For the July 4th weekend this year, we decided to make a last minute trip back to Ohio. Katie had just started work on July 1st, so we didn't know whether she would have the 5th off or not until just a few days before. Luckily she didn't have to be at work on the 5th, so we decided to drive back to Eaton after work on the 3rd, so once again we got in around midnight. Charlie woke up early on the 4th and went running to keep up with his training for the marathon and then we were going to head to Cincy for the Reds game but the weather was not cooperating and decided to rain us out. Instead of the Reds game, we met Grumpa and Tom and Leslie for lunch at Gold Star Chili. Brady didn't try the chili yet, just stuck with something a little safer for his tummy, chicken fingers and french fries. The rest of the day we just relaxed at Grandma and Grandpa Mowry's house and then for dinner we took Brady to his first nice steak house - Ruth Chris Steakhouse. Katie was a bit skeptical of how baby friendly Ruth Chris would be and how Brady would behave but she was pleasantly surprised by both. The restaurant had high chairs and a kids menu and the waitstaff seemed to love Brady because every time they would walk by they would smile and make him laugh and Brady behaved like a little gentleman. He tried alittle bit of our steak but mostly ate the mashed sweet potatoes. Since Brady goes to bed around 8pm and it was raining off and on, we decided it would be too difficult to go see fireworks, so we settled on Graters ice cream.
We also got a picture with the Bengals stadium in the background. Maybe Brady's first words will be "Who Dey"!
Friday July 5th morning, we drove up to Columbus to meet with our realtor and go inspect our condo. We hadn't seen the condo since we moved out almost 3 years ago. We have had very good renters though, so we were very impressed with how well the place looked. We were contemplating putting the condo on the market, but the renters have been so good that we decided to keep renting it to them till next spring. It was funny to take Brady to the first house we lived in together, and Katie was getting sentimental and remembering all the good times we had in that condo.
After seeing the condo we went to see a couple of our friends that were around with such short notice. We got to see Ashley and Craig and their twins which were born just 8 days after Brady, so it was really fun getting the babies together again and swapping stories. It's funny, Parker was so mobile - crawling all over the place! Compared with Brady and Elliot, who seemed to be much more content to stay in the same place! I guess it's true what they say that girls develop a bit faster :)
For dinner we went over to New Albany to meet Jeff and Stacie and their little 2 year old boy, Jack. We were amazed at how much of a big boy Jack was and Brady and him seemed to get along very well. Charlie went out for a few drinks with Jeff and some other former KPMG Columbus friends.
The next morning, we drove back to Eaton to pick up our dog and see Grandma and Grandpa Carico. We stopped in Dayton and meet up with Aunt Abby and Grandma Leslie for lunch at Cassano's Pizza. Oh how we love Mid-west pizza. Abby was getting ready to move up to Akron to begin her residency as a surgeon, so she was glad to take a break from packing to meet us for lunch.
Once we got to Eaton, Griffey was so excited to see us again. He starts jumping all over us and runs around very excited. We spent the night there and then headed back to Chicago in the morning. Charlie had another work trip planned so Katie's mom actually rode back with us to come help with Brady while Charlie was out of town and Katie was only on her second week of work. Oh thank goodness for Grandparents!
