Annual Indiana Vacation

My Personal Challenge was sabatoged by a standard that was set to high. It all started with our wonderful vaction to Indiana to visit with my family and celebrate my great grandmother's 91st birthday!
The drive there was absolutely beautiful!! We drove through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and into Indiana. The large fields, changing leaves displaying fall colors, and the large barns found on many farms were breathtaking:

I enjoy the drive back more and more each year. However, this year was a little bit more difficult with a 5 years old asking every five minutes, "When are we gonna get there?"; a two year old who refused to keep her arm in her seatbelt; and a 3 month old that needed to be nursed every two hours. The kids were EXHASTED by the 13 hour car ride:

Our first evening in Indiana, we met up with family for a small cookout at my Great Aunt Darla's house. We roasted the kids' some hot dogs while they played in the gravel. As Nikholi bit into his hot dog, he thought he had a rock in his mouth. Promptly telling my Great Aunt Dani, she instructed him to throw it back into the gravel where it belongs. Little did we know, that pesky rock that was in his mouth was his tooth. Nikholi lost his first tooth (LITERALLY)!

We searched with a flashlight and found nothing. So when we checked-in to the condo, Nikholi and I sat down to write a letter to the tooth fairy. We explained that we he lost it in his great great aunt Darla's gravel pit. The next morning he was soo excited that the toothfairy found him and found his tooth, leaving him $1.49!
Our second day in town we went up to Mclure's Apple Orchard, one of my favorite places in Indiana. Since Nikholi was missing his school field trip to the Westmoreland Apple Farm, we decided to take him on a field trip with another kindergarten class from Indiana. We were running a little ahead of schedule so we enjoyed lunch at the little resturant on the farm. I had a delicious tuna sandwhich with celery, apples, and walnuts, on a crossant. Nikholi had some pulled pork with apples and peaches. Roger had an egg salad sandwich and Kambri had a PB&J. Best of all, each dish came with fresh apples. We also ordered some apple dumplings to go.
Afterward, we took the kids over to play on the beautifully built playground. I want a playground like this. Eventually, one day, when we finally buy a house, I'm gonna build one like this:

On the field trip, Lttl1 slept soundly:

Kambri was a bit fussy and had daddy carry her every where. I'm assuming she just liked the view from there:

The field trip started with learning about farm animals. They pulled the animals out one by one for the kids to pet them, starting from the smallest and working their way to their largest farm animal (a bunny, a cat, a dog, a baby pigmy goat, a goose, a miniture pony, and a horse - of course).

Then they learned about how the bees pollinate the flowers, which helps them grow into yummy delicious apples.

Then the kids were able to pick apples from an apple tree:

Roger took this picture of the kids and I sitting in front of some corn stocks and pumpkins. It sure made for a lovely fall picture:

Afterwards, we went to the playground across the street from the condo and let the kids play. Here is me and Ltt1 on the dinosour...

and dad and the kids on the teeter-totter

We also enjoyed watching the beautiful sunset go down and reflecting off the water.

It truly made for a wonderful day!
On Friday, Lttl1 was able to meet his Great Great grandmother:

We all had a really nice time celebrating her 91st birthday:

Afterwards, we met up with our cousins and Kambri received a pedicure!

Then, we all went to the park where the kids' great grandma played on the playground with them, they really enjoyed that:

Kambri is soo brave she'll do anything she can to show her brother up:

We LOVE our Grandma Judi!!!

Our drive home was also very pleasant, despite my speeding ticket; it's hard to watch your speed when there is no speed limit signs on a country road. :(
Watching the sun come up, on our drive to Ohio:

We met up with one of our friends from the Army in Ohio

Here are those beautiful fall colors I was talking about:

Nikholi was exhasted

but some how Kambri was able to keep up with everything (here she is with her arm out of her seatbelt again) Grr.

Although our vacation was a blast, we were soo happy to finally be home!
*I'm amazed at how time consuming it is to upload soo many photos; wishes there was an easier way.*