01 02 03 The Dayton Houghs: Our little getaway...-part I 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Our little getaway...-part I

34
Brian and I recently were blessed to be in the studio audience of a taping of Living Right With Dr Ray. Dr Ray is a psychiatrist with a show on EWTN.  His show touches on different topics that affect families and people of the faith. He does it in a way that is funny and "real." They film the show in Cleveland so Brian and I decided to make a little getaway out of it. We booked an overnight stay at an adorable little B&B for ourselves and an overnight stay at my parents' house for the crew. (THANK YOU Mom and Dad!) We left Friday morning and got back Saturday evening. It was 36 hours of wonderful relaxation and coupleness. (On a side note, B and I figured out that the last time the two of us went away alone, not counting surgeries or childbirth, was when I was nursing Hannah...she is now 10 1/2...To say that it was overdue is a bit of an understatement.) We arrived at the B&B around 1:00, but it was too early to check in so we took a little stroll down the street and had lunch at the Market Garden Brewery. It was a very hip and trendy little lunch place. Totally not somewhere where we would normally eat. Let's face it folks, hip and trendy are not words usually used to describe the parents of 9. Tired and respectable or even frazzled and pleasant...but not hip and trendy. However, we were in disguise! We were driving our cute little car instead of the twelve passenger beast. There wasn't a car seat or sippy cup to be seen! The only hands that we were holding were each others. It was so nice and so needed.
 We enjoyed our lunch and went back to check into the B&B, the J Palen House. I cannot say enough nice things about this place. It was cute and clean and within walking distance to pretty much anywhere in Ohio City that you could want to go. The hostess was so sweet and gave us tons of suggestions of things to do. The breakfast was YUMMO!


Me at breakfast.

But to be honest with you, our favorite part of the room was this:

Ahhhh, I can almost feel the jets now.... SOOOO nice!

One of the best parts of our little trip was that we didn't really have to go anywhere or do anything specific until Saturday morning. We had the afternoon and evening open to do whatever we wanted to. That is a very rare treat for us.  After perusing the map of nearby things and checking things out online, we decided to go to the Christmas Story House. Wow...so romantic...no not really, but it was a lot of fun! Our whole family loves this movie and it has become a Christmas tradition to watch it each year.


My 6' 3" husband crammed under the sink, too funny!


Don't worry, he didn't shoot his eye out!


No worries folks, there was no "soap poisoning!"


Me and my love, Brian


The House!

As you can see, we had a good time. After that we tried to go to Little Italy. We were told that there were lots of little shops and restaurants. We thought that it would be a fun place to walk around. Well, from what we saw, I think that we would have liked it, however, all of the parking was residential permit parking. There was nowhere to park unless you used valet parking for the restaurants, but we had no idea where we wanted to eat...so after driving around for 30 minutes we decided to bag it and head back to the B&B. Parking spots were few and far between there too, but thankfully our spot at the B&B was still there. Once we were parked, we decided that we weren't going to drive anywhere again until we had to leave in the morning. There really wasn't any need to with so many places within walking distance. While we were deciding where to go we did something that we NEVER get to do. It was a little bit naughty, but I will admit it because I believe in honesty... we took a nap. Yep, you heard me right. We laid down on that ginormous king sized bed and while it was still light out, we dozed off. Oh my word. I cannot even tell you how nice that was! It was only for about 30 minutes, but wow! Once we woke up, we got ready for dinner and headed out for our night on the town. We went into one place that had looked promising online, but was very dark and VERY loud. After eating dinner with our crew, you would know that it had to be pretty loud for us to think so. I looked at B and shook my head. He agreed ad we headed right back out. Luckily where we were staying there were tons of options. We ended up eating at the Great Lakes Brewing Company. Again the food was delicious! The atmosphere was comfortable and fun and we didn't have cut up any body's food but our own! Win-Win! I love my kids, but there is something really wonderful about being able to sit across from my husband and have a continuous conversation. There was nobody interrupting us for ketchup or a drink. Nobody was poking anybody with their fork or spilling their drinks (at least not at our table).  It was pretty darn close to magical. But the best part of the evening (aside from the bubble bath in the humongous tub) was the ice cream that we got for desert at Mitchell's Homemade Ice Cream. All of the ice cream was homemade hard ice cream in a zillion different flavors and the waffle cones were homemade! Oh my goodness, my mouth is watering as I type this. It was pretty close to heavenly. 

We got back to our room around 9:30 and I checked my phone. There was a very odd text from my dad. He had taken Isaac to his baseball game for us, so I called to make sure that everything was ok. He didn't realize that he had texted me, but he was still at the game and was so cold that he figured that he accidentally butt-texted me because he was shivering so much. lol Sorry and Thank You Dad! The game finished up around 10:00 (ugh!) but they got a much needed win! And yes, Dad eventually thawed out.

We got to sleep in until 7:30 the next morning, another delicious treat (especially for B who is usually up by 4:00 am). Once we were dressed and packed the car up, we headed downstairs to the dining room for breakfast.  Again, the food was really good. No wonder I gained 4 pounds! We enjoyed fruit and yogurt, coffee cake and quiche. The other people at the B&B ate with us and we really enjoyed talking with them during breakfast. It struck me as funny that even though none of the couples had their children with them, conversation eventually turned towards our families. A little break is nice, probably because it reminds you of how wonderful the chaos can actually be. We finished up our breakfast and checked out. As we walked out of the front door of the J Palen House, I have to admit that I was a little bit sad to leave our little piece of quiet behind, but I was very excited for the next part of our trip, the Dr Ray show!


Check out Part II to see how I may have become a famous TV star...or not.










