Trip to the Indianapolis Zoo

On Thursday, we spent a big chunk of the day at the Indianapolis Zoo.  We love zoos, so even though we have one in Nashville, we were really looking forward to see what the Indy one had to offer.  We went about four years ago, but I couldn’t remember too much about it.  Turns out, it had lots of fun stuff that the Nashville Zoo doesn’t have.  Including cousins:

There was a temporary butterfly exhibit at the zoo, which consisted of a large, beautiful room full of flowers and different kinds of butterflies flying around.

The kids tried to get one to land on them, and Tatum ended up with one on her head!  The rest of us had to content ourselves with just looking at them, which was still very cool. 

After the butterfly exhibit, we stopped to eat lunch and then ventured into the zoo itself.  Our first stop was the aquarium:

The kids loved getting to touch the sharks:

After the aquarium we went to feed the giraffes, which is something I remembered from our last zoo trip and was eager for the kids to do again.  While we waited in line, we got some cousin pictures:

And of course, we had to take a silly one!

Feeding the giraffe takes about two seconds, but it is fun.  I just love that my kids can say that they fed a giraffe!

Afterward, we headed to the zoo train, by way of the rhinos and several other African animals.  Anna took a second to touch a horn:

We also took a frozen lemonade break, after which the kids cheesed it up on a big rock:

Us before the train ride:

After the train, it was straight to the carousel.  Truth be told, the kids weren’t overly into the animals today.  They mainly liked hitting up the attractions, which was okay with us since we were all kind of in “vacation” mode. 

We had time to go to the dolphin show after the carousel ride, but the kids all wanted to go to the splash pad instead.  Thus, we made a quick change into swimsuits and then spent the rest of the time watching the kids playing in the sprinklers.

By that time, it was around 3:00, and the kids were ready to go home.  The only downside of cousin visits is that the children usually don’t get nearly enough sleep, and thus, they are all fairly tired and squabbly by the second day.  We noted that Luke and Jack sometimes act more like brothers than cousins—both in good and bad ways!  That’s why, in the calm after we got back from the zoo, I had to snap this picture:

Brotherly (cousinly?) love:).

We had a great visit with our family, and it was one of those trips that made me realize how blessed we are:  in the past three days, we saw my grandmother, my uncles, Greg’s brother and sister-in-law, and the kids’ cousins.  The kids went swimming, rode two carousels, visited one of the biggest children’s museums in the world, saw a movie in the theater (with popcorn!), went to a cool zoo, petted sharks, fed a giraffe, rode a miniature train, and played in the sprinklers.  There’s no way around it:  we are really, really, very, incredibly rich.  It’s really humbling when I think about how much I’ve been given on this earth, and it makes me want to bless others the way that I’ve been blessed. 

Thanks, Mammaw, Uncle Big Dave, Chris, Jill, Jack, Tatum—and Hudson!—for a wonderful trip!

*I wrote these last four posts over the course of this week, but couldn’t get on the internet to publish them until now.  Sorry for the onslaught!

Louisville and Indianapolis

The Monday after Crazy Week, the kids and I headed up to Indiana by way of Louisville, KY.  We were going to Indianapolis to see Chris, Jill, and the kids, and we stopped for the night in Louisville to see my Mammaw, uncles, and some cousins.  We arrived in Louisville late in the afternoon, and, after visiting a little with Mammaw, we all walked across the street to Uncle Jackie’s house, where the kids (including Hunter, my cousin Brent’s son) enjoyed the trampoline.

We ordered pizza for dinner, and later that evening, as we waited for it to get dark enough to catch lightning bugs, Luke and Mammaw worked a puzzle:

My kids love their Mammaw…and their Uncle Big Dave!  Very shortly after arriving at Mammaw’s, they started asking after Uncle David.  They were thrilled when he invited them over to swim the next morning!

He also grilled out for us and even cut up potatoes to make fries, all spur of the moment.  He is such a nice guy.

