Covered Bridges of Ashtabula County Ohio

This has to be one of the most dreaded posts I have ever done. 

Honestly, going to Ashtabula, spending an entire day there taking pictures, then having to come home and sort/edit these has been quite the task. But here it is and it only took me 3 months! 

SMOLEN-GULF: 613 ft. long

Built: 2008

The longest covered bridge in the U.S.

 Inside the Smolen-Gulf Bridge

NETCHER ROAD BRIDGE: 110 ft. long

Built: 1998

 Do you see all the people. It was a little disappointing that some/most of the bridges can not be driven through, because of all the tables they had set up. 

Plus the all the people ruin my picturesque scenes I had so dreamed of photographing. 

Note to self: Do not go during the festival time.

SOUTH DENMARK ROAD BRIDGE: 81 ft. long

Built: 1890

BENETKA ROAD BRIDGE: 138 ft. long

Built: 1900

GRAHAM ROAD BRIDGE: 97 ft. Long

Built: From remants of a bridge washed downstream in 1913

This ugly bridge (Graham)was so covered in people 

it wasn't even worth getting out of the car to take a picture. 

Plus Boyd was boycotting the fact that we couldn't drive on it. 

 ROOT ROAD BRIDGE: 114 ft. long

Built: 1868

STATE ROAD BRIDGE: 152 ft. long

Built: 1983

 This bridge contains 97,000 feet of southern pine and oak

CREEK ROAD BRIDGE: 125 ft. long

Built: 1994

HARPERSFIELD BRIDGE: 228 ft. long

Built: 1868

 The Harpersfield bridge is the 2nd longest bridge in Ohio.

 MECHANICSVILLE ROAD BRIDGE: 156 ft. long

Built 1867

RIVERDALE ROAD BRIDGE: 114 ft. long

Built: 1874

Rebuilt: 1981

WINDSOR MILLS BRIDGE: 120 ft. long

Built: 1867

 THE END 

 

Now now, you can't think that we went on a photography trip 

without taking pictures of us having fun right?

 (Warning: picture overload!)

My Repunzel hair out the window

 

"stick your head out further, I can't see you."

"I can't. I'm too short."

"Like this. See?"

"Ohhh" 

Yup, that's how that conversation went.

 So, this ferris wheel. It was supposed to be up and running. 

We drove an extra 40 minutes out of our way to go ride it 

and when we pulled up . . . empty. Cue sad music.

But all is well because we had fun doing other things like . . . .

 Boyds will be boys 

and when they see buggies on the ground they have to pick them up

SICK!

 

Some of them got squished! ha!

So what do we do with squished woolly bears? 

You flick them off the bridge and watch them slowly fall until they meet their doom!

Not to mention there were hungry fish in the river below this bridge and we saw the chomp these fuzzies up! ha ha ha.

 Poor poor woolly bears.

 

 So Boyd had this habit of . . . 

I don't even know what to call it. 

One minute I would be taking pictures, the next I would turn around to find him. . .

 He says he was "looking for the best angle" 

On the right he is giving me his "hand over the camera" hand. 

Although I will give him credit, he took some amazing pics standing on stumps.

Honestly, I think it's because he likes to climb on things. 

Seriously, maybe he was trying to be the karate kid

Even though this picture is blurry I still love it. 

Yep, that's who we are.

The End

Young Women in Excellence - Stand Ye in Holy Places

The Young Women theme for 2013 was Stand Ye in Holy Places. 

Young Women is a youth group for our church.  It's for girls ages 12-18. I have the privilege of working with the wonderful girls in my church and we were able to celebrate all of their accomplishments during a special evening we call Young Women in Excellence.

 This adorable printable was from LollyJane

And the fantastic boxes are Zumiboxes

Each value, or standard, has a color. 

The girls helped to make food for each color. 

As you can imagine, we had to be pretty creative.

Faith: White

White chocolate mints with the Salt Lake City Temple on them.

Divine Nature: Blue

Blue chips, blue berry muffins

Individual Worth: Red

mini cherry cheesecakes 

Knowledge: Green 

Key Lime bars, guacamole and chips, and apples 

 

  

Choice and Accountability: Orange

Oranges and pumpkin bread

 Good Works: 

Yellow Pound Cake, lemon bars, lemonade.

  

Integrity: Purple

Grape Skewers and purple chocolate dipped pretzels

 

 Virtue: Gold

Apple Cider and "gold candy" (like twix)

 

Can I brag about my husband for just a sec?

He is amazing, first of all, 

and then to top it off he made the wood cutout of the temple for me! 

 

We had the Columbus Ohio Temple as our backdrop

Beth, you are awesome! It's been so much fun. 

How often do you get to be in the same ward 

and in the same auxiliary as your sister in-law?

Thanksgiving - Dayton, OH

It's a lot of fun being part of such a huge family.

The funny thing is, this is only 1/2 of the Bills.

 Happy Thanksgiving- Love us.

 Over Thanksgiving break we went to Carillon Historic park where we were able to
"experience Dayton's rich heritage of creativity and invention"
Who knew Dayton Ohio had so much history!

Cash registers. So pretty!

Did you know that Dayton Ohio has a GIGANTIC soda lid?!?

If you are going to talk about the Wright brothers you must see their bikes and bike shop 

 And of course if you have one of these benches

You have to put all the present grandchildren in each spot

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the origional 1905 Wright Flyer III, but we did see it, in person.

Thanks for the fun trip Mom and Dad Bills

"Miss Allison, your hair touches your butt"

My hair is really long.

Almost daily, a child at school will make a comment about my hair

"Miss Allison, you have Repunzel hair"

"Miss Allison, you hair is really long"

"Miss Allison, your hair touches your butt"

In pre-school I even let them play hair salon. The kids take bristle blocks and pretend to color my hair all sorts of rainbow colors, and then they will pretend cut it, wash it, and make it "look pretty"

Anytime I go to the mall or somewhere public, someone will stop me and tell me that my hair is really long. I even had people ask if they can "pet" my hair. 

It took me months to conjure up enough courage to cut my hair. 

Well, I cut off a foot!

(Not like the kind that Boyd cuts off during surgery, because he actually does cut real feet off)

But literally a foot of hair, gone. Yikes!

And I went dark, which was a shocker.

It was the first time I have cut my hair and didn't cry! Go me. 

Not that you want to see a bunch of pictures of me

 but I wanted to show off Boyd's awesome photography skills. 

 

 

Well, goodbye hair.

I'm sure in a year from now, it will all have grown back. ahhh.