Columbus, Ohio

Last weekend we drove to Columbus, Ohio to visit our friends Josh and Jessica. They graduated from the IU MBA program this May and moved away. They were one of our closest friends from Bloomington, and we were sad when they left. They invited us to spend the weekend at their new house. It was a lot of fun. We left early Friday morning and drove four hours to their cute new house. Josh was also a Consumer Marketing major at IU and so took Tom to work with him at Scotts to show him what he was working on. Tom enjoyed seeing and meeting new people and was impressed by the company. Ainsley and I hung out with Jessica, who took us to Easton Shopping Center which was a huge outdoor as well as indoor mall. We met up with Chris Rich, another MBA friend from Bloomington who is also living in the area. We had lunch and watched Chris' kids run through the water fountain.

Jess, Chris, and Me

After Jessica and I went to Easton, we met up with Josh and Tom and went a restaurant called Brazenhead for dinner. Then we walked around downtown Dublin to an icecream shop called Jeni's which specialize in usual icecream flavors. We each got to sample some unusual flavors. I had four small scoops of "Goatcheese and Roasted Red Cherries" (this was my favorite), "Sweet Corn and Blackberry"(also very good), "Salty Carmel" and "Wildberry Lavender"(tasted like I was eating a flower). Tom was more adventrous than me. He tried "Cayenne" and "Thai Pepper" which were very spicy, as well as"Wild Strawberry" and "Dark chocolate"

Eating icecream at Jeni's
Ainsley's favorite part of the weekend was hanging out with Riley. We used to go on walks with Jessica and Riley in Bloomington. Ainsley was a little nervous to pet Riley when we got there on Friday but by the end of the weekend they were best pals.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Columbus Zoo with Josh and Jessica as well as Matt and Crispy Rich and their kids. It is an amazing zoo and we had a blast. Tom and I have not been to a zoo since we were kids and it was Ainsley's first zoo trip as well. It rained on and off while we were there, but we still had a lot of fun!
Reese's first zoo trip together!
Cooper, Ruby, and Ainsley hanging out together on a rickshaw. Ainsley was fascinated by Ruby. I think she wishes she could have Ruby as an older sister.
Tom tried to have Ainsley pet the goats, she didn't like it. Too scary for her.

Checking out some sheep


This was the highlight of the zoo, the baby boy elephant who was born in March. Compared to his mom, he was tiny yet he still weighed about 500 lbs. He ran around and played in the dirt. He was stinking cute....Susie, this is for you cause we know how much you love baby elephants:)

I had never seen this animal, it's an Okapi. They looked like a giraffe but with legs like a zebra.

Giant Gorilla

Tom took Ainsley on her first carosel ride. She was pretty tired and grumpy so she didn't enjoy it quite as much as we had hoped.

Ainsley checking out the leopard

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Ainsley and Ruby with an elephant and rhino

Me, Ains, and the manatees

Ainsley was so tired that she fell asleep in Jessica's arms about 5 seconds after this picture was taken.
Sleeping baby, sleeping kangaroo

After the zoo, Josh and Jessica took us to a world market where you could sample lots of different foods from around the world. They all looked amazing, but Jessica and I decided to try Indian food for dinner. Then we had a Leige style Belgium waffle which were very authentic. They were delicious. Afterwards, we had to say goodbye. It was so fun to see them again, and we appreciate their friendship so much! We miss having them as neighbors but wish them Best of Luck in their new life in Ohio! Thanks for the great weekend!

Yummy Indian food!

On our way home from Columbus, we drove through Dayton and stopped by our old friends Nate and Nicole's. Nate was Tom's roommate at BYU seven years ago. The four of us went on our first date together to the Bombay House on Jan. 31, 2003. We hadn't seen them in over 3 years or met either of their little girls. It was fun to see them, even though it was very brief. Hopefully we'll be able to get together again soon!!!