Happy 4th of July from Holiday World!

This year we chose to spend our 4th of July in Holiday World.  Nathan's brother and his fiance drove up from Evansville and my sister, Lauren came along too.  For the first time in a long time, we had more adults than kids! 

We had a summer assignment from Charlotte's first grade teacher.  We had to take a picture of Flat Stanley somewhere, send it to her, and she would give her a prize on the first day of second grade.  So here they are, with the Raven in the background...the first big roller coaster Charlotte rode.

Lots of new rides this year.  The teacups were a welcome addition. ;-)

 The first time for Charlotte to ride the big swings. 

 She did not ride the voyage, but she loves these photo ops. 

 Unfortunately, it wasn't the best day to be in the water park.  Not even 70 degrees.  But we had to sacrifice for our kids.  We only stayed for a few hours to go on our favorite rides and try some new ones.  This was a first for everyone, but Nathan.  That is Lauren in the raft, I had gotten dressed by then. 

 I think I was yelling/cheering Charlotte on, to go faster or push the pedal or something!  So competitive, I am. :-)

 Nathan's favorite ride he has to ride by himself. 

 We like the slow and steady one.

It was a fun day that even ended with fireworks, which we watched from outside the park, parked on the side of the road.  Easy access to get back to our hotel. 

Mini Vacay

Nathan invited us to go on a quick business trip with him to Dundee, Michigan.  He was staying at a hotel that had an indoor waterpark so he thought it would be fun for the girls.  Boy, was he right!  We got in on Tuesday afternoon around 3.  He was able to play with us for a little while until he had to go to a meeting at 5.  We played for several more hours.  Then we played some more in the morning before we got in the car and came back home. 

Before we left Dundee, we stopped at the Cabella's right by our hotel.  Brooke liked posing for pictures. 

It was a fun trip!  The good news is Nathan scored the deal and has to go back soon :-)

A Hot Air Balloon Ride

There is a historical park close by to our house called Conner Prairie.  They have a hot air balloon ride that is attached to the ground.  It takes you up, and then brings you back down.  We have always wanted to go and finally some of us did.  We got some discount tickets to use, which was a nice treat!  Brooke was not interested, she said she is not allowed to go up high in the sky (also she never wants to sky dive).  So I sacrificed since it was Father's Day weekend and let Nathan and Charlotte go up in it.  Hopefully, I will be able to go another time.  I made Nathan take the camera to take some pictures.  He said he had a pretty good view and could even see downtown Indianapolis, which is about 20-30 miles away. 

 There was a big warehouse fire that day on the west side of Indy.  I believe you can see it on the right hand side of this pic.

Mo Tab comes to Indy!

We were privileged to have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir come to Indianapolis on tour.  It was the first time in over 100 years, so it was kind of a big deal.  Thanks to some great friends, we ended up getting our tickets for free in their box suite.  So we had awesome seats!  It was a great date night.

Synchronized Swimming

Brooke participated in a synchronized swimming camp this past week.  She really seemed to enjoy it and made a lot of progress in one week!  All of the groups performed a little routine at the end of the week and it was fun to watch. 

Brooke is the second one from the left. 

Slippin' and Slidin'

Charlotte won a slip and slide last year at an Easter Egg Hunt, but with the drought last summer, we weren't able to use it.  We set it up today and they had fun with some neighborhood kids. 

Fun at Ben and Ari's

I had originally planned on taking Charlotte and friends back to the gymnastics place for some birthday fun. I found out the day before we went that they weren't having their open gym, so I had to come up with a "plan b" since Charlotte was really looking forward to spending some time with friends.  We ended up at Ben and Ari's and played some fun games and had some pizza.  Brooke brought a friend too.  I forgot to charge my battery so these are the only pics I ended up with.