As luck would have it, a book that she’d ordered, Fancy Nancy: Ooh La La! It’s Beauty Day, arrived that morning. Gender stereotyping be damned, the Fancy Nancy series of books are pretty entertaining, and Alana has owned and/or checked out many of them. But, this was a new one to her, and she had anticipated it’s arrival ever since ordering it over the weekend. She dove right in, and, the next thing we knew, a good portion of Julie’s day disappeared into time spent at the home spa.

Before starting, Alana made up a list of services to be provided:

The ambiance was enhanced with iPad-piped music:

They started with a footbath (Alana was a recipient of some of the services as well as the provider, as the logistics allowed):

The facial mask was concocted from bananas and honey (and a couple of cucumber slices, of course!):

The facial mask itself (Fia became very interested in this treatment, as Julie was incapacitated while her face was slathered with yummy goodness):

The manicure, which Julie commented about two days later, “I’ve found it’s really unfortunate that my middle finger wound up being the blue one — out of my peripheral vision, I keep think I’m flipping myself the bird.”

And, the “total makeover,” which meant “makeup and a ponytail:”

Thus, Super Mom got her day of royal treatment.

I wasn’t sure what the interest level and/or ability of the kids would be, but, as shown below, they both dove right in (2 cards apiece) and were quite successful:

Carson posing with the animals he put together:

Once all eight animals were assembled, a little cooperative trading occurred so that each of the kids wound up with a herd with which they were happy:

Alana, foolishly, neglected to ask for another pony (or six) while she was adorned with pigtails (the pigtails being a rarity that make her father even more malleable to her whims than he normally is). But, she did proudly show off her pierced ears, which were just past the point where she was able to start switching them out with choices from the array of styles she received for Christmas.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Benton and Carson got so involved with their respective handheld devices that they didn’t realize they’d actually been sitting next to each other for more than 3 seconds without requiring adult intervention. I was optimistic all year long that it would happen at least once in 2011, and they squeaked in under the wire.

And, not one of our kids, but I’m including the picture anyway, because this picture of “‘Taterhead” just makes me chuckle (I simply can’t look at this picture without thinking, “Yes, he IS!”):

He wasn’t just walking around wearing this on his head — it was a part of a game he was playing with several of the other kids:

We’re also thrilled to see the built-ins we put in get used as Julie intended.

This photo was taken on a drizzly mid-morning, when I was trying to get some things knocked out on the computer and Julie had run out do some errands. Alana, unprompted, went and got a book, came into the office, and plopped down quietly to read.

We started out at The Columbus Commons, which is a 9-acre outdoor space put in to replace City Center, an old indoor mall. There wasn’t much going on in the space during a dreary weekday, but we did get a picture of the kids in front of the large Christmas tree erected there:

From there, it was a couple of blocks over to The Scioto Mile, a riverfront walkway that has been somewhat controversial locally, but really is well done, even if the onset of winter meant the various fountains were drained and off:

With the fountains and pools emptied, we took the opportunity to snap a family photo next to “Gavel” — a silver sculpture inside a (drained) pool at the Ohio Judicial Center. We got this picture just before getting booted from the pool by a passing security guard.

From there, it was over to Battelle Riverfront Park, which has a replica of the Santa Maria (it’s never been open when we’ve been down in the area, and this trip was no exception), as well as a sculpture garden with a series of mythical creatures depicted and the tale of those creatures told in a large plaque set in the ground near the entrance. Carson posed with the owl sculpture:

From there, it was a late lunch, and then Alana availed herself of her grandparents’ arms to swing her way all the way back to the car for the trip home:

As always, if the video below doesn’t display, you can hop over and view it on YouTube:

But, for now, an unedited 2.5-hour gift-opening experience this morning compressed into under 2 minutes. If the video below doesn’t show up, you can view it on YouTube here.

Merry Christmas!

Once that urge passed, Julie took up judging gymnastics for a few years.

Then we had kids.

And Julie swore that the last thing she would want (well…right behind football) was for her kids to do gymnastics — too much time and too much wear and tear on the body.

She still claims that is the case, but, when loading pictures onto the computer from my camera, I discovered some pictures that Julie snapped earlier this week:

If the pictures don’t make you think we might have a kid or two heading down a gymnastics path, would the fact that Julie told me not to delete the blurry pictures just yet “because [she] wants to show Alana some things about her form first” change your mind?

We paused for a picture at the top of the mountain:

And then headed dowwwwwnnnnn:

The steep sections were imminently rollable:

Although…still sufficiently energy-sucking to require jacket removal before racing down the final stretch:

I was then called away to be fitted for a deal on skis and boots, while Alana and Carson headed back to the top for another run (they’re on the lift in the middle of the picture):

It was a successful outing, and we are almost fully outfitted for when the snow actually arrives.

The boys devised a 2-on-2 football game that seemed to run semi-continuously throughout the weekend:

Alana and Claire were inseparable:

Drew and Ella at Upper Falls near Old Man’s Cave:

Alana at Old Man’s Cave:

A walk in the woods — Julie, Amy, Ella, Drew:

Julie at the dam near our campsite:

We ate well, with corn chowder, tamale pie, and pineapple upside-down cake for dinner on Saturday night:

Randy was recovering from rotator cuff surgery, so he got his daily physical therapy from Amy:

And, on Saturday evening, we pulled out some Michigan-acquired sparklers and turned the kids loose:

Not a bad weekend getaway at all!