Maycation

At the end of May we went on a quick little vacation. It's always so nice to get away, especially at the end of school and before summer stuff kicks in. We headed down to Santa Claus, Indiana, and went to Holiday World. This is an amusement park and water park. We had never been there before, and we were very impressed and surprised at how nice it was! It's very family friendly, very clean, and they have unlimited free soft drinks (the only downer - pepsi, not coke). The water park was pretty big and very nice - I really liked it. There were also these little places where they had different displays with things like antique dolls, toys, as well as a collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia, since he grow up close to there. The whole experience was so great, and I highly recommend it.

The next day we headed to Kentucky and went to Mammoth Cave National Park. LOVED IT! So fascinating and so beyond what I expected. We went on 2 different cave tours and enjoyed both of them. We learned so much, and saw cool stuff. The kids all completed activities to become Junior Rangers (this whole thing was a homeschooler's dream!) and were so proud to hear their names announced on the loud speaker. Again, I highly recommend a visit.

I was so pleased with our destinations on this trip - we had such great experiences at both places. But my favorite part of the trip was the first night. We drove to Jasper, IN and stayed at a hotel before Holiday World the next day. We went swimming and hot tubbing, then got on our pajamas, watched Wipeout on tv, and ate oatmeal cream pies (see the picture above). It's the little things in life sometimes that bring the most joy.

Ryan loves this picture because he convinced the kids to pose like the Santa Claus. The funny thing is there was a real person dressed liked Santa right by this, but they wanted nothing to do with him.


Mammoth Cave pictures

Random Thoughts Vol. 20

Time has been flying by here, as I'm sure it has been for all of you. The night of Madison's birthday, my nephew, Sam, got married. He was home for 6 days of leave from the Army and married a lovely girl named Aubree. They are now headed to New York state, where they will be until fall, when Sam gets deployed. Strange to think that Sam will be serving our country in the Middle East...is he truly old enough for such things? Wow, I'm getting old.

My uncle Junior passed away earlier this month. He was one of my mom's older brothers. He was a great guy, and I truly loved him. He was one of those people who was on your side. Regardless of who you were and how much you may have messed up in the past, Uncle Junior was behind you, believing the best of you. That's a great quality to have. He also faithfully served in the U.S. Navy for over 20 years, and it was neat to see them honor that at his funeral.

Michael had his first guitar recital a couple of weeks ago. He was the only guitar student who played that day (there were a ton of piano students). The selection - "She'll be Coming 'round the Mountain when She comes". He did a great job, and I was so proud of him I could have cried.

Max's last day of preschool was last Wednesday. They had the graduation ceremony, followed by cake and punch, which was a highlight for Max. He did a great job this year, and has improved so much and gained so much confidence. It's so fun to see him grow and experience new things. I won't even mention how hard it is to believe he is now a kindergartner. Or how sad it makes me that my baby isn't a baby anymore...NEXT TOPIC, QUICK!

We finished our school year last Friday. We are all soooo glad! Summer break is exactly what we need. We spent the last day of school in Chicago. Ryan took the day off and we went to Lincoln Park Zoo. The weather was perfect! After the zoo we headed to Millennium Park to check out "The Bean", and then walked to Buckingham Fountain. It was such a great day, a day I will treasure. I'm so blessed to have Ryan and the kids - God is good.