Indianapolis Vacation 2014

We've been so blessed to have some really awesome family vacations in our short five years of marriage. This year was absolutely no exception. David's brother, Matt, and his family live in Brownsburg Indiana and we've talked for a while about wanting to make it out to visit them sometime. With some help from David's parents, things came together to be able to go out and visit them this year and we are so glad that we did! It's such a blessing that everything worked out the way that it did in order to make this trip possible and we were so glad to spend so much time visiting this lovely family: 

The big question that everyone asks us when we mention our trip is "Drive or Fly?" - which is an understandable question given our 24 hour road trip (one way) to Houston last year. However, this year it worked out for us to be able to fly and it was so fun. We started telling Lydia about a week in advance that we were going to fly on an airplane and she was just as excited as we were. She'd say "Fly. Plane. With Daddy!" (We think because we've talked to her about David flying on an airplane when he goes on his work trips, she associated flying with him and she was excited to be able to go along with him this time.) After a couple of days she started adding "In the air!" at the end of her sentence about flying in the airplane. We navigated the airport fairly well, ate lunch, watched the airplanes take off, and then boarded the plane to install her carseat and get ready for our flight. I was a little worried that they weren't going to let us use our carseat.  I'd read up a bunch on the internet beforehand that said that sometimes airlines are pretty picky unless you are using a specific airplane only carseat - but ours was FAA approved for vehicles and airplanes so I had David print out a few papers with FAA laws/guidelines and was ready to put up a fight to get the carseat on that plane. I had to laugh when they didn't even glance at the carseat as we carried it onto the plane. All that worrying for nothing. But I'm so glad that we had it because it helped Lydia feel more comfortable, kept her contained, and helped her sleep. Not to mention it made me feel better knowing that she was safer in her five-point-harness. The flight went great, Lydia looked out the window for the first half hour, slept for an hour and a half, then played games with David for the last hour before we landed.

We arrived Friday night around eight and headed to Matt and Julie's house. The kids were still up waiting for us and we let the kids play for a while and worked on getting Lydia's bed set up in the girls room. That night after we put the girls to bed Avarie and Olivia fell asleep pretty quickly but Lydia stayed up for another hour or so saying "Avvvaaarrrieee. Avvvaaaarrriiiieeeee. Avarrriieeeeeeeeee." She finally fell asleep, but you could tell how much she already loved spending time with her cousins. 

We spent the next couple of days hanging out with Matt, Julie, and the kids. We went out to the lot where they are building their new house and saw their foundation, then went to their model home so we could see what it was going to look like. It was so fun to see where they are going to live and to spend the time driving around with them. The next day was Sunday and we were able to attend their ward. Julie is in the Primary Presidency and she told us about a special sharing time that they were having, so I slipped in while David stayed with Lydia in the nursery. They had an elderly missionary couple come and speak to the kids. They are the missionary couple overseeing the construction of the Indianapolis Temple. It's a non-proselyting mission, but they are there to answer any questions that the construction workers have and take pictures and things. I thought that it was so neat to hear from them. The kids wrote thank you notes to the workers and a bunch of parents baked cookies to send with the thank you notes for the construction workers. Such a neat experience! 

Monument Circle/Indianapolis City Market/Indianapolis Temple Construction Site

Monday morning we got up and headed into Indianapolis. We walked around Monument Circle for a while (while reading about the monument and surrounding buildings on our awesome new smart phones) until some storm clouds rolled in and looked pretty threatening. We walked to the Indianapolis City Market, which I thought was going to be like a flea market but ended up being more like a food court. However, it was in a cool old building and it was fun to walk around all the food booths and wait out the rain - because yes, it had started pouring rain outside! We snacked on some food, relaxed, and then when the rain let up a bit we made a break for our car. It was about naptime, and with the rain we figured it was the perfect time to drive up to the Indianapolis Temple construction site. We snapped a few pictures while Lydia napped in the car and then headed to our hotel for the night (stopping at a grocery store to pick up some food for the next couple of days). Lydia was SO excited to go to the pool, so we got into our swimsuits pretty soon after we got there and headed down the hall for a little swim time. Unfortunately the pool was freezing! It didn't faze Lydia, but David and I were less unconcerned. We played for a while, but when Lydia's teeth started chattering we headed back to our room for some dinner and hang out time. It was so nice to relax and spend time together.

100 Acres/Indianapolis Museum of Art

The next day we got up and headed to north Indianapolis to the 100 Acres outside of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We met up with Julie and the kids there and we had a nice time walking around in the woods and playing on all of the art installations that they had placed around the park.  Afterwards we walked over to the IMA and played in their kids center, building and drawing and exploring. We finished off the afternoon back in Brownsburg. David and Matt (and Ryan) watched the USA play in the World Cup and we took the girls to go get some Frozen Yogurt. Then we drove back to our hotel, put Lydia to bed, and watched HGTV's Brother vs. Brother while eating lots of treats.

