Weekend with the In-Laws + 9/11 Stair Climb

For Christmas last year, we gifted my in-laws with a weekend of fun in Columbus which included tickets for the Columbus Food Adventures tour of German Village and the Parade of Homes and this past weekend was when they came to enjoy their gift.  They drove into town on Friday in the late afternoon so we made reservations to take them out to dinner at the new Cap City Diner in Dublin. It was our first time over to the Bridge Park area and it was really nice!  I can't wait for more restaurants to open up so we have more options closer to home.  

View of Cap City Diner from the parking garage

Cece knew just what to do with the crayons (and I was actually surprised she didn't try to eat them)

 On Saturday morning, we took Todd's parents to the Worthington Farmers' Market to walk around and grab some pastries for breakfast.  We ended up spending almost 2 hours there and my mother-in-law even bought some cheese and olive bread.  In the afternoon, his parents headed down to German Village for their tour while we got Lucy's 4 year photos taken at the Park of Roses.  Their tour was 4 hours long so by the time they arrived home, the girls had dinner, the OSU football game came on, and shortly after, the girls went to bed.  Once they were down, I popped a bunch of appetizers in the oven that I prepped earlier that day.  We snacked throughout the game and I started to fade quickly in the third quarter (much like OSU) so I called it a night.

Lucy legitimately changed Cece's diaper all on her own and did a great job

 Lucy loving her time with MaMa & PaPa

Matching OSU shirts for the girls (Lucy insisted we all have matching shirts and I'm a sucker for matching)

 Clearly, Todd wasn't included in that

The girls with MaMa & PaPa

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We even stopped and got some donuts from Peace, Love, and Little Donuts for the next morning

We each picked one flavor to try

Appetizers for the evening included pizza sliders, spinach artichoke dip, corn dip...

 and for dessert we had a Buckeye Trifle (peanut butter chocolate brownie trifle)

Had to add a few buckeyes on top too!

I was up early on Sunday to head downtown for the Columbus 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Chase Tower.  I work primarily with firefighters and one of the departments I work closely with is Upper Arlington (part of my job is training them--I go to their station & run them through a workout).  They always have a decent sized team participating in the event so myself, along with two of my coworkers, joined their team this year.  Since they wear their full turnout gear, my coworkers and I each wore weight vests.  It definitely is nowhere similar though to what they're doing because what's challenging for them is getting overheated with all their gear not necessarily the weight of it. Next year we want to wear turnout gear to get the full experience.  It was an incredible event to honor and remember the 343 firefighters who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.  We walked a little more than the equivalent of the World Trade Center towers (110 stories) since we did 24 stories five times.  We each wore a badge with the name and picture of one of the 343 firefighters who died that day.  When our team finished all five sets of 24 flights, we walked outside where we would read the name of the firefighter on our badge and ring a bell.  Again, just a very memorable event and day that I was honored to be a part of.

Hanging out before the start of the stair climb

There were a few hundred people there participating

Our team before the stair climb

 Lots of happy faces once we were done

 Ringing the bell on the way out after announcing the name on my badge

Our team after the stair climb

We even made the local news! (My coworker sent me this screenshot of her TV)

Once I got home from the stair climb, Todd, the girls, and my in-laws had already come home from church and had breakfast.  Todd's parents left shortly after for the Parade of Homes and then were just driving back home from there.  We spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, cleaning, and getting everything ready for the week ahead (normal Sunday stuff).