Three Foxes and a Doenges

Baba, Grandpa and Uncle Edgar with the 1st birthday girl Leona. She is 1 year and 2 days old in this photo. Almost looks like she is a football referee and giving the sign for a touchdown.

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Pancake Friday!

Breakfast and Biking with Friends

Red Velvet Cake Pancake


Today’s pancake special at Der Dutchman was ‘Red Velvet Cake’. Anyone that knows about this flavor knows it has chocolate in it, so it must be good. This was so sweet and wonderful, that I knew that I had to take a shot to counteract it. No syrup was required and it had a dollop of cream cheese icing on it. I look forward to have the regular cake version on my birthday, later this month.

Clean Plate Club


Another amazing pancake place is in Meyersdale, PA. Here is Jeff, proudly showing his clean plate. The enormous pancake that is so large, you have to eat from the inside out.

Great pancakes!


The restaurant is located by the town square, by a little motel. Worth the stop!

Can you eat all of this?


Here is a pancake that I had on a previous trip and I could only eat half of it. Yes, there is a plate barely underneath the pancake.

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Another Beautiful Sunday

Perhaps the Last Day of Indian Summer

Cooper enjoys the sunshine


This photos captures the essence of today. It is a beautiful sunshine day. The temperature is in the mid 50 degrees, with a projected high of 68 degrees. Maybe it will get to 70 degrees?
We will probably do outside activities this afternoon. The grass needs it final cutting of the year and the garden needs to get cleaned up. It has been a difficult year. The regular garden did not get tilled in time, so we had tomato plants in pots. If you look closely, you can see the remnants in the bottom left of the photo, as we moved the plants into the sun room, to protect them from the killing frosts that we have already had in Ohio. There are a few tomatoes that have turned red and will enjoy them in a salad today.
Am not getting much done with my ‘blog a day’, but will continue to share little things of the Fox Family.

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Grandpa’s Birthday Celebration

Lemon Cake and Ham

Two Generations enjoy some cake


We had Mike’s birthday celebration early in the day since he works the afternoon shift. We have a family custom to have the birthday person pick their menu for the meal. I sort of talked Mike into having lemon cake. Cecelia asked and he kept thinking and thinking, so I said, “Lemon cake”! Then he said Ham steak or Ham loaf. Neither Cecelia or I had ever made a Ham loaf, so Cecelia made an awesome Ham and cheese omelet. She has an interesting technique to finish the omelet by cooking on the stove top and finishing by putting the skillet under the broiler to get the top half done. I did tell Mike that I would make a ham loaf, later in the week. There was so much omelet, that when Edgar called to make a birthday greeting, that we invited him over for some.

Birthday Greetings


We sat down and Mike opened his birthday cards. Mike’s Mom and Dad had a card with a couple of beagles on it. His sisters had the same good taste and found the same card with neat saying on it.

Mike's Favorite Present


This is Mike’s favorite present. No she was not wrapped up in the box. She came into the house just like a regular person.

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Sunday Lunch with Edgar

OSU Alumni finally goes to the Blue Danube Restaurant

This morning I woke up refreshed as I enjoyed the extra hour of sleep. I asked Mike if he enjoyed his extra hour and he responded, “What extra hour?” Nothing very special about the morning. It was an overcast day and Mike went into church extra-early to help out. So, I just relaxed at home and worked on the blog.

Good Food, Good Prices

Edgar and I had a lunch date today. Mike had to work this afternoon, so it is fair if I drive down to his place for lunch, instead of him driving up to our house all the time. We went to the Blue Danube restaurant, just north of the OSU campus. As we were looking at the menu, I asked Edgar what was good. I told Edgar that I had never been here before. He was surprised as I had gone to OSU. But, I lived on south campus and I didn’t have a car and there was no free bus pass. It was a good brunch meal and we will come back again with Mike as they have a great assortment of hamburgers.

More fun and food tomorrow as we celebrate a couple of birthdays.

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A Fun Fall Party

The Theme of the Party: Get Your Hour Back!

