Sweet June

We live in a house with (mostly) no air conditioning. So actually, a lot of June was sticky, rather than sweet. Moreover, both Levent and I are dealing with depression. So life is not as shiny as these pictures make it out to be. But lots of good things happened nevertheless. Here are the highlights.

Day trip to Hocking Hills State Park: 

In early June, I decided to take a mental health day from work so Levent and I could get out of the city for awhile and enjoy nature. We drove down to Hocking Hills State Park (which is only like an hour away from where we live) and explored the trails there. It was a nice day (although quite humid). We enjoyed a standing picnic lunch by the waterfall and went through our water supply too quickly. (This tends to happen when I hike without my "platypus" aka what I call the water bladders that go inside hiking back packs and that you drink water from through a plastic tube. They are the best). We didn't have a sitter for Tito that day, so adventure pup got to come along. He loved it, of course. And, of course, we stopped at a "general store" close to the park and got chocolate milkshakes. Yum.

The Arts Festival and a Birthday Brunch weekend:

I used to take photos of everything but apparently I am growing out of that a bit. I don't really have pictures for this highlight. Bummer summer. But back in June, Columbus held it's annual arts festival downtown by the Scioto river. I could walk to it! (I did). I met up with Blake and Brendan Saturday morning and we perused the beautiful art (I bought a few prints) and then had lunch from food trucks (I had perogies) and sat on a hill to eat it. It is times like these when I am very grateful to live in a city where I can easily do these types of things (and to be able to walk and not worry about parking! Amazing!)

 On Sunday, we hung out with Blake and Brendan again (this time with Levent). Since it was the weekend before my birthday we decided to go out to brunch to celebrate. I finally made it to Dough Mama, a cafe in Clintonville that I have been wanting to try forever. The highlight of my meal was definitely the cereal milk cold brew. So good! Afterwards we walked around a bit and popped into one store that eventually opened. It was a lovely morning.

My 37th birthday!:

Hooray! I love my birthday. Although I will admit that I was maybe weird about it this year. Honestly, I feel weird about being 37. Probably it has to do with my poor mental health these days, but I was not feeling it. Regardless, we carried on with festivities. Levent took me out for breakfast at Emmett's Café, which is probably where my favorite breakfast sammie is in all of Columbus (although it is not the one featured below). And then, in the evening, my parents, sister and nephew came from Virginia (on route to Illinois) and we celebrated my birthday by going out to dinner at an Indian restaurant (Aab) and stopped by Jeni's on the way home. (Two restaurants in one day?! I know! We were not even on vacation). It was a nice day and nice that I could spend it with a lot of my family.

Quick trip to Illinois:

While my family happened to be in Columbus for my birthday, the real reason they were here is because we were on route to visit my brother's family in Illinois. I decided to caravan with them so that I could see my niece in her musical. (She did such a good job! I was very proud of her). 

Leah, Malakai and I ended up staying at a hotel in East Peoria, which was a nice decision mostly so we could zip across the river in the mornings and grab a coffee and breakfast at a cafe before heading to Aaron and Janice's house. We went to a place called Ardor on Sunday, which had dreamy pastries and really good coffee. (We had hoped to go back to that place but they were closed until Wednesday, which was when we would be back in Ohio already). But another cafe stepped up to the plate, Zion coffee bar. It had great coffee and great avocado toast. What more could a Millennial want? 

We spent the days chilling at my brother's house. We played a lot of games, went to the neighborhood pool, went to see Inside Out 2 and went out for pizza at memory lane favorite, Monicals. It was fun spending time there.

Leah hangs out in Columbus: 

My parents and Malakai were staying in Illinois all week, but Leah and I opted to come back to Columbus on Tuesday (due to my lack of vacation days). It was really nice having my sister here with me. Even though I had to work during the time she was here, we still made time for porch hangs, coffee shop runs, and a visit to Grandview to go shopping (at a plant shop, clothing store and then a children's book store in Upper Arlington). My parents and Malakai came back through on Friday and we had supper together at my Aunt Joy's house. We had waffles at Winston's Waffles in East market before they headed back to Virginia. I was really bummed out when they left.

I made a homemade ice cream cake! 

I usually have very specific things I want for my birthday, especially when it comes to sweet treats. This year, I decided I would make an entire ice cream cake from scratch (minus the sprinkles). It was a lot of fun and delicious too!

Those were my June highlights. It was a sweet, little month.