Indianana

Yes, I understand that I spelled Indiana wrong. But that is where Colin said that we went and I like it. So you did not get me in a spelling error. Nice try, Amy.

We left for Indiana on July 4, early in the morning. Fortunately, it was a beautiful drive and even ended up being only 7.5 hours of driving instead of the 10 we were expecting. It was definitely different than when Christopher was only 8 weeks old! We were going to go and see some fireworks in downtown Indianapolis, but we got there and it POURED. It had been going all day, and I think the fireworks were even cancelled, so there were no "ooooohs" or "aaaaaaaahs" for us. Maybe next year.

Christopher and Nancy--he was tuckered out!

We did have a very full week: building a porch for Aunt Nancy, Children's Museum, building a porch for Aunt Nancy, the pool, a day of swim lessons for Colin, building a porch for Aunt Nancy, the Train Museum, trip to Urgent care, saw the Ice Age movie with Rita, and did I mention that we built a porch for Aunt Nancy?

Looking up into the glass sculpture at the Children's Museum.

Colin talking Ms. Jackie's ear off about something before his lesson.

He seemed to enjoy his time on the kick board.

Colin liked the caboose.

Roger and Christopher on the caboose...Christopher wasn't quite so enchanted by the trains as Colin!

Colin on the dining car at the Train Museum.

We also got to see "the house." This is the house that Roger's dad and his sisters grew up in that his grandparents had built (well, had built for them) in the 1950's or 60's (sorry if I don't know the exact dates). In 2007, Roger's family took a big hit losing Grandma, Grandpa, and Mike (Roger's dad) during the summer. After this, Rita was able to take over the house and had it fully renovated. We hadn't seen it since because it wasn't ready last summer while we were there. It is absolutely beautiful, while still maintaining a lot of major parts of Grandma and Grandpa Miller. Great job, Rita!!

We built the porch for Aunt Nancy on Monday, Tuesday, and finished Wednesday. She was expanding an existing 7x7 porch to a 12x12. If only it had been as easy as placing some more paving stones down. Nope, we had to level the ground first. Wonderful. What did Nancy provide for the leveling agent? Cow crap. Yep, cow manure. Lots and lots of bags of cow poo were spread. Super fun times. Luckily it didn't smell as bad as you would think, but it still grossed me out. We went to the store about 769 different times to get more materials because some calculation somewhere had been off. Finally, we got to Wednesday and were rolling right along, spreading poop, adding a little paving dirt, placing a paving stone, and on to the next one. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Then Colin decided to show us how strong he was.

He picked up one of the 20+ pound paving stones that was in a stack (we weren't using these and they were going to be returned) off to the side of the porch (that he had been told not to touch already) and promptly dropped it right back on his fingers. I heard, "Mommy! Look how strong I...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Before Roger or I could get there to pick it up off of his finger (incidentally the same finger I had smashed in the car door last fall), he had ripped his hands out and there was blood pouring down his hand. Now remember, Roger and I have been elbow deep in crap all day, so there wasn't a clean hand, so I grabbed him on the elbows holding a hand under the dripping blood and rushed him into the bathroom so I could wash hands (his and mine). It was bad. He had split his finger open and ripped a bunch of skin off of it in a different spot. I got it covered up with band aids (they must have been from the 70's because the paper just about disintegrated in my hand when I was opening it) and some gauze and we ran out the door to the Urgent care center. There we had quite a traumatic time with x-rays (no broken bones), the doctor's examining of the finger and deciding that steri-strips covered with gauze was the best solution, and a lot of screaming ("EVERYBODY GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!!!!!"). By the end, he was all wrapped up and in an OK mood. The doctor said something to the effect of "It hurts, doesn't it?" to which Colin replied "Duh." Ha ha ha. Overall, it was awful, though, and I hated seeing him in that pain. No more swimming lessons for him because he couldn't get it wet. So much for that idea.

Colin displaying his boo-boos.

The finished porch. Isn't it great?

Nancy, Colin, and Jerry at Nancy's birthday dinner. She is REALLY happy that it's her birthday! :)

Christopher was having a good time, too!

Christopher demanding some of the ice cream cake for Nancy's birthday.

The best part of the entire trip for me was spending so much time with Roger's family. I love just sitting around with them. Generally there is a puzzle going on at Nancy's at any given time. I completed one with some help from Rita, and then I started another. I did it all by myself. So proud.

We also played lots of Guitar Hero with Jerry (Nancy's boyfriend) and Roger tested out his vocal skills and we had a good laugh at some of the most ridiculous lyrics that we have ever heard. I laughed so hard I was crying. Hysterical. The time that we got to just hang out was fantastic and those are the memories that I will always hang on to the most. It was a wonderful vacation--even if Nancy did make us work. And no, I will NOT help you build a porch!! If she ever says, "I've got a small project for you guys" again, I am running away!