Trip to Nashville

We took a trip to Nashville abut a week ago to visit Chris's family and celebrate some birthdays. First we stopped at Shelby Park, where both Chris and his parents had played as children. There is a railroad bridge there that goes over the river, and the girls were excited to get to see a train cross it!

on the boat ramp by the river

We visited Great granny, and she got out some old costume jewelry for the girls to play with!

How fancy!

Great Granny with Cecilia

The next day, we got to go swimming in Great Granny's neighborhood pool! It was such a nice morning, and being in the pool felt great to this pregnant lady! ;)

Gran and Cecilia

Caroline and her cousin

Caroline swimming underwater... she has gotten pretty good at this!

three cousins about to jump in together while Great Granny watches

one... two...

...three!

The funny thing was how they never could get their timing quite right... at least, not while I was taking a photo! This time, the girls jumped in ahead of their cousin...

...and here, he jumped in before Caroline! They were basically yanking each other into the water, whoever happened to jump first...

Cecilia had decided she was done with the jumping for now... she was very brave to jump in holding only her cousin's and sister's hands. Lately she would only jump to an adult while holding their hands. I think she's forgotten that she would jump into the pool alone, no hand-holding, when she was 18 months old!

They almost jumped at the same instant this time!

Caroline jumping in on her own

In the afternoon, we got to see more family... Chris's Uncle and Aunt along with Papa and Margaret came over for birthday cake! Caroline and Cecilia got them to play My Little Ponies!

Everybody played outside awhile...

Here is one of their favorite things to do outside: ride in the wagon behind the lawnmower. They pretend the lawnmower is a horse and they are riding in a carriage. They each got a turn to drive, too!

And believe it or not, this is not our last mini-vacation before the baby is born in three weeks... we'll be in Atlanta for one night in a few days, and then, we are done for awhile!!!

A Few More from Indy

A few shots around the hotel... Chris and Cecilia relax and read a book in our room. That recliner was pretty comfy!

The girls enjoy breakfast... the food at this place was phenomenal in that they had so much of it included as part of our stay! The full breakfast buffet included eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, french toast, fruit, doughnuts, muffins, oatmeal, cold cereals, waffles, juice, coffee... and I might be forgetting something there! In addition, they offered a "5:30 Kickback" every evening from 5:30 until 7:00 in which they had snack and easy dinner-type foods out in the same area where they set up breakfast in the mornings. We made it our dinner both nights we were there! Some of the foods included were baked potatoes, hot dogs, buffalo chicken wings, chicken tenders, salad, and nachos with beef, refried beans, and cheese. Oh, and there was also a bar a which each adult could get three drinks per night! Too bad I couldn't get any myself, although I had virgin margaritas and a virgin tequila sunrise along with several Shirley Temples! Cecilia was obsessed with the Shirley Temples... she asked if she could have one with breakfast, ha ha, and just today (two weeks later!) she asked about them again! But goodness, I have never seen a regular family 2.5/3 star hotel with so much free food! There was also a popcorn cart and soft drinks available from 3:00-10:00 daily... too bad they like Pepsi up there! ;)

And when I saw the picture of the waffles in the hotel's advertising photos, I thought, "Hmm, wonder if they will really look that fancy?" Sure enough, they did! They had two waffle irons with this fancy design. Pretty cool!

So, can you tell that food is important to me? ;) Seriously, this was great for a family with kids, not having to worry about going somewhere for dinner, paying extra for it, waiting for a table, and getting back to the hotel before everyone was exhausted and cranky. And it gave us time to use the indoor pool after dinner each night, too!

The last morning after breakfast... trying to get everyone to look/smile at the same time was a challenge!

But I finally got one when they were all on the luggage cart in the elevator, on our way up to get our stuff before checking out!

We had so much fun even if we were only there a short time... two nights in Columbus and two nights in Indianapolis. We were sad to not get to spend one of the days with our friends when Matthew was sick, but glad he recovered quickly! And the four adults had a blast staying up late playing cards and board games and enjoying our adult beverages from earlier which we'd brought up and stashed in the fridge!