The kids think so, too. 

After our delicious lunch, it was time to say goodbye and drive up to Indianapolis.  It was so good to see our cousins…and their dog, Murphy!

We spent the afternoon playing and catching up with each other.  I also had some good time pushing Tatum on the swing.

Afterward, we ate a yummy dinner and then headed down to the neighborhood pool for about an hour of swimming before it started thundering.  Then, it was home for watermelon on the back porch, baths, and bed.

On Wednesday morning, we packed lunches and headed to the Children’s Museum.

Our first stop was the 4th floor to ride the escalator, per cousin Tatum’s request.  The other kids were happy to acquiesce.

Then we played around on that floor for awhile before heading down to the science area.  My kids promptly planted themselves at the “water works”:

They take their water-working very seriously.

Here are a few other pics from the 4th floor, from an Avatar exhibit, and from the science area:

One of my favorite areas of the museum was “Egypt,” an area meant to teach you about the geography and culture of the country:

But even better than all the learning and playing was the time that was spent with cousins:

After the museum, we came home for a little bit of down time, and then went to meet Chris at a pizza place for dinner:

During dinner, the kids took turns “holding” Hudson.  He looks thrilled:

From dinner, I took the three big kids to see Monsters University, where we met Chris and his youth group.  We got there a few minutes early:

The movie was very cute, and the kids all enjoyed it.  They found the previews and the short before the movie to be a bit long, but once the movie started, they were good.

It was a fun, full two days.  On Thursday, we went to the zoo, but I’ve realized that that needs to be a separate post!

Our Crazy Week

Here is a text message exchange that Greg and I had last week:

I sent this laundry list of questions to Greg on Tuesday.  The reason we were texting and not talking is that he was at Lipscomb all week for Impact.  I also taught morning literacy classes at Y.E.S., and for some unknown reason I volunteered to make lunch on Tuesday for the 80 people at Y.E.S.  (Sidenote: cooking and seasoning 20 pounds of ground beef is kind of a long, complicated operation, especially when you have no husband home to help).  When one of our play dates cancelled on Monday and then new mom I was supposed to make dinner for that night didn’t end up needing it, I took it as a mercy from the Lord, who had noticed that, yet again, I had overscheduled myself.  We did have a (very fun) play date on Tuesday afternoon, as well as Luke’s birthday party on Wednesday (and Thursday morning).  There was also the scholarship contest, of course, and lots of other stuff.  I can’t remember it all, but I did take some pictures, which give some clues:

A rare moment of relaxation.

The kids’ Father’s Day present to Daddy, whose only gift request was votes for his scholarship contest.

I was the emergency sub in Sunday school that day.

Father’s Day dinner at Five Guys, which was the only way we would get to see the children’s father.  To stretch out our time with him, we visited Impact later that afternoon, where I got to meet this guy:

This is my new nephew, Hudson!

And this is his dad, with whom my kids had lots of fun, while I caught up with my sister-in-law, Jill!

One of our many campaign strategies was to make a picture that could be easily shared, with a link to the voting attached.

Literacy class.  I was experimenting with a new app with these.  For campaign purposes, of course:).

On Tuesday evening, we ate dinner with some new friends while Gigi watched the kids.  Then I came home and took them to meet this beautiful child.  She is the daughter of one of our teens from church.

On Friday, I took her and her mom to Impact so that the others could meet her, as well.

This last one is actually from the Saturday before Father’s Day, but I had to throw it in.  This is Anna and the frog she caught while we were at Courtney’s house for the afternoon.

For all the chaos, the week ended up going really well.  Luke’s birthday was wonderful.  Impact went great, and we had three baptisms.  All of our other commitments were fulfilled and went fairly smoothly.  And we won the scholarship contest!  It’s hard to believe that in the fall, there will be three students in this family!  It will be a big change, but one that is for the benefit of our family.  I can’t wait to see what God is going to bring out of all this craziness!