Lucas Oil Stadium

Wednesday we woke up and headed back into downtown Indianapolis. We were excited to go on a tour of Lucas Oil Stadium and managed to make it just in time for the first tour of the day. Lucas Oil Stadium is where the Colts professional football team plays (NFL). It was really neat to be able to walk around and look at everything and hear our tour guide tell us so many neat details. We went to the media rooms, suites, locker room, and down on the field. Basically we went all over the whole building. In the locker room we got a picture of David by Peyton Manning's locker (it's been left empty since he went to Denver) and Shantel by Andrew Luck's locker (he is the current QB). Lydia did pretty well on the two hour tour, partially due to her being able to play "car puzzles" on my phone. (An app when you have to match the shapes of different cars and things.)  Afterwards we headed to the canal walk, where we walked by the NCAA Hall of Champions and then headed to the Indianapolis State Museum (where we got free admission because of our Thanksgiving Point Memberships, cool). I really enjoyed this museum, especially the section about the changes in Indiana/society in just the last 100 year. It was absolutely amazing to see the transition laid out in a timeline. We finished out our day at Holliday Park where we played on a playground and walked around some ruins of an old New York Skyscraper that had been moved to Indiana for preservation. (I wanted this to be way cooler than it was.)

Indianapolis Children's Museum

Thursday morning we checked out of our hotel and met up with Matt/Julie and family at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We had a great time exploring all of the fun activities and spending time with them. Avarie was Lydia's sweetest friend and helper at the museum (and really, all throughout our trip), they played and Avarie helped Lydia climb through the tunnels and go down the slide. Lydia adored her and it was so fun to watch them together. The museum had a special China Exhibit going on and so everything was China Themed. There was a "Great Wall Slide" where they put a slide over the big staircase in the front so you could go down them. It was such a fun thing and we went on it several times.

Fourth of July

Friday was the 4th of July, and we opted to stick around Brownsburg and do some fun things. We started out with a parade in the morning, that Lydia loved. She loved playing with her cousins, picking up candy, and putting it into her bag (that Averie and Olivia let us borrow - and then ended up giving to Lydia because she loved it so much). Then we headed back to their house to eat lunch, take naps, and do some fireworks of our own. We ended the night by heading to the carnival, riding the train, and watching a really nice firework show on the grass. It was a fabulous day and I was grateful to be able to celebrate this great country in such wonderful ways. 

A friend posted this quote from John Adams about the celebration and importance of the 4th of July/Independence Day. It really touched me and makes my heart swell with patriotism for this great

country.

"The [fourth] day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."- John Adams

Cincinnati Zoo

The last full day of our vacation was one of our favorites. We packed everyone into Matt and Julie's vehicle and headed to Cincinnati, Ohio to go to the Cincinnati Zoo. The girls loved riding in the back together and I loved feeding Ryan. It was nice that we could all ride in the same car so that we could talk and spend that time together. The zoo was a blast. We saw a bunch of fun animals, went to a live animal show (Lydia even got up and danced with the rest of the kids on the "stage", she was so pleased with herself - she's getting so big!), waited in line for the train for-ev-er - and loved it (regardless of how Lydia looks in the picture),  and rode on a carousel. It was a wonderful day. After the zoo closed we headed to Qdoba and ate some yummy mexican food. We got back to Brownsburg late and put the kids right to bed. It was a great final day to our vacation.

Saying Goodbye

Technically Sunday was our last day in Indiana. We went to church, but came home early to pack and leave for our flight. Before we went to church I forced everyone into taking a picture with us all in it. I knew that it was our last chance and I would be so sad if I neglected to get a picture of the whole crew! Thankfully they humored me, and I'm so glad that we got a picture with everyone in it.

We had a neat experience at the airport where the guy helping us check in commented on David's Utah State Shirt. We talked about Logan for a minute and then he leaned over to his coworker and said "I bet they are Mormon." We were surprised and said that we were, in fact, LDS. The co-worker asked him how he knew, and I responded... "Because we are so happy?" We laughed but the girl was perplexed. We chatted with them for a minute about the man's ward and what we were doing in Indiana. It left me happy and pleased to have made a connection. However, the flight back home was... less successful than the first. Lydia was exhausted but couldn't fall asleep. Books, songs, and toys weren't enough. We let her play train puzzles on the iPad until she kept getting too frustrated (due to her tiredness), Finally we pulled her out and tried to snuggle with her until the flight was over. Thankfully the pilot got us to SLC a half-hour sooner than expected and we all survived the flight. (Plus, there was a toddler behind us that cried louder and longer than Lydia did - so we felt a little bit better.) 