35 36 37 38 The Dayton Houghs: Our little getaway...-part I

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Our little getaway...-part I

Brian and I recently were blessed to be in the studio audience of a taping of Living Right With Dr Ray. Dr Ray is a psychiatrist with a show on EWTN.  His show touches on different topics that affect families and people of the faith. He does it in a way that is funny and "real." They film the show in Cleveland so Brian and I decided to make a little getaway out of it. We booked an overnight stay at an adorable little B&B for ourselves and an overnight stay at my parents' house for the crew. (THANK YOU Mom and Dad!) We left Friday morning and got back Saturday evening. It was 36 hours of wonderful relaxation and coupleness. (On a side note, B and I figured out that the last time the two of us went away alone, not counting surgeries or childbirth, was when I was nursing Hannah...she is now 10 1/2...To say that it was overdue is a bit of an understatement.) We arrived at the B&B around 1:00, but it was too early to check in so we took a little stroll down the street and had lunch at the Market Garden Brewery. It was a very hip and trendy little lunch place. Totally not somewhere where we would normally eat. Let's face it folks, hip and trendy are not words usually used to describe the parents of 9. Tired and respectable or even frazzled and pleasant...but not hip and trendy. However, we were in disguise! We were driving our cute little car instead of the twelve passenger beast. There wasn't a car seat or sippy cup to be seen! The only hands that we were holding were each others. It was so nice and so needed.
 We enjoyed our lunch and went back to check into the B&B, the J Palen House. I cannot say enough nice things about this place. It was cute and clean and within walking distance to pretty much anywhere in Ohio City that you could want to go. The hostess was so sweet and gave us tons of suggestions of things to do. The breakfast was YUMMO!


Me at breakfast.

But to be honest with you, our favorite part of the room was this:

Ahhhh, I can almost feel the jets now.... SOOOO nice!

One of the best parts of our little trip was that we didn't really have to go anywhere or do anything specific until Saturday morning. We had the afternoon and evening open to do whatever we wanted to. That is a very rare treat for us.  After perusing the map of nearby things and checking things out online, we decided to go to the Christmas Story House. Wow...so romantic...no not really, but it was a lot of fun! Our whole family loves this movie and it has become a Christmas tradition to watch it each year.


My 6' 3" husband crammed under the sink, too funny!


Don't worry, he didn't shoot his eye out!


No worries folks, there was no "soap poisoning!"


Me and my love, Brian


The House!

As you can see, we had a good time. After that we tried to go to Little Italy. We were told that there were lots of little shops and restaurants. We thought that it would be a fun place to walk around. Well, from what we saw, I think that we would have liked it, however, all of the parking was residential permit parking. There was nowhere to park unless you used valet parking for the restaurants, but we had no idea where we wanted to eat...so after driving around for 30 minutes we decided to bag it and head back to the B&B. Parking spots were few and far between there too, but thankfully our spot at the B&B was still there. Once we were parked, we decided that we weren't going to drive anywhere again until we had to leave in the morning. There really wasn't any need to with so many places within walking distance. While we were deciding where to go we did something that we NEVER get to do. It was a little bit naughty, but I will admit it because I believe in honesty... we took a nap. Yep, you heard me right. We laid down on that ginormous king sized bed and while it was still light out, we dozed off. Oh my word. I cannot even tell you how nice that was! It was only for about 30 minutes, but wow! Once we woke up, we got ready for dinner and headed out for our night on the town. We went into one place that had looked promising online, but was very dark and VERY loud. After eating dinner with our crew, you would know that it had to be pretty loud for us to think so. I looked at B and shook my head. He agreed ad we headed right back out. Luckily where we were staying there were tons of options. We ended up eating at the Great Lakes Brewing Company. Again the food was delicious! The atmosphere was comfortable and fun and we didn't have cut up any body's food but our own! Win-Win! I love my kids, but there is something really wonderful about being able to sit across from my husband and have a continuous conversation. There was nobody interrupting us for ketchup or a drink. Nobody was poking anybody with their fork or spilling their drinks (at least not at our table).  It was pretty darn close to magical. But the best part of the evening (aside from the bubble bath in the humongous tub) was the ice cream that we got for desert at Mitchell's Homemade Ice Cream. All of the ice cream was homemade hard ice cream in a zillion different flavors and the waffle cones were homemade! Oh my goodness, my mouth is watering as I type this. It was pretty close to heavenly. 

We got back to our room around 9:30 and I checked my phone. There was a very odd text from my dad. He had taken Isaac to his baseball game for us, so I called to make sure that everything was ok. He didn't realize that he had texted me, but he was still at the game and was so cold that he figured that he accidentally butt-texted me because he was shivering so much. lol Sorry and Thank You Dad! The game finished up around 10:00 (ugh!) but they got a much needed win! And yes, Dad eventually thawed out.

We got to sleep in until 7:30 the next morning, another delicious treat (especially for B who is usually up by 4:00 am). Once we were dressed and packed the car up, we headed downstairs to the dining room for breakfast.  Again, the food was really good. No wonder I gained 4 pounds! We enjoyed fruit and yogurt, coffee cake and quiche. The other people at the B&B ate with us and we really enjoyed talking with them during breakfast. It struck me as funny that even though none of the couples had their children with them, conversation eventually turned towards our families. A little break is nice, probably because it reminds you of how wonderful the chaos can actually be. We finished up our breakfast and checked out. As we walked out of the front door of the J Palen House, I have to admit that I was a little bit sad to leave our little piece of quiet behind, but I was very excited for the next part of our trip, the Dr Ray show!


Check out Part II to see how I may have become a famous TV star...or not.










posted by Unknown @ 9:40 AM   1 Comments

1 Comments:

At May 21, 2014 at 10:34 AM , Blogger Lori said...

So glad you guys had a wonderful time!!! And that Christmas Story house is really cool. :) You will have to give me details on the food places.

 

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