Will's 4th Birthday

Lots of catching up to do!!!

Beginning with William Dean's 4th birthday!

{June 8, 2011}

Haha. Nice face smile, huh?

The night before Will's birthday, Craig and I blew up a bunch of balloons and dropped them all over Will's floor beside his bed and into the hallway for him to wake up to. We also filled some with helium for the doorways.

Will is ALWAYS the first one awake in our house when given the choice. Always.

We brought him into our bed and he opened a few gifts before we started our day. The monster trucks daddy got him were definitely his fave.

But he also got some new dino jammies and a couple clothing items.

All of our plans for the day did a complete 180 upon hearing of a perfect opportunity to spend our day on Put-in-Bay. Originally, I wanted to take him strawberry picking again and maybe do a picnic and library trip and whatever else he wanted. But the Pepsi Day (where you get a $5 ride on the Jet Express just for bringing in a can of Pepsi product) just happened to fall on his birthday. It's only offered once a summer - usually in June and usually during the week - and Craig had never been there! Can you believe that? So how lucky for us that it fell on his birthday! Craig and I both took the day off (I feel kind of bad that he didn't do that for Sophie but maybe next year he will) and Sophie went to Grandma Riedeman's house while we were away.

Arriving in Port Clinton, Will got to see a drawbridge open for the Jet to come through. How astonishing for a four year old that the road can open up like that!

We parked just a short distance from the docks and walked there.

Pausing for a pic.

Happy dude.

Boarding the Jet.

After taking the above pictures, Will really wanted to sit on the top deck. So we did.

Ship, turned house.

Arriving on Put-in-Bay.

Another big reason for our excitement to come here was to see my cousin, Brianne, who is living and working at a private club on the island for the summer. Will was so excited to see her. He ran up screaming her name when he saw her from a distance. :) He also yelled "It's my birthday today!" Four is such a great age. ;)

My mom, aunt, grandma and great aunts came too and we just sort of split up and did our own thing on the island, convening mainly for lunch.

Will is waiting for us to rent a golf cart here.

While daddy was getting the cart, Will and I crossed the street and he played on the huge playground for a bit.

Oh my gosh. The cart was such a big hit. Probably the best part of the whole trip! Just driving around this quaint place in an open-air vehicle where he felt like he was in a glorified Barbie Jeep? Awesome!

Brianne tells us she feels like she is on vacation every day here. Not bad for a job, eh?

So the first thing we did was just circle around the island and check everything out. Like I said, this was Craig's first time here so we wanted to see the homes and the roads and the businesses. Wine is HUGE here so there were lots of vineyards and wineries.

This is The Crew's Nest (I think it's called?) where Brianne works.

Will wanted so badly to drive. ;)

And just like last year, we honored the minute he was born (11:02 a.m.) with lots of hugs and smooches.

The first place we stopped to visit was a wildlife center.

Taxidermy creeps me out a little, but Will was fascinated. The center was filled with all kinds of animals for him to check out.

The lady at the center was very knowledgeable and told us a lot of information about the various animals. Here, Craig and Will were looking at a wolverine and the lady was telling Will that every other animal in this building would run from the wolverine because of how nasty they were. So there was a discussion of how tough the wolverines were and of couse Craig had to add that "I've heard a buckeye can kill it..." Haha.

Here, she's explaining to him the difference between antlers and horns.

Pretty life-like, huh?

Creepy.

Checking out a porcupine quill.

A lynx. Check out this guy's odd body proportions. Super small head for his body and super huge feet!

And this, ladies and gents, is a mudhen. Doesn't exactly look like the Muddy we know, does it?

A touch and feel board of animal coats.

Outside, posing in the eagle mural.

After the wildlife center, we met the group for lunch at The Goat. Very pretty place and excellent fish tacos.

My family: me, mom, Brianne, Aunt Shirley (Brianne's mom and my Godmother) and Grandma.

Next stop for Craig and Will and I was Crystal Cave at Heineman's Winery.

Love these blue doors.

Okay, I should remember more details of our tour but I brain has totally replace all that with all the details of breastfeeding support and proper latching that I learned this last week. Haha! I do know they told us we were descending 47 (I think?) stairs down into the cave and that the cave remained at a pretty constant temperature of 55 degrees, except when large tour groups temporarily elevated the temps.

Solid crystals.

Oh! I also remember that they told us we were inside the world's largest geode down there. Cool! :)

It took them an incredible amount of time just to clear enough pathway for visitors to come through, so it's a bit cozy down there. Thankfully, our group wasn't large.

More geodes for sale in the gift shop.

Our tour came as a package deal with a tour of the winery as well. I didn't take lots of pictures in here because it was just a lot of equipment - kinda' boring. Our guide told us all about the process of making wine... about a 15-20 minute tour.

Oak barrels are no longer used. These are just for show. Now, if they want to create that oak flavor in a wine, they just add oak chips to the bottom of the tank and it creates the same flavor.

Lake Erie's most popular wine selections and the awards they've won. Pink Catawba is their top seller more than all the others combined. I think Casey would agree.

At the end of our tour, we received samples of either their grape juice or their wine. Both were delicious. Will only got the juice - duh.

I had really hoped to visit the memorial and go up to the top for an awesome view, but it's currently closed for updates or maintenance or whatever. Boo. Maybe next time.

One more kissing picture before reboarding the jet.

We took the 8:45 ferry over and the 2:30 ferry back and we were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home. Will and I both fell asleep in the car and we all tried to doze for a bit when we got home. I think it was the sun and the wind from the top deck of the Jet, but our energy was zapped!

Anyway, Will requested burgers for dinner and I've had tons of side dishes crowding my refridgerator the past couple weeks so we had plenty of side dish options as well.

Pretty sure burgers are his favorite now.

For dessert: ice cream sundaes and a chocolate chip cookie. We put a candle in and sang to him and Sophie loved doing that.

Overall, a very happy day.

I love spending birthdays with my kids!

Happy 4th Birthday, buddy!

We love you!!!