We had a fabulous trip and we are glad that we got to see to many fun things and spend so much time with family. 

Also, I know that this is like picture overload - but I narrowed it down from1600 photos (many, many, many multiples due to our "constant shoot" setting) to 248 photos. Then I narrowed it down to just under 100 for the post. I feel pretty good about that! 

A Tale of Two (well.. four...) Phones

So, about three years ago - August 2011 - David and I were vaguely thinking about changing cell phones when one of my great blogging friends, Rebecca, blogged about how she and her husband had recently switched to Virgin Mobile and that they loved it. Within just a few days, David and I did a bunch of research, crunched a bunch of numbers, and were walking out of Best Buy with two new cell phones in hand. It was one of the fastest decisions that we've ever made - but it's also been one of the best! We seriously love VM and have been really really happy with our service and cell phones. I mean, come on, these phones have lasted us for three years! (Which in cell phone years is like a whole decade.)

Our phones weren't the newest/best phones on the market when we bought them - but they were both touch screen with data, so definitely nice (and an upgrade from what we were using before). However, over the past three years they've definitely started feeling a little... old. It hasn't bothered us, in fact, it's kind of a pride thing that we have these old phones instead of iPhones or something similar. (Like, it's a mark of our frugalness or sensiblesness or something.) I mentioned that the phones had data, but that's stretching it a little bit. We lovingly referred to them as "semi-intelligent" phones instead of "smart" phones. The phones had access to data, but only had enough storage space for approximately 1.5 apps (David had Twitter and I had LDS Tools), and were only fast enough to access our email and an occasional website. No web surfing for us, but an occasional consult with PricematchwithRachel.com while at the grocery store was possible. When we hit our two year mark we started a little competition to see whose phone would last the longest. We both thought that if we could get to the six month mark, we'd be pretty happy.

After we reached that goal we had lofty goals of hitting the three year mark. Our phone charger cords started not working as well, taking a fairly vigorous effort each night to twist the cord and set the phone at just. the. right. angle. to ensure that the phone would actually charge through the night. We'd tease each other every time one of us accidentally dropped our phone, or was having an especially difficult time getting the charger to connect. I don't have the best track record with phones, and David's record is like... spotless - so I was determined to win even though the odds were not in my favor.

Can you see where this is going? This is the story of how my phone had a sleepover at the bottom of a damp pool bag and never turned on again - and how we both ended up with super awesome new phones.

I have to justify myself a little bit... because those who have known me in the past are sure to shake their heads and say "That Shantel, she's always been so careless with her phones. Losing them. Breaking them. Of course it would be her to lose the bet." But in all honesty, I've taken very good care of this phone, and most of the time when I "lose" my phone it's because I set it down and would rather just hang out with David than keep my phone by me. I've taken great pride in this phone and making sure that it was taken care of. However, last Saturday was an incredibly busy day - jam packed from start to finish. My mom had come down to go to the Parade of Homes, so we had done that in the morning/afternoon, then I met up with some high school friends, Tausha and Bekah, and we went to the Farm, then as soon as we got home we headed to the pool with my mom, again. I had my phone in my pool bag, and when we loaded up to come home (rushing a little bit because David was supposed to be home around that same time) I shook off a couple of our pool toys and tossed them into the bag. We said goodbye to my mom and I started getting dinner ready, with the intent to clean off the kitchen counter (including the pool bag). Then we had an unexpected (but welcome) surprise and Wendy and Sam showed up to see if they could store their leftover food from their date night in our fridge while they went up to RC Willey (the opposite direction from their house). We sat down and chatted with them for a while and as they were getting ready to leave Cal and Sue stopped by, so we sat down to chat with them. It was getting close to Lydia's bedtime so I made her a quick dinner and got her ready for bed. After we got Lydia down and said goodnight to Cal and Sue, I headed back into the kitchen to make our dinner (Sanpete Chicken and Piccadillies). I was fairly focused on making our yummy food that all thoughts of cleaning off the counter (pool bag included) were pushed out of my mind. Right as our dinner was finishing, Wendy and Sam showed back up with cookie dough and ice cream to play games (we had invited them over when they were here earlier). We set out some plates for our dinner, popped the cookies into the oven, and played our new favorite game "Golf". We had a really nice time hanging out with them - but after they left I was pretty ready for bed! (Remember, I am six months pregnant and I'd had a long day.) As I headed up to bed I wondered, for the first time that evening, where my phone had gotten to - but I just decided to find it in the morning.

Fast forward to the next morning when I came down and finally started cleaning off my counter. I dumped out the pool bag and was surprised to see my phone at the bottom. Nothing was really wet in the bag (more just moist...), but my surprise turned to dismay when I realized my phone wasn't turning on. I hoped that maybe the battery was just dead - but after a couple of days in a tupperware of rice I conceded my loss to David and we headed to Best Buy to get new phones for us.

