Our Trip To Cleveland...During The Coldest Week Ever

So last week we flew to Cleveland to visit McCall's family. And boy did we choose the perfect week to be there. Record lows and non-stop snow. Yep, that basically sums up our trip. Meanwhile, Los Angeles set a record for the warmest week in January. Nice timing.

Here now, is the Blogosphere version of family vacation slides.



Harper Jo and Charlie, McCall's mother's dog.

Harper had never seen real snow before. She'd seen a lot about snow in cartoons and heard all about it at school. But to actually see her experience it for the first time was awesome. And all she wanted to do was make snow angels.

The finished product!


And more snow angels...

Seriously, this is all she did in the snow for two days!

Well, that and this...



I love this picture. Harper looks so happy to be in the snow. Everything is so peaceful. You can imagine the wooded area we found to take this snap shot.



In reality it was next to the hotel parking lot...


We spent a lot of time participating in indoor activities like eating meals, watching TV, and taking naps. But McCall found the Cleveland Children's Museum online, so we braved the frozen tundra and drove through the whipping snow to be inside somewhere else instead of our hotel room.




The Cleveland Children's Museum features animal costumes for the kiddos. Or, if you're married to McCall, they're for everyone. Hooray!













Piggy Marley

McCall is one hot chick!

Harper driving. I thought I had another 14 years
before this nightmare becomes reality.

ET?
No, it's HJ!

The Cleveland Children's Museum teaches kids how to shop.
What a valuable service!





"What?"

"This one was on sale!"

Marley the weatherman says, "Expect more snow, Cleveland."



McCall's mom (or Mamoo) has quite a menagerie at her home: dog, cat, pig, sheep, llama, two alpacas. One of Harper's favorites is an African Gray named Einstein. Einstein can sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", but he's also an Indians fan which begs the question how smart can he really be, but I digress. Harper loved feeding him peanuts, which I told her was bird food. After seeing me eat several she started asking me for bird food.








"Seriously, what?!?"

We visited our good friend's the Weinstocks and Harper got to catch up with their daughter, Gilda.

Then, deciding that Cleveland just wasn't exciting enough, we drove 45 minutes south to Akron! There we spent the evening with McCall's friend Rachel. Harper loved Rachel's kids, Clay and Gwen.








"Hold everything, you two..."












"...smile if you want hot chocolate."










Marley even got to meet his Great Grandparents John and Joanne Sanders...





























"We want to go home!"


Cutest...baby picture...ever!


Last round of "goodbyes" before heading home...

Mamoo


Uncle Jeff


Great Grandma Sanders


Great Grandpa Sanders


One Final Note:
Sunday, after we got home, McCall ended up with a flat tire about two blocks from our house. While walking up to meet her (in flip flops, a t-shirt, and shorts), I was thinking about how warm it was. I couldn't believe that only a day before I was packing up a car in the falling snow with a frozen mustache! In spite of it all, I think we had a great time, but were all very thankful to be back home.