End of Summer Trip to Indiana

We have been wanting to make a trip to my hometown in Indiana for awhile.  We finally made the trip - thanks to my brother Ben and his wife Kim having a reception to celebrate their recent wedding!  The only other time we had made this long of a car trip was when Elizabeth was only 6 weeks old, so we did not know how the kids would be in the car for 15 hours, but off we went! 

Elizabeth up till this point had been a very quiet little girl, but something happened during the car ride - she started to talk, and talk, and talk!  Here she is talking to her little doll that she got from McDonald's when we made a breakfast stop.

Nathan loved being our cooler man.  He took all drink orders and always made sure that the cooler lid was closed.  We brought the portable DVD player and he loved that as well.  Here he is though sound asleep with his precious "night night" and his backpack.  Before  we left I had each of the kids pack their backpacks with treasures of their choosing.  It was a great hit!  Nathan did choose to bring a harmonica which he did play for us in the car...

Our first stop in Indiana was to the home of one of my best friends!  Tabitha and I grew up together and then we ended up having baby girls only 2 days apart!  We spent the night with Tabitha and family and then the next morning took a trip to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  We had so much fun!  As you enter the Children's Museum you see dinosaurs peeking in the museum.  Nathan remembered this from when we were there last year.  Elizabeth kept saying "hi doggy! hi doggy!" (she would not accept that they were not dogs)

Nathan and Elizabeth playing in a water area with boats and fishing poles, etc.

Tabitha and Ella reading - love those sun glasses!

I had to take this picture!  I have pictures of me as a little girl in this same Indy Race Car!

Next stop in Indiana was my mom's house, "Nana".  Nathan loves that Nana has a trampoline in the back yard, so as soon as we got there the kids were asking to go jump on the trampoline.  Happiness!

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My brother Ben and his wife had a very beautiful wedding reception on Saturday evening.  What a great time to celebrate with them and to see so many friends and family! 

John and Elizabeth, Me, Jordann (Greg's wife), my Mom (Nana), Greg (my brother)

Lizzy and Daddy playing "ring around the roses"

Nathan made some great friends playing with his new cousins and other children at the reception.

Columbian Park is a park that I have very fond memories of from my childhood.  It has changed quite a bit from when I was a little girl, but we took the kids there to play.  They loved it!

John, Nathan and Elizabeth at the fountain.

Nathan and Elizabeth crossing a little bridge, one of the play sets is in the background.

What is a trip to Indiana with out a trip to a farm?!  I thought the kids would really enjoy this, and I think they did... I know I did!  We made a trip to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm.  It is a very large dairy farm about an hour North of my Mom's house. 

Here are Elizabeth, John, and Nathan outside of the "birthing barn"  This farm has roughly 80 calves born every day, so whenever you go to visit you should be able to see the birth of a cow!  This was really cool!  Elizabeth had to be taken out because she kept saying very loudly "Cow! Baby Cow!".  Nathan stayed for the entire birth process and was very interested.  We also got to see one of the baby cows learn how to stand.  Fun times!

We also took a bus tour of the farm that included driving though a few of the barns and making a stop at the milking area.  Very interesting.  This is a 24 hour a day process.  The cows take a ride on this carousel and by the time they make it all the way around they are done being milked.  Nathan thought it was cool that the cows got to ride on a merry-go-round!

Here is a shot of a wind farm as we drove down the interstate.  It was amazing!  This wind farm went on for ever!  This was my first time seeing a wind farm so I really thought it was cool!

Before we left Indiana we had to make sure to get in a marshmallow roast! 

Dad helped Nathan and Elizabeth roast their marshmallows.

Nana helped make smores.  Yummy!

The drive back to Virginia went well.  Again I was very proud of the kids.  Here I am with Elizabeth at a scenic overlook in Virginia.  I love those Blue Ridge Mountains!  We have such an amazingly creative God!