*Note: we are leaving on our family vacation to Indiana on Friday - so we wanted to get our phones and make sure that they were working before we leave. Nothing like a little time crunch, right?*

We knew that we wanted to stay with Virgin Mobile, and we knew what kind of phone we thought we wanted after doing some research online. We just wanted to hold it and make sure that it was exactly what we wanted. It was kind of an adventure, because the AF store didn't have it in stock so we had to make the trek up to Sandy. But when we got there we realized that they only carried the phone we wanted in white. That was fine with me, because I was already planning to get white - but one of the reasons we liked the phone is because we thought that it would be so fun to have me have a white phone and David have a blue phone of the same phone (we've loved having the same phone for so many reasons, but thought it would be fun to have different colors). We figured that we'd just order David's online and hope it got here before we left for Indiana. So we got my phone and headed home to place an order for Davids. Unfortunately we realized that the reason Best Buy only carried these phones in white is because Virgin Mobile only carries them in white! David wasn't sure he wanted a white phone, so he decided to think about it and maybe just use his phone for a while longer. However, after a couple of days of seeing my pretty new phone, he was sold on the idea of getting a new phone. (It's a pretty loser reward for the winner of the bet to get stuck with the old phone, while the loser of the bet gets a brand new phone!) We checked in with all the Best Buy's locally and found that the closest store that had them in stock was Park City or Riverdale. (Apparently, it's a very popular phone.)  Poor David decided that he'd just order one in to the AF Best Buy and pick it up after we got home from our vacation.

I told David that I would take care of ordering it on the next morning. However, I knew that it would be so much more fun if he had his new phone to play with over our trip. So, I secretly planned to drive wherever I had to in order to buy one for him. Thursday morning was my glucose test (gag), so Lydia and I got up bright and early and headed to "mommy's doctor office". While I was waiting the hour between drinking my sugar syrup, I called Best Buy and determined that the closest store that had the phone in stock was Riverdale. I called up the store and was told that I couldn't actually buy it over the phone, I had to come in to purchase it. I explained my sob story, and that I would be driving from American Fork just to buy that phone and could they at least put my phone number on the box so if someone else bought it before I could get there that they could call and tell me to turn around????? After a brief pause and a couple of buttons being pushed in the background they asked me for my credit card number and information. Whoo hoo! Phone purchased, now all that was left was heading to pick it up. Riverdale is about an hour away from Lehi, but only about 25 minutes away from my parents house - so I called up my mom and asked her if she wanted to meet us for lunch. After my blood work was done, Lydia and I hopped in the car and headed out on our adventure. It was actually fairly painless. Lydia was content to be in the car, we made good time, and we were in and out of the best buy in 15 minutes (five of those minutes were me just following Lydia around the store in order to let her stretch her legs while I smiled my biggest smile at having David's phone in my hands). We met up with my mom for lunch, then headed back home to finish packing!

I'm a terrible secret keeper. I took a couple of pictures of Lydia with the phone, and her with my mom, and contemplated sending them to David while he was at work - to surprise him so he could be excited to come home. I thought that it would be fun to just send him one with Lydia and my mom and say "Had a great lunch date with my mom in Riverdale!" and let him make the connection that I had gone there to pick up his phone. But, I thought that it would be even more fun if he got home and the new phone was just sitting on the counter. I was so proud of myself, because on our way home he called me and I played it totally cool, saying that I had ordered the phone to the AF store and that we would just have to pick it up after we got home from Indiana. However, later in the day - he messaged again and said that he had looked again and that maybe there was a phone in the West Valley store and maybe we could cancel the AF order and go pick it up there so we'd have it. I broke and told him the good news (it's totally his fault - he spoiled his own surprise!). He was surprised and so excited and after he got home, we spent the evening playing with our new phones.

The moral of the story is that we both have awesome new phones to take on our trip, and already they are amazing. We are so excited, and it sort of makes up for the lameness of me losing the phone bet. We both ended up with the white LG Volt, and so far we love them!

(Yes, we have the same background picture, because we love it. 

**Update: We are home from our vacation now and can honestly say that we love, love, love these phones! They are so nice and exactly what we wanted. We knew that we didn't need anything incredibly fancy (like the Samsung Galaxy S3) - but we wanted something that would be really nice and functional. These phones have such a large screen, they are super fast, and we've been able to download some really neat Apps. David is pretty much in love with the "Google Keep" app that he has that is basically a note pad/to do list/organization app. I love how nice the camera is, and pretty much everything else about the phone. We feel pretty happy and are already hoping to go another 2-3 years on these phones!