mateo has turned one year old! We can't believe how fast this year has gone by...  We had a wonderful day celebrating Mateo's first birthday.. although, I'm sure he won't remember : )

  Daddy, mommy and the birthday boy spent the day together, beginning with a trip to the AHA! Childrens Museum in Lancaster, Ohio. Mateo had lots of fun playing with the different discovery stations and walking around the building - yes, I said walking! We then made the one hour trip back home for cake and gifts. Mateo loved his first birthday cake (as you can tell from the pic) and enjoyed the paper and boxes that the gifts were wrapped in! Why is it they always like the box and not the gift?... (note to self for xmas). We had lots of fun, took lots of pictures, ate lots of cake and then it was time for bed.

  This has been a wonderful year with our little gift from God and are looking forward to the next year, and the next... forever.

The rest of the pictures can be found here in our gallery.