Blues, Tanks and WINE

March Madness is here...or birthday month craziness.  We started the month off with a well executed trip up to Cleveland.  We'd never been there so we didn't know what to expect.  Cleveland Rocks...even in its dark, dreary winter stage.  We got to the city after dark and the downtown is lit up beautifully along the banks of Lake Erie.  The kids always get excited when they see all the tall illuminated skyscrapers.  We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on the fifth floor across from the Indian's baseball stadium.  After getting settled in Ernie and I set out for the House of Blues and his early birthday present....a night with his favorite, Big Head Todd and the Monsters.  Great show, small venue, perfect sound and view.  We really enjoyed the three hour set, they played some old stuff, and some new stuff off their new album Beehive.

The next morning we let the kids swim in the heated pool and then had a delicious American-style breakfast made-to-order.  We set out to explore downtown Cleveland and walked over to the area where the concert was the previous night.  We stopped into Lake Erie Coffee Co. for an Americano and then explored the city.  Lots of cool architecture, a trolley ride and a monument to the Civil War.

After we explored the downtown area we drove to an area called The Flats where they have built an aquarium inside an old industrial smoke stack building.  Josie (our budding Marine Biologist) loved this part of our adventure.  She was thrilled to be surrounded by the marine life.  She especially enjoyed the spotted sting ray from the Amazon.  We also got to walk through a sea tunnel filled with sand tiger sharks, sting ray, coral, a Goliath grouper and a few other varieties of sharks.

For the last leg of our trip we headed west along Lake Erie (which it frozen by the way) to Camp Perry a National guard facility and home to one of two Civilian Marksmanship programs in the U.S. the other one is in Alabama.  Ernie loves his rifles and guns as does Will.  They added an M1 Garand to their collection over the weekend.  A very famous rifle carried by every U.S. soldier in WWII.  Afterwards we were lucky enough to stumble upon a rather nice tank display.  Will was thrilled and this was definitely the highlight of his weekend.  He got to see about 6 tanks and one of his favorites a Sherman.  

One more stop

We were heading home and came upon a vineyard that caught our attention so we stopped...

Hermes Vineyards and Winery.  We sampled a few reds and brought home a few too.  We will be back for more when the weather warms up.  

Hermes Winery

A New York style pizza at Baker's Sports Bar and Grill in Bucyrus, Oh (about 1 hour from home) and we were ready for anything so we continued our good times into the evening...and had some friends over to share in our Hermes wine.   

OHIO!!!!

Christmas Carcamo-Style

2013 came to an end and wow it was a great year.

Lots of cool adventures, great memories shared with family and friends.

Lots to be thankful for...

The kids were very excited for Christmas...

The Carcamo family Christmas tree (a bit of a Griswald tree this year) a 9 foot pine tree.

Christmas was lots of fun....after waking at 2:45 a.m. to the sounds of a remote-controlled helicopter from Santa the day just continued to get better.  

We opened presents with the kids and then spent Christmas meal and the remainder of the day with our good friends the Naber's.  They invited us to dinner and it was delicious.  The next day we drove to Fairfax to spend the remainder of the year with family.  We hung out with Mimi and Papi, Nana and all the aunts and uncles too.  Of course the kids were thrilled to see their cousin Sofia.  We even celebrated Aunt Gabby and Uncle Gerry's soon to be baby boy.  

siblings and cousins

                                            Will and Uncle Gerry smoking candy cigarettes

While in Virginia we enjoyed hanging out with everyone, eating meals together and visiting DC...

They Love...

These are a little late this year, but here they are...

Carcamo Christmas Letter 2013

Greetings...

Every year is another year of adventures for our family and this year was one of our best yet....we rang in the New Year Ohio-style with friends and family.

Ernie and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary in April.  Spring was filled with birthday fun for both the kids and Ernie.


The year continued to be amazing...

We took the kids on an adventure they're sure to remember...a five day sailing excursion through the Florida Keys.  We flew into Miami and left out of Key Largo on the Soggy Dollars sailing along with our Captain Joe to Key West.  He took us to the coolest snorkeling destinations the Keys have to offer....Molasses Key and Looe Key.  We also stayed overnight at Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key and enjoyed their quaint accommodations, salt water pools, kids' club and dolphin encounter.  The next day we anchored out at Bahia Honda State Park snorkeling and kayaking around this beautiful island.  Highlights of our trip include Josie swimming after a five foot reef shark and a Goliath grouper and  Will sailing the Soggy Dollars by himself.  Memories we will have forever!

