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!
