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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.
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.
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...
7? 7 already? Goodness, it feels like yesterday holding this 4lb baby thinking "so what do I do now?" Happy birthday Ladybug! We love you lots!
Guess who got to be the fill-in third base coach at Eli's game last weekend...
Eli was pretty excited that Lucas was out on the field during the game. He ran home and then turned back around and ran back to third just to give him a hug. I'm so glad I was standing right there to get this picture. I think this will be one that goes up...it's so sweet.
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.
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.
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.
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...
Guess who got to be the fill-in third base coach at Eli's game last weekend...
Eli was pretty excited that Lucas was out on the field during the game. He ran home and then turned back around and ran back to third just to give him a hug. I'm so glad I was standing right there to get this picture. I think this will be one that goes up...it's so sweet.
And here's my girl with the blue lips, tongue, and fingers. She loves her some fundip!
Here's the baby getting his first baseball trophy. He was soooo proud and excited. It's standing tall and proud on his dresser. I really need to get some shelves. I can not believe he's going to be 5 in a few days. He's still the baby and he always will be :)
Can you see shorty mcshort in the back row? He had a great first experience with baseball and can't wait to play again next year.
The other night we had a rousing game of bunk bed basketball. There was only one team and they had to take turns shooting the ball, without fighting, sometimes that is really hard for our 3 to do. Those were pretty much the only rules. 
We learned that any ball Maggie sees she assumes is hers. She sat on the floor and barked at the kids while they were shooting. Then she would turn and bark at Cody while he tossed the ball back up to whoever was going next.
They had a blast playing. They had fun doing alley-oops to Cody and laughing when he would miss. They though it was funny when they would hit me and I wasn't paying attention. Whatever it takes to make the kids happy. 
