An Indy "Ay-cation"

As Daisy likes to say, "We're going on "Ay-cation!"  Ever since we got back from our vacation to Indy, that is.  The past couple of days she has been packing up every single purse/bag she can find and toting them around the house, proclaiming this.  It is too cute :)

So yes.  My parents took our family and Aaron and Jill's family on a little getaway to Indy this past week.  It was so much fun to go to a hotel and spend time with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jan!  They sure know how to do vacations well :)

Our kids were thrilled to be at a hotel.  They love hotels...much like their mama!

"helping" Grandpa Jim with the luggage...

And they were so excited to swim in an indoor/outdoor pool!  They have never been to one, and they thought it was so cool to swim under the window to be either inside or outside.  

Unfortunately, the pool was a bit chilly.  So the hot tub was our favorite hangout!  The first night, there were 2 drunk guys in there with us :)   They were very nice drunk guys at least!

Sleeping in a hotel room with 4 kids is always interesting.  My parents did get us a suite, but we wanted to leave the living room free for the adults to hang out in after the kids were in bed.  So we made Daisy a bed under the sink, and Layla was in the closet!  They loved it :)  Kaine and Halle got one of the double beds, but they were actually jealous of Daisy and Layla because they wanted the floor too!  I do not understand kids.

We had fun eating out...

We introduced Abel to lemons :)

Fun times hanging out with just the adults after the kids' bedtime...

And then the last day, we went to the Indy zoo!  It was a great day--perfect weather and fun to visit a different zoo.  Kinda crazy with so many young kids, but it went great!

The shark petting exhibit was pretty cool!

As we were heading up to the bear's cage, I told Ivy she might have to protect Daisy (because Daisy is terrified of bears)...Ivy immediately put her arm around Daisy.  She is such a caring little "mommy"!

We had a picnic for lunch...not much table space though!  So we improvised, with Kaine and Halle eating in the strollers...

And kids all over the sidewalk :)

 

On our way home, we stopped at Ivanhoe's for supper/dessert.  It was so good!!  Halle was pretty excited about her "Dancing Bear" sundae... 

And I was pretty excited about my strawberry shortcake!  I have heard a lot about it and I was not disappointed!  After we were done eating, I told Nathan I did not want to eat for the rest of the week.  I was so full.  It was very yummy :)

Dad and Mom, thank you so much for such a fun trip to Indy!  We appreciate it so much--we made lots of good memories.  We love you guys!!

Wedding in Mexico--#8 (the last one)

Part Eight:  Back to the USA

Hello, faithful readers!  I am finally wrapping up our Mexico trip...which ended a week and a half ago!  Feels like ages ago, now.  Yep, time to wrap this up.

Did you miss the first Mexico posts?  Here are the links:

Part One:  The Journey

Part Two:  Cousin Reunion

Part Three:  Beating that Mexico Heat!

Part Four:  Uncle Kyle and Some Pre-Wedding Fun

Part Five:  Time For Wedding Pictures!

Part Six:  Saturday Festivities

Part Seven:  Adam and Jenna's Wedding

After Adam and Jenna's wedding, we went and crashed in our house for awhile.  We rested and also started packing up to leave the next day.  But that evening, we had one last meal in the cafeteria with everyone on campus (minus Adam and Jenna, of course!  They were on their way to Sedona, AZ).

Our kids loved playing one last time with their cousins and the other kids.  I just LOVE this picture of Mili!  Her attitude in this picture is so funny!

We noticed the sky was getting dark...a storm was coming.

And "storm" is an understatement.  It started raining HARD.  And the wind was incredible...wow.  During the storm, I was seriously thinking this must be a hurricane!  And Nathan even started telling me where we should go if the roof was torn off of the building that we were under.

This isn't the greatest picture, but tons of people had to grab brooms and they were constantly sweeping the water out of the building.  It was blowing into there like crazy.

Daisy was really scared.  And see that little building in the background?  As we were sitting there, we watched the storm start to tear the metal roofing off of that building.  A little scary!

But the storm started letting up, and the kids had a blast playing in this "pool" that had been created!

The campus was flooded!  (and without power for quite a few hours).

And then...the next day it was time to head back to the good old USA!

It was really fun traveling to the airport with all of these people!  Here, we are hanging out after eating lunch.

And we got on the plane.  We were scheduled to fly out of Tucson to Denver (with a very short layover).  Then it would be from Denver to Indy.

 

Ready to go!  And then...the pilot made an announcement.  The bathroom was leaking.  Which doesn't really sound like a big deal, but the electrical stuff was right underneath, so it would need to be fixed before we flew out.

Which meant...we would be sitting on the airplane for a good 50 more minutes.
Which meant...we would not be able to make our connecting flight in Denver.
Which meant...we had to get off the airplane and stay the night in Tucson (without our luggage!)

This is what Daisy thought about getting back off the airplane :)

But it wasn't all bad!  Southwest Airline put us up in a nice hotel for the night, which my kids thought was just great!  (One huge bummer though...since our luggage had all been checked, we didn't have ANYTHING!  No extra clothes, swimsuits, etc.  And the hotel had a really nice pool, so that was hard for our kids!)

Here they are, being silly in the lobby.  (A bit tired, too!)

I needed some contact solution, which the hotel didn't have.  So these guys from the hotel drove Nathan and me to Walgreens!  It was kind of fun to have them chauffeur us around Tucson :)

We ordered pizza and ate it out by the pool...

The next morning was relaxed...our kids watched some Kid Snippets with Grandpa Dave...

We had a moment of panic when we couldn't find Nathan's wallet anywhere.  We searched everywhere...and finally we asked all of our kids if anyone had seen it.  Layla said "yep!"  And went straight to the ice bucket and took off the lid.  Ha!  Glad we asked her!

Back to the airport...Let's try this one more time!

Notice we all had the same clothes as the day before :)

It was my birthday, by the way!  Not the way I had expected to spend my birthday, but a fun day nonetheless :)

The boys sat together...here they are doing their "manly fistbump" :)

I LOVE how Halle still plays with her baby.  So sweet :)

We flew to Las Vegas and hung out there for a few hours until our next flight.  Our kids thought this tram was the coolest thing ever!

And the moving sidewalks, too...

Nathan bought me a birthday coffee drink.  I had a really fun birthday, despite traveling the whole day!

We didn't arrive home until close to 1:00 am (Indiana time)!  I feel like it took our kids a lot of days to adjust from the time difference and all of that.  It is soooo good to be home.

Excited for our next Mexico trip!  Lord willing, next spring we will visit CVE one last time before we go overseas.  Adam, Jenna, Mari, Fe, Perla, Leo and Mili...we love you all and we will miss you!