Back to the real world....
Ernie continues to enjoy his position with Exel and travels a bit collecting airline miles and hotel points to further our travel adventures!! Besides working and keeping up with his busy family Ernie put a flight suit back on and returned to his military life in December and was sworn into the Michigan Air National Guard.  He will drill every other month for four days in the beautiful cereal city, Battlecreek, MI.  He looks forward to learning his new position and to serving his country.

Jodi continues to keep herself busy keeping up with the Carcamo children... she can often be spotted cheering on the side of a swimming pool, field hockey field, basketball court and diving well.  She also works part-time at Lands End and Nespresso Coffee.  She joined a running group this year because she thought they said Rum group....none the less she learned to love running in 2013 and met some very cool peeps along the trails. She completed a quarter marathon in 1:13:00 and a four miler in 39:00.  She plans to compete in the 2014 tri season. She continues to pursue a travel writing career and is hoping to get the Carcamo Florida Keys Sailing Adventure published in the New Year.

Josephine Margot is enjoying her seventh grade school year at Olentangy Orange MS....where she can be spotted hanging out with her bestie Lauren, running down a field hockey field or practicing Spanish, German and French, but not all at once.  She's excelling in science and pushing through Algebra!  She is looking forward to her 13th birthday and another season of indoor field hockey where she shoots and scores every game.  She is also swimming this year to stay in shape for her summer swimming and diving season.  She adopted a pet fish and named him Leo.

William Ernesto our little World War II historian continues to educate whomever will lend him their ear on the ends and outs of the famous 1940s war and the armor of that era.  He's enjoying his fourth grade class and loves to read and practice enrichment math.  He still enjoys building with his LEGO bricks and will start a game of Axis and Allies with anyone willing to battle him.  He's swimming and playing basketball this year and is looking forward to speeding down the swimming lane next summer.

Cleo and Theo sunbathe most days on the floor in front of our windows and chase each other around for added entertainment.  Our little rescues continue to bring enjoyment to us and we are so very thankful for the love they give to our family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!  Make 2014 an unforgettable year.

Love,

The Carcamo's
Ernie, Jodi, Josie, Will, Theo and Cleo

Queen for a Weekend

Spent my birthday surrounded by the people I love!

Birthday Eggs Benedict....check
field hockey game....check
family hike.....check

Ended the day with and ice cream cone!

Not to call too much attention to myself, but we did make it a birthday weekend rather than day!  I also got a bike so I'm ready for next year's tri season.

Pizza from Taranto's and tiramasu rounded out the weekend.  I am truly blessed and so lucky for all that I have....

I stumbled on a cool little gem after our hike at High Banks Metro Park in Powell.  The nature center has a collection of old National Geographic magazines.  I love NG and longed to be a photographer for them back when I was younger!  Well look at the what I got to parooze through...

Almost forgot....the two who love me unconditionally or maybe they just love a warm, soft bed...

Pumpkins and Halloween

Our yearly visit to the pumpkin patch....with some dear Ohio friends this time....

Halloween night....rained again.   Steve from Minecraft and my field hockey player!

Keeping up With the Carcamo's

I've got a few months to pack into this post....

It has been a busy and beautiful Fall the kids have been busy with their sports, swimming and field hockey.  Josie played on the inaugural season of the Orange Middle School field hockey team.  She played her heart out as a mid-fielder and ended the season with a walk-on the field at a OOHS game.  We are thrilled that she has found something she is really passionate about and wow she can move that stick and ball.  Excited to see where this sport takes her....
Will I AM is excelling in the pool and really perfecting his strokes for summer swim season....his backstroke seems to be his favorite.  He's also ventured into a game called Axis and Allies where he gets to play out all the real battles from WWII that he loves to talk about.  He's our little historian and he loves the army.  He's also still very much involved with the cub scouts.  He attended the fall camp out and hunted for a Sasquatch with all of his fellow Webelo's.

Our Webelo 1

Our family loves nothing more than a great hike and we found a nice spot a little south of Columbus called Hocking Hills.  Beautiful scenery, a bit crowded, but once we got passed Old Man's Cave it thinned out a bit.  We enjoyed a 6 mile hike and saw lots of nature along the way.

We were all set to head back up to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side when our basement flooded....so instead of vineyard hopping and Niagara falls tripping we got new carpet in the basement!  It is nice and soft, but wow how I love the fall foliage up there this time of year.