Captain

I wasn't thinking it at the time, just after I uploaded them to the computer. Isn't that the Captain Morgan pose? Now she just needs the outfit.

Why must s'mores be worn on the face?

I'm sorry Eli is so blurry...

This is to be expected. Every time we go camping, and have s'mores, it's always all over their faces. I think Hannah always wins the messiest eater of s'mores award. Knowing her, she'd accept the award with a gooey smile and sticky wave.

Love

"If I know what love is, it is because of you."--Herman Hesse
I really like this. It's very fitting to the 4 most important people in my life. Maybe there's a way I can incorporate it into the wedding. It definitely applies...

"Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."--Oliver Wendell Holmes
My sister talks about having a wall of art and photography when they get into a bigger place. This is something I've always wanted too, (probably with more photography then other art) but we don't have the room right now. Whenever we decide the time is right to make that move to what we dream of, I want this quote somewhere in the house. I think in a wall full of our kids, us, family, and other cool photography pieces it would be pretty neat.



I borrowed this image from my sister and she borrowed it from Pottery Barn.

Tomato

Look at what we have! This is our first tomato of the season! It's a pretty perfect tomato. Very few flaws and so round and cute. Do you like his hair on top? I think BLTs and corn on the cob will be on the menu for dinner tonight. We have lots more growing, maybe enough to make our own salsa...now I just need to find a really good recipe. I was hoping to try and make our own spaghetti sauce and can some tomatoes, but we need way more then one plant. Next year we will have a garden and not just in pots :)

Can we bury you?

I fear my family is crazy. Who would willingly want to be buried in sand? This started with the boys asking Cody if they could bury him. Each of the kids was buried not once, but twice. Maybe I'm the one that's nuts. Watching this raised all kinds of levels of anxiety and fear. Then Hannah said, "Mommy, can we bury you?" That would be a big fat no. Talk about an instant panic attack.

West Baden Springs Hotel

Last week, for a few days of our much needed week off, we took off and went south. Not as far south as we would have liked, a beach would have been awesome, but still a get away from the daily grind. On our way to Patoka Lake, we stopped at the West Baden Springs Hotel. This hotel was awesome! The kids asked if we could just stay there instead of going to the Lake. The hotel has been around for a very long time under different owners.

It was vacant for many years. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw the pictures. They have pictures around of the hotel when it was empty and decaying. There was even a wall that partially collapsed in 1991.

It really is cool. It's a freestanding dome, full of light and huge.

There is a room that has different items found during the most recent renovation. There was china, original lobby chairs, the shoe shine stand, and menus from the restaurant.
We spent over an hour just wandering around and looking at everything. The kids really wanted to see one of the rooms and look down at the ground level. Too bad you had to have a key to go up to any of the floors. They weren't understanding that we would have had to rent a room. They understood that, but not that we couldn't afford to rent a room.

The Canal

We took the bikes downtown on Sunday. We wanted to ride something different, (and he wanted to use the new bike rack) and decided the canal and some of the Monon Trail would be fun. It was fun. Aside from the fact that I have no grace or coordination. This would be a good trait to have when maneuvering around lots of people and tight spaces and turns. Now, I didn't fall off at all and by the end of the ride I was getting better at doing some of these tricky things that he just flies through. Another way I'm just a little jealous of him, he has grace, good balance, and coordination :)

I had never seen all of the Canal. I really like it. I'm thinking I would like to have our engagement pictures taken here. Maybe we could even get the kids and Maggie involved. I wonder if we are allowed to do that?
These guys are cute. There were some babies, but they were on the other side and I couldn't take a picture of them...I needed more zoom :(
He makes me laugh and smile all the time. I love him very much. He lived in North Carolina for about 5 years and used to climb ALL the time. In Indiana, land of flatness, he doesn't get to do this much. Climbing requires at least a 3 hour drive. When he sees something, anything really, (his brother's house included because they have a stone front) he will climb it. Barefoot and with his helmet on. When he does this I always giggle. Then he laughs at me because I take pictures of him climbing the wall between the canal and the zoo. I just hope the bears aren't on the other side.

The view

This is the view from the bottom of the drop-off (not really, but a little scary with little ones...in my head they all went rolling down the hill and didn't avoid all these boulders...oh, to live in my head *sigh*). See our tent at the top? I have so many pictures and stories, but I must do many other things that were not done while I was on vacation last week first. Maybe tomorrow...