Friends Gather to celebrate Friendship and Fall

This year, Lynn has spent a lot of time and money remodeling her home. We all have suggested that she have a housewarming party. Well, this is that day. Her invite went out with the caption of ‘Get Your Hour Back!’ as this is the weekend of the time change back to Eastern Standard Time and we set our clocks back an hour.

Some Inside Guests


Other Inside Guests


The party started inside, while the fire bugs of the group, got the fire going in the fire pit. It almost looked like a failure to light, as all the fire was a smoking embers. But after searching the alley for kindling, there was ignition and the fire was born.

Lovely Fire


So the party evolved into two parts: an inside portion where there were plenty of snacks and beverages, and the outside portion where there were chairs, fire and music. Did I say music? The ongoing joke was that Lynn hired a band for her party. The back yard of her house adjoins the back of Studio 35, and they were having live music. So every so often, I would go inside and announce about the live band. We had some takers come outside to enjoy beverages, fire and conversation.

Jeff enjoys some hot cider


Deana, Mike and Lynn


Chris and Doug, our fire starters


It was nice to get out of the house for the evening. Cooper, our beagle, was glad that we returned home.

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Take a Pony for a Ride

Or How to amaze Yourself

Two brave souls decided to ride their bicycles today. Jeff and I, bundled up, and rode out to Der Dutchman in Plain City for coffee and breakfast. Since the sun started to peek out of the clouds, we decided to ride the ‘Cheese Loop’. This is just a two-mile additional loop that goes by the Cheese House. I stopped to get some cheese and peanut-butter pretzels and we then went to the Plain City Thrift Shop.

A Pony for Leona


I found a couple of little things to buy and wandered into the children’s toy area, where I fell in love with this rocking pony. Yesterday at the Gymboree class, Leona was playing on a rocking toy with another child. Perhaps that was a sign that she is ready for her own rocking pony?

Jeff ties down the treasure


Jeff is ready for almost everything, and had straps so I could transport the pony back to the car. Just to prove that I did not just drive the car back to get the pony, here is a photo at the northern end of the Hilliard Bike Trail.

Me and my new buddy at the trail's end

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Fall Yough Stop Bicycling Trip

Bicycling in PA and MD with Friends

An annual tradition is to travel to Confluence PA and ride on portions of the Great Allegheny Passage. This trail has one end at the edge of Pittsburgh and another in Cumberland MD. In Cumberland, the trail connects to the C & O dirt trail that continues on to Washington DC.

On our first ride, we travel to Confluence from the Yough Stop camping cabin, to ride to OhioPyle for our lunch stop. This is a pleasant town that is a tourist town for users of the trail and the river.

View of the Trail conditions


This is a crushed limestone trail. That just means that you go slower, and have more time to enjoy the woods and water.

A View of one of the rapids on the water


Along the way, Jeff would stop and show us the various parts of the river as he had done various kayak trips here.

Map from Confluence to OhioPyle


Here is an example of the quality map that is available. You can see that there are many services available in towns along the way.

Trail Bridge over the Yougiogheny River

We rode over this bridge and a short distance toward Connelsville, before turning around and back to our start in Confluence.

Lynne examines a headstone in a small family cemetary


Iron Bridge


Tunnel of the Eastern Continental Divide


On our second day we went to Meyersdale for fabulous pancakes (one is enough), and rode up to the Eastern Continental Divide and back. It was a gentle up hill slope to the divide and the Savage Mountain tunnel and then a wonderful ride downhill to town.

Jeff enters the Savage Mountain Tunnel


Proof that I was on the Ride


I take so many photos and had Jeff take one of me to show that I rode to the Eastern Continental Divide. We returned back to base for a nice supper.
For our last riding day as a group of four, we decide to drive to Cumberland and ride a portion of the C & O Tow Path Trail. Since we had a drier than normal summer, we thought the dirt trail would be ok to ride on. The website shows many interesting pictures, but the section that we rode on was not so interesting. We traveled by several lock houses and canal locks. The houses were locked up and there wasn’t much descriptive signs.

Canal and Lock Keeper House


Bone shaking Fun


This trail has not been upgraded from a dirt path, so the pot holes and dirt made for a bone shaking ride for Lynne and I, as we had regular road bikes. Unfortunately, when the path needed holes filled in, they chose to use the wrong size of gravel that is difficult to ride on. I would hate to ride on those sections if the trail was wet.

