Stylin'

We have a family friend who is a bit on the flashy side.  He is single and enjoys all of the bachelorhood glories that go along with it.  A decade or two ago he went through a phase of wearing a button down shirt daily. Except instead of buttoning it like a normal person, he'd leave the top 4 or 5 buttons undone and pair it with a thick gold chain.  We always got a chuckle out of that look, especially after sitting across the arena from him at a St. Louis Blues Hockey game and seeing his gold chain gleaming in the lights from so far away.

Anyway, it is rare that I can see that bare chest, flashy necklace look and not think of this particular man.  So, when Henry unknowingly did his best impression of this guy, I had to snap a few pictures.

I especially love the added look with the blow dryer since I'm quite sure this individual uses a blow dryer to make sure that his hair is styled just right, every time.

Summer Zoo Trip

What is summer without a few trips to the zoo?  This was a last hurrah of sorts for us before school started back up.  Sure it was crazy hot, but we still had fun.

Roller Skating: Take One

On a special Mia-Dad day, Jason decided to take Amelia roller skating.  This is a milestone I was happy to miss.  I thought it would be difficult and frustrating for her and frankly, I thought she was far too young to learn.

Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong! She loved it and did great.  Apparently they have they walker-like devices on wheels to help in learning to skate.  She spent the entire 2 hours on the rink and had to be practically drug off when it was time to go.  And guess what has been added to her Christmas list?  New roller skates!

Snuggle Up

What I like to see.

Indiana/Kentucky Road Trip: Day 5

The fifth and final day of vacation started out early at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  This was the number one most recommended attraction that people mentioned when I asked for advice about our trip.  And it did not disappoint!  We stayed all. day. long. and most definitely could have spent at least another whole day in this amazing place.  The problem was, however, that we had super special hotel reservations for the final night of our trip and we wanted to get to the hotel to make sure we had maximum time to enjoy our special accommodations.

How could you not love this place when this is how you are greeted upon pulling up?

The dinos from the inside...

It was just our (actually, Henry's) luck that they had a Hot Wheels exhibit during our visit.  It could have not been more perfectly suited to Henry!

We loved this amazing ceiling at the museum and it was a nice way for Amelia to relax a little in between all of the chaos.  Henry, of course, stopped by for only a few minutes at a time.  The seat where she was relaxed slowly revolved so she could view a large part of the ceiling without ever getting up.

There were certainly many exhibits that matched well with Henry's interests, but Amelia had a blast too---especially when she found her buddy, Kit, on display!

That night we surprised the kids with a stay in an actual retired railroad car!  It was really pretty incredible, cramped, but incredible! 

This was the inside of our train car (before we junked it up with our things).  It was great fun for the kids and I was pretty excited too.  Each car is named after a famous person.  Just across the hall from ours, Amelia spotted the Amelia Earhart car!

After we had explored our train car  a bit, we decided to take a little walk in downtown Indianapolis--a complete paradise for tourists with plenty of restaurants and shops within walking distance in a relatively safe atmosphere.  Poor Henry fell asleep almost immediately since we stayed at the museum right through his normal afternoon nap time.

 

After a short nap and dinner we headed back to our hotel and swam at the pool before retiring for the night.  In the morning, we had one last chance for some hotel and train car photo ops before heading home to St. Louis.

 

 

This trip was just the right speed for our young family.  We took it very slow and broke up our busiest days with down days.  We stayed close to home so that we could bail at any time if needed.  We kept the drive times to under 4 hours. We planned ahead as best we could but were flexible when we needed to be.  Overall it was a pretty low stress, low cost vacation which was just right.  We are hoping that with more time and practice we can tackle longer, more complex trips, but this was a great first step and we made lots of great memories while seeing some new states along the way.  Win, win, win!

Indiana/Kentucky Road Trip: Day 4

Our first morning waking up in KY started with a walk to Bread Co. and some perusing of derby statues along the way.

 

Although, if it were up to Henry, he wouldn't have left this spot all day long--especially once he got sight of the riverboats.

 

I wasn't sure the kids would enjoy visiting the Louisville Slugger factory and I wasn't sure if Henry should be even be allowed in a factory of any sort. I am so glad we took the gamble, though!  It was really interesting and pretty kid friendly!

Note Amelia forcing her brother to "look" at the camera.  This was take 53.

And they had fun props to keep the kids occupied while we were waiting for the tour to start.

Watching some bats getting made.  Much to my surprise and delight, Henry actually stayed behind the chains.  At least most of the time.

I'm not sure how I missed a picture of them with their mini souvenir bats they received. But the tour guide was nice enough to track down a special pink bat for Amelia and a black one for Henry.  All of the rest of us got the plain 'ol natural wood ones.

After the tour the kids played around in the kids area.

And all of us took some batting practice!

We loved riding around Louisville on the FREE trolley!  This town was much more fun than I had imagined it would be!  The hotel where we stayed has a huge Christmas display that starts in November and I'd love to come back and spend some more time here!

Unfortunately, we only scheduled a day (like 24 hours) in Louisville so after cruising on the trolley, we were on the road again.  The kids loved getting all of the big rigs to honk.  They were super successful!  I am sure the number of honks is directly related to your child's adorableness. 

We arrived in Indianapolis and got checked into our (least favorite) hotel. We did some walking around downtown, grabbed dinner, and then some ice cream. Later that night we got the news that Jason's brother got engaged that day!  The kids were ecstatic, especially after he asked both of them to be in the wedding. Then, it was off to bed to rest up for our final full vacation day!