Oglebay, West Virginia

Wennerstrom Family Vacation  Part 1 of 2

We had a great time on vacation this year!  Our first half of our vacation was spent at Oglebay, West Virginia.  It's in the town my dad grew up in, and it's really one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.  It has hills everywhere, and we were able to spend 3 days of pure fun!  It's a resort that has everything that a kid, or adult, would want!  In 3 days, we did all the following:  zoo, golf, par 3 golf, paddle boats, horses, watched World Cup comeback, swimming, more swimming, some more swimming, running, eating, drinking, bonfiring, laughing, and a family reunion!  I wish we could have stayed there a whole week, it was so fun!  In fact, it was so much fun that I don't have all of my pictures.  Let's just say there was one night of a firepit, car bombs, and a sketchy employee that resulted in us coming home with one less camera (luckily we still have our good camera for the rest of the trip)...so I stole a few pics from my sister!  ;)  I also realized there are none of Rob or Joe...they were there, but they must have been golfing during a lot of the pictures!  But we spent so much time all together, it was perfect!

Balash Family Reunion (my dad's mom's side of the family)

Train ride at the zoo

Rocking on the front porch while looking at the rolling hillls...beautiful and relaxing!

Butterfly Garden....missing the butterflies....but Grandpa improvised and Caitlin got to see the "Elmo Butterfly"  ;)

Lucy's 1st Paddleboat Ride

My dad and my paddleboat partner!

Abigail with my sister and mom....they sure got moving after they learned how to steer it!

Popsicles....what a fun vacation!

Lucy with the horse named Lucy

Loving swimming so much!  Abigail learned underwater swimming and was in heaven!

My cutie pie doing her "crab" walk in the water

Cousins!  It was so wonderful spending so much time with the family, but especially with Lucy!  The girls are going to be best of friends as they grow up!

I tried to capture the beauty as we were leaving, but it's impossible.  There were so many deers everywhere that literally come right up to you.  After a rain one night, we saw literally 30+ deer in one area, it was amazing!

Random picture, but this is the Chase Bank in Wheeling West Virginia.  You can just see the history of this mining town!

We had a great time on the first half of our vacation and wished we had another day or two to relax...but Elmo was calling our name!  So off to Philly we headed.....more to come soon!

Finding the Words

I have been trying to find the words to express the love and loss of my grandma this weekend....

while I'm still not able to find the right way to pay tribute to such a wonderful, generous, happy, meaningful person who was such a huge part of our lives, my sister said it perfectly!  So here is my sister's post....she said it beautifully!!!!!

This weekend, with very heavy hearts, we said goodbye to an amazing woman, friend and role model - our Grandma Fran. As her only grandchildren, our Granny Franny has been at my sisters' and my side through the most important moments of our lives and it was very meaningful to be by her side this weekend to say goodbye to someone who spent the past 97 years bringing happiness and humor to the lives of everyone who has been lucky to know her. Her smile was infectious (I hope I am this happy when I turn 97!!!) and with every passing year my grandma found a way to enjoy her life more than the year before. We are so grateful for the time we had to learn from and love such a special woman and I hope that I can be, even in the smallest way, as funny, generous and loving to my own children and grandchildren as my grandma has been to us.



Grandma, we love you!!!
-Julie Blandford

Thanks Jules for finding the right words to help explain the tremendous loss we all feel...and how grateful we all are for such an amazing life with such an amazing woman!

Baby You're a Firework

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine

Just own the night like the 4th of July

Cause baby you're a firework

Show em what your worth

Make em go Oh, Oh, Oh

As you shoot across the sky

Baby you're a firework

Let you colors burst!

We had another great 4th of July weekend!

We started it Friday with pizza with grandma and grandpa, fun times and drinks around the firepit, and a sleepover!

Early Saturday morning we headed to Bass Lake for the weekend.  In addition to Nana and Papa, Auntie Stina was there too...with lots of fun presents for the girls!

Saturday was a lot of swimming and a family cookout with Great Nani, Great Papa, Auntie Jam, Uncle Al, Auntie Chelsey, and Trevor.  WE did some small fireworks, mostly sparklers!  And of course, I NEVER would let Caitlin do the sparkler by herself so I could take a picture and then she would NEVER put the sparkler in her hair and then her hair would NEVER smell like burnt hair!

The next day we headed to Uncle Al and Auntie Jam's house for some swimming at their beach (and chillaxing from Miss Caitlin)!

We ended the nights with an amazing firework display thanks to Chelsey and Trevor...and the state of Indiana for making fireworks legal because it's really amazing to watch the fireworks around the lake.  Thousands and Thousands of dollars are spent on fireworks, and we were able to watch about 10 different shows!

The girls were EXHAUSTED after staying up late two nights in a row!   So tired Caitlin didn't even want to take off her lifejacket after our boatride home.

Monday we headed over to the Douglas' house for a BBQ with friends!  We brought our slip n slide and the kids had a great time...as did the adults!

It was a great 4th of July weekend with our family and friends!!!

And our countdown tells us it is 2 days till we leave for vacation!!!!  We are so excited and will try to update a picture or two throughout our trip!!! 

Our IPOD will be playing:

 "Country Road, Take Me Home, To The Place, I Belong, West Virginia, Mountain Mama, Take Me Home, Country Road"

followed by

"Sunny Days, Sweeping the Clouds Away, On My Way to Where the Air is Sweet, Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street!"

Always on our Mind

I will post our 4th of July pics this week, but today I wanted to take time out to think about my Granny Frannie, who has been sick for a few weeks!  I can not begin to explain how blessed I have been to have my grandma in my life (and now my kids) for 33 years!  Not many people get to watch their grandma hold their child, let alone 2 of their children. 

Here are a few of my fave pics:

I have so many stories about my grandma.  In fact, I was making the bed this weekend and it reminded me of how my grandma taught me to make a bed...and I was teaching Abigail to do it like great-grandma does it!  Or I could be at Woodfield and remember how she'd meet me at the mall and walk SO FAST that I couldn't keep up with her....and always bought me the best clothes (except maybe the time she bought me the leather outfit from Merry Go Round...my parents made me return it...apparently my grandma was cooler than my parents ;) ).  Or how we'd sleepover and watch Golden Girls and she'd make us the BEST eggs for breakfast!  Or when I worked a few blocks away from her for 6 years so I had my weekly visits with her and she'd always get Subway for us or we'd head to the corner restaurant where they had her favorite waffles!  She has been a HUGE part of my entire life. (And apparently we eat alot together too!)

My grandma has been having a few really rough weeks.  We are praying for her everyday, especially the days I can't see her!!!!  We are praying for peace, comfort, and for her to know she is loved more than anything!  

"Boom...Boom...Boom!"