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Leona’s First Birthday Party

Finally! A Post about the Great Birthday Party

Cecelia and Kevin, Leona’s Mom and Dad, found the perfect place for the first birthday party. The party was at a picnic shelter at Blendon Woods Metro Park. There is a large covered picnic shelter with plenty of tables and electricity for any crock pots and lighting.

cousins at the swing set


The major fun activity for Leona and her cousins was a swing set that had regular and baby swings. There is a large grassy area to play ball and a set of horseshoe pits. The older ‘kids’ played horseshoe. There is a blacktop path from the parking area to the picnic shelter and then to the swings, and was used by several bicyclists.

Safety first


Grandma Doenges looks on as Allie gets her bicycle helmet on. Max was also one of the bicyclist today.

It's time for some soccer


Leona was caught practicing soccer in the grassy area. However, walking around this terrain was a challenge for her and she is a rookie walker and is learning how to navigate the uneven surfaces. As you can tell, she is not excited about wearing a hat.

Getting ready to blow out the candle on the cake


Mom and Dad are ready to assist Leona is blowing out the candle on the birthday cake. We had to borrow a lighter from one of the park rangers and no one in our group had any matches. This butterfly cake was for the guests to enjoy.

My Very First Bear Cake


Leona carefully nibbled on her cake and worked on eating the icing first. At this time, she was not much of a finger food person and had her ‘staff’ to feed her food.

Getting into the swing of things!


Later Mommy and Daddy helped open up her presents and we all just played some more. The rain held off so we could enjoy the park. Cleanup was a snap as all we had to do was sweep up any food crumbs and throw them away.

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A Bicycling Week

Two Rides with, and One Ride without

This week, I had two bicycle rides with Leona and one ride without. We are having cooler weather in the morning and that makes it a more pleasant riding time with Leona. Monday we rode from Leona’s house on the Three Creeks Trail down to Heron Pond parking lot. Leona is working to perfect her walking skills (or is it toddling skills?). She just enjoys walking around and exploring her environment. We arrived about 9:30 am and walked around the grassy area, said hello to some dogs going for a walk and dropping shoes. I first thought that one foot is bigger than the other and that is why Leona would drop a shoe off her foot when I would pick her up, but she would drop either shoe.
We arrived at the bagel shop and enjoyed a mid-morning snack. Cecelia went to her yoga class and beeped her horn as she passed us by at the bagel shop.

Relaxing by the Lane Avenue Bridge


We started our Wednesday ride at Whetstone, Park of Roses. As we were waiting for Carl to join us, we walked around the parking lot and grassy area by the shelter house. We saw more people with dogs and even got to see Mike’s cousin, Anna, taking a walk with her dog. Carl, Leona and I then rode to our usual Lane Avenue bridge waiting area. Along the way we found a confused OSU student that did not know about the Dodridge Bridge detour. We were going that way and helped her through the detour. Leona sat in the trailer for a few minutes before walking and playing in the area. She is quiet in this photo as she had just woken up from a mini-nap. We continued as a group to a cafe in German Village and ate food at an outside table. Leona was distracted by all the different people and didn’t eat all her food. I think it was the fruit mixture that was laced with vegetables. We rode back to the Scioto Audubon Park for a restroom break (for both of us) and then down to the playground area for kid friendly activities.

Leona tries to remove stones from the stone walkway


Most of our time was spent, just walking around and watching the rock climbers, until Leona discovered the playground slide. She did not figure out how to climb up the stairs and found that Baba would help her go backwards up the slide and hold her hands as she would slide down. Good upper body strength training for Baba.

Leona learned to like a misting pole


After a good half hour of playing, I reluctantly took Leona over to a water misting station. She loved it. She had been by one of these at Zoo and didn’t like it. It probably helped that she was hot from busy baby playing.
Friday was my usual ride from Hilliard to Plain City. This was a faster ride as I was not towing a child trailer behind me.
Many exciting events are coming up! Leona’s 1st birthday party, The Greek Festival and the Shekinah Festival. More reasons to blog!

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