A visit to Ohio

Before time slips too far away, I have to post about my fun visit to Ohio. I flew out of SLC on Christmas afternoon. It's amazing how many people travel on Christmas day. Unfortunately, my Christmas dinner consisted of a hamburger and fries at the Chicago O'Hare airport at 7:00 p.m.

What I did on my Christmas Vacation

by Lauri Benson

1. The kids got a trampoline for Christmas and constantly said, "come jump with us Grandma." Who jumps on a trampoline in 17 degree weather? Apparently I do!





I forgot how much fun a trampoline is...and good exercise too. Parker became a little dare devil and learned to do front flips with no hands. Reid was excited because he "could jump really good with a prosthetic." Grayden loved it when I held him and jumped real high again and again. After about 30 minutes, we needed to go inside and warm up with some hot chocolate.


2. We took a trip down town for some shopping. The boys enjoyed shopping at the Lego store and I enjoyed shopping at Express (great deal on jeans!)

3. We stopped at a thrift store as well because we needed a project. Katie and I both ended up with cowl scarves. Check this out:

Start with a large men's sweater

I cut it off right underneath the sleeves, sewed bias tape across the top to keep it from unraveling, and here is my finished product:

No, as a matter of fact, this isn't the only shirt I ever wear, just the only one I takes pictures in, I guess.

You can check out Katie's scarf here. Fun, huh?

4. Katie's boys love costumes and one afternoon, they entertained me by dressing up in all of their costumes.

Grayden, the pirate. This cracks me up because he decided he needed a leather jacket to be a pirate...an UPSIDE DOWN leather jacket.
When Parker insisted that he needed the pirate hat, Grayden happily obliged because there were plenty of hats in the costume box...like this lovely red one.

The rockstar
Ben Ten

Batman and Robin....and their pet Cheetah

I laughed and laughed at these boys.

5. We had an afternoon of bowling.

Even with the bumpers, I got the lowest score! Pathetic, I know.

On the day I was to leave, Katie dropped me off at the airport. When I went to check in, I was informed that the plane was going to be delayed 2 hours due to mechanical troubles. That meant I missed my connecting flight. The ticket agent worked for 20 minutes to try to find me another flight and couldn't find anything until the next morning. I called Katie to tell her I was staying for one more night. She told me I couldn't do it, I'd have to stay there. She finally relented after 1 1/2 hours and came and got me. What kind of a daughter is she?! (TRUE STORY!)

When I flew out the next morning, they upgraded me to first class for both flights. I realized what I'd been missing all these years.

It was a much needed visit and I'm glad I got it.