Ohio– Halloween 2009
We finally made it back to visit our family in Ohio in October. It was wonderful as always! For Dominic, Ellie and I – it was our first time to experience an Ohio Fall – it was picture perfect! The weather was amazing. The leaves were glowing with red, orange and bright yellow hues. The air was crisp and the food was wonderful – as always!
For Ellie – she finally got to hug her grandma and papa, Aunties, Uncles and loved ones in Ohio. She can’t wait to return!
It was so fun to celebrate the festivities of Halloween. (It was really the first year that Dominic was absolutely aware and into it – oh so much fun!) We also got to enjoy Mama Lepore’s wonderful cooking, the Ohio haircut with Dominic the barber, dancing to Dominic the Donkey, a Poland Bulldogs football game, great food and festivities with our family and Ohio friends and even a new Cleveland Indians hat for Chris! It was so nice to just be in Ohio relaxing and having fun with family and friends.
Each day was like Christmas for Dominic as he savored the showering of hugs, kisses and gifts from all of his Aunties and Ohio friends. Dominic loved playing with Jack, Maria and Gino – although he’s determined to be bigger than Gino the next time we visit. (Don’t’ tell Dominic this, but it will take him years to gain 90 more pounds so that he can be as big as Gino.)
Everyone was so wonderful to tell Dominic stories all day, every day. Linda told stories, Diane told stories, Tina told stories and Grandma told stories…. Just about anyone Dominic could pin down told him stories and sang him songs. Papa’s stories seemed to be Dominic’s favorite. He loved the stories about the octopus and the pirates. Papa made this scritch-scratching sound with his hand when he described the main characters in his stories and many of them ended with shooting someone or something. Amazingly, Dominic is now incorporating these details into his own newfound stories after Ohio.
Dominic fell in love with the gun cabinet in his bedroom. He told me, “Mommy, I get to sleep in the gun room!” And he is in awe that Papa has an Octopus gun, Crocodile gun and an elephant gun in that cabinet. Papa couldn’t find the keys to let Dominic hold those guns (phooey), but Dominic’s chomping at the bit to return so he can hold those guns and put “bull nuts” into them to shoot the Octopus.
This was the first time in the three years that Dominic has been going to Ohio that he was aware that we had to leave. He was so sad and didn’t’ understand why we couldn’t stay. (I’m secretly hoping that perhaps the pain of goodbye that we experience each time we leave our family and loved ones behind in Ohio will help Dominic and Ellie decide that they want to live in Oregon when they grow up. Maybe families leave each other every other generation as they see how painful it is to live so far away from the ones we love? We really wish we lived closer. Blame it on Chris for leaving OhioJ Oops, we never would have met had he stayed!)
As always, Ohio was a wonderful adventure and we can’t wait to return! We only wish there was a direct flight!
