Saturday, June 14, 2008

O-H-I-O

Every time that I talk to my parents, they ask me what I've been up to, and if I say, "Nothing," they say, "Oh, come on, you guys are always up to something fun." And usually they are right. I think that I actually get the drive to explore our city from my parents. I moved a lot growing up, which I didn't love at the time, but I appreciate now. With each move, we had some many new places to explore and my parents always jumped right in and took advantage. They didn't let the fact that they had four little kids stop them from doing some pretty awesome things. We saw Dorothy's rubber slippers in the Smithsonian when we were living in DC, we visited the Grand Ole Opry while we were living in Tennessee, we camped in Goblin Valley while we were living in Utah, we swam at Sacred Falls while we were living in Hawaii. Oh I'm sure there was complaining and moaning, and I know there was usually a very tight budget, but my parents didn't lose their adventurous spirits.

Later, when I wanted to be an exchange student in Japan, they didn't hesitate to let their 16 year old go. And when I decided to study abroad in London, they encouraged me and when my mom saw that my account was getting low, she asked me if I needed her to deposit more money in my account because she didn't want me to miss out on anything. She even encouraged me to tour Europe afterwards, but I was in too much of a hurry to get home to Larry after four months away.

Now when I move, I try to follow their examples and dive right in to local life. It's funny how my friends who've grown up in Columbus often tell me that I've seen way more of the city than they have, and I think it's because I'm used to the idea that my time where ever I live is limited. Most of my life it seems, there's always been another move scheduled so I just tried to use the time I had to its fullest.

Even though I've had seven years in Columbus(by far the longest I have ever lived anywhere), I still have a list of things I'd like to do here. The past year, we've been doing our best to check things off of the list, but it just keeps growing because we keep adding new things. This week we checked off eating at the Banana Bean Cafe, eating at El Arepazo, visiting the zoo one last time.
Can you tell that Creed's shorts are on backwards? We didn't realize until halfway through the zoo.
I guess that's what happens when Dad gets you dressed fast!
We saw Sabrina at the Ohio theater because I HAD to pack in one last movie from the CAPA summer move series (thanks Nikki and David for a great double date)but I've come to accept that there are many things on the list, that we just will not get to. Instead the list has been shoved aside to try to squeeze in as much time with our family and friends here as possible. We celebrated Donny's birthday a bit late, and loved having him stay with us briefly. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie with Kirk and Eva. We've been having regular movie nights with Kirk and Eva where we take turns cooking and then put Creed to bed and watch a movie and we made if through all the Indiana Jones and Back to the Future movies with them so we had to see the new Indy movie with them, even if it wasn't the best. Lucky for us, and not so lucky for Kirk and Eva, their basement flooded in a freak storm this week and there power was knocked out so we got to have a big sleepover here.
We celebrated Father's Day early with the Erneys and Hudsons. I don't even want to think about how much we will miss them.
I guess having so much notice that we would be moving this summer was good in away because it helped us use our time wisely so we wouldn't be full of regrets of things we never had a chance to do and people we wish we'd spent more time with.
So is there anything that you've been interested in doing, but never seem to get around to it? Make a plan TODAY! You won't regret it!

9 comments:

Anna said...

you got to see Sabrina at the Ohio Theatre!? I'm super jealous. We're going to the Gateway in SL to see the Chalk Art Festival today. Reading your blog really did inspire me to check out my home town and a year ago I would have told you there wasn't that much to do in Utah...but now we have WAY too MUCH to do. If you guys are here in time you should check out Lavendar Days in Mona, UT. Thanks for inspiring me to be more adventurous.

Stephanie said...

I love that you completely embrace whatever city you're in. We've lived 40 minutes east of San Francisco for the past 10 years and there is SO much I still haven't seen. I think I'm going to change that really soon!

Thanks for the inspiration :)

amyh said...

John and I were devastated to discover today that we've missed the washboard festival AGAIN! My goal is to be a better planner.

Kim said...

Thanks for the nice tribute. We did have lots of fun adventures. I'm looking forward to creating lots of new memories with you soon. I know you will miss Ohio and all your wonderful friends.

TX Girl said...

I'm always amazed when I read your blog at the number of fun activities y'all participate in.

Thanks for the inspiration. I'm going to start paying more attention to the fun things in my neck of the woods.

CA Farrells said...

Hi, I am a friend of Kerilyn's!! Forgive me for sneaking peeks at your blog but I love to see the creative projects you are working on. :) In fact, I have a question for you.....how did you do the scalloped edges in Creed's room? I would love to do that with pink and purple for my daughter in our new home. :) You can email me at seperr@aol.com

I know you are busy but thank you for your time!!!

Jennifer

PS
you are a wonderful mommy!!!!

Mom said...

You do manage to find all of the fun - that's something we admire. I got to work totally exhausted this morning - after City Hop on Saturday AND the Rose Festival yesterday. I'm trying to follow your lead.... Mom Cat

Elisa said...

Steph, when do you guys get to Utah? Cristin is coming out to visit the beginning of July. We want to do lunch if you are available!

Diana said...

My entire extended family (and my two siblings) live in Columbus. My parents plan to move back there when they retire in a few years (they live in PA right now). Your blog has given me so many ideas for places to go when I visit them. You mention restaurants or shops that my family has never even heard of! It's a great quality of yours that you are able to just dive into a place and explore its possibilities. Ohio will be losing a good one when you move!