Caroline was so sad to leave Matthew in the morning... they were best friends until he moved to Iowa when they were both almost four years old. She really wanted to hug him goodbye, and he wouldn't come out from hiding beside the bed, like if he didn't say goodbye it wouldn't happen! Caroline was distraught; I almost cried along with her! But then she got a hug downstairs as we walked out to the cars, and even gave him a big kiss on the cheek! She loves to hug and kiss friends goodbye - I imagine she would have been quite miserable if she didn't get to say goodbye the way that meant the most to her!

Trip to Conner Prairie

After we arrived in Indianapolis from Columbus, we met up with our friends at our hotel and surprised Caroline and Cecilia - again - that their friends were there! We all headed over to Conner Prairie to have lunch and stay for the rest of the afternoon.

After having lunch at the picnic tables, we began walking around. They have tons of old buildings and homes, and everything is hands-on, unlike in most places where rooms are roped off so you can only look at how they are set up. Our first stop was to pet a horse...

We watched this cow being milked for a few minutes... all the kids declined a chance to milk her themselves!

I don't know what was so interesting in this doorway for the hens, but at one point all four kids were looking in it together!

Cecilia took some time to play a piano is one of the houses. There was also a basket full of ribbons that she enjoyed in this house.

And in this one-room cabin, there was a bed, fireplace, table, sewing books, clothing, and... a few toys. There were wooden blocks along with this horse and wagon toy. Cecilia would have stayed here and played with this the entire afternoon...

The others quickly moved on to the path outside the cabin taking some wooden hoops with them to try their hands at hoop-rolling.

Caroline trying to get hers going...

...while Cecilia begins building a house inside the cabin. At this point, I lost the rest of the group while Cecilia spent awhile playing!

We managed to catch the tail end of a blacksmith demonstration. Along the way, we stopped at a backyard party where they had just finished up some outdoor games and were having sugar cookies and lemonade, and we stopped in a schoolhouse to talk to the "teacher." Cecilia insisted on sitting down close to the teacher but didn't have any questions to ask her! She didn't want to leave the schoolhouse for some reason!

The girls look into a pasture

This is the petting barn... lots of baby animals were here to pet. This little one hid under this platform... maybe that is what the platform is there for, so overwhelmed animals can get a break! ;)

Cecilia brushes a calf...

...and a mother sheep.

The kids had fun posing on this wooden horse! Here's Matthew and Caroline...

...and Cecilia and Ryan.

The girls pet the baby lamb.

This is a view out the back of the barn.

Cecilia liked the baby lamb...

...really, really liked it!

She paused awhile to watch the animals through the fence outside of the barn. Everyone else was so fast and ahead of me, so most of these pictures are of Cecilia, who I had to hang back with so she wouldn't be left behind!

We stopped briefly on a playground by the main entrance building... but not for too long, because it was almost closing time! We really could have stayed much, much longer!

Our last stop was in the Lenape Indian Camp. These furs were laid out ona table for us to try to identify. We got most of them: you can see the telltale skunk skin and raccoon skin, and the one closest to you is a beaver skin.

Caroline made a discovery as she picked up the raccoon skin: "Look, they're puppets!"

"That's disturbing," said Chris, while Kevin's comment at the same moment was, "Hey, that's cool!" Ha ha! Behind the girls, you can see both a buffalo and deer skin.

Cecilia looks like she is in the midst of making an important decision...

Caroline worked with this drill - with no bit in it at the end, for safety's sake, I suppose!

I think they said this was a wigwam...

The kids all took turns grinding corn. Manual labor was seen as one of their favorite things to do!

I could never get everyone to look at the camera at once...

Cecilia takes a rest inside the wigwam, tired out from following baby animals around and grinding corn!

We got to hear some Lenape music inside one of the buildings. The girls helped by playing these rattles...

...and Caroline got to help teach a few words in Lenape! Here they learn the word for "thank you," which is wanishi (taught by holding up one finger - one - then pointing at the knee - nee - and then by pointing at Caroline - she... one knee she = wanishi!).

It is too bad we didn't get to the prairie until mid-afternoon, because we certainly could have stayed a lot longer! there was a whole interactive inside area as well as all the outdoor homesteads and buildings. I'd recommend spending most of the day, or at least a full afternoon!