Favorite things: Summer 2011 Edition

Favorite Park: Forest Park. I've never seen anything like it. This park has two different playgrounds, just a short walk from each other. One park is designed for smaller kids up to about 5 years of age. Right next to this playground is a carousel, mini golf course, and a snack shop. Also close by is a skate park and a train museum. The other playground is designed for kids aged 5-12. Brooke likes this park best. Fun, fun swings, rock climbing wall, three story merry go round, and more. This park also has a pool, where we did swimming lessons, walking trails, and a golf course. We love it and have spent many hours there!







Favorite past time: SWIMMING! The best part about living in an apartment complex is the pool! The girls could stay all day. We usually wait until after lunch and sometimes we go with our neighbor friends, or we make friends there. Brooke is really doing great getting around and has been venturing to the deep end. She never takes a break, she's just go, go, go. Charlotte has a great time too, she still has use floaties. She can get around better with those on. She'll take a few breaks now and then, and gets right back in. It's never really too crowded, which has been nice. We usually go during the week, but went on Saturday afternoon recently, and it wasn't crowded then either! It has been a great FREE activity to do, and it wears them out to sleep better!


Favorite mini-vacay-Well, I hope it'll be a fave, we're leaving for Nauvoo tomorrow! The last time we went with kids, Brooke was 2 and she doesn't remember it at all. We hope that they'll enjoy it and get something out of it. I'm excited to see it through my kids eyes. We're also going to make a stop in St. Louis. We got married in the St. Louis Temple and Brooke keeps asking where that is, so we're going to go there. Maybe go up in the Arch too...who knows??

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Little Treasures

Our Family Home Evening didn't start out great on Monday night. We attempted to go geocaching, but had no luck. I guess we didn't look hard enough. But the night was saved when Nathan pulled into the parking lot of Dairy Queen. That solves everything, right?

Then I remembered a park I had happened to drive by one day with a covered bridge. We found it and stopped to play for a bit and walk through the bridge. The playing didn't last long though, because Charlotte fell down and really hurt her knee. She's got a nice, purple bruise on her knee now.






With all the rain we've had lately, we made a new friend. We found this little guy on our back porch one night after lots of rain. I guess I should mention we had a pond right outside our back door and at night we hear all the toads loud and clear :-)

Trip to the Zoo

We picked the hottest day of the week to go to the zoo...Oy. We did get to see an elephant paint a picture though.





A couple sharks were putting on a show for us. This one was dancing straight up about the water. Never seen that before...

We may have started a new tradition...cooling off in the sprinkler park. Just wished I would've jumped in too... :D

Swimming lessons

The girls did GREAT at swimming lessons this week! Brooke even liked her boy teacher (she has a fear/dislike of males in a new situation). I was a little worried the first day, but she had no problems. Charlotte ended up having an individual lesson, which was awesome! She loved her teacher too. They were outdoor lessons, and it was supposed to be a cool week. Thankfully, they moved the lessons to the indoor pool at the high school a few days.




Of course, the highlight is being able to go down the slide on the last day.


I don't know why Brooke couldn't go down by herself...it's not that different from the water parks we've been to...except maybe you're landing in deep water...

Conner Prairie

In all my years of living in Indiana, I had never been to Conner Prairie...how sad is that? I knew when we moved to Noblesville that I would have to take my kids there since we would be so close. We actually drive by it on the way to church. So yesterday we made our first visit, but not our last. We got a membership so we can go as much as we want! Charlotte enjoyed the "play" areas where you could dress up or play pretend. Brooke enjoyed the historical parts of it, like the school house, the inn, and the homes. They did not like the Civil War re-enactment. It was a little too intense for both of them and we had to leave that part of it. But it was really fun and we will go back!

Heading into the Civil War zone!

Checkers, anyone?

For 12.5 cents, you can have a spot in the bed!

Tea party time!


We found a playground!

Water fight!

The girls have made friends with a few other girls where we live. They like to play out back in the courtyard. The other day they decided to have a water fight with all their clothes on. Good thing it was the end of the day!





We are doing swim lessons this week. I always pick the worst week to do outdoor lessons. Springlike temps this week with rain in the forecast!! Normally I would love that kind of weather, but not for swim lessons! They did great today though, even if it was a little chilly.

A New Start

So here we are in Noblesville, Indiana. Those of you unfamiliar with the Indianapolis area, it is about 20 miles north of Indianapolis. It's funny, because growing up on the southside of Indy, I never thought I'd be a "northsider". But I am and it doesn't seem so weird. I know we've been moving around a lot in the last few years, but I'm really hoping to settle down soon! The kids make friends everywhere we go and for some reason Brooke was really sad about this move the most. She talked to her BFF Katelyn every day for the first few days after we left. We are currently in a two bedroom/one and one half bath townhouse, so it's a little small, but we will make do...at least it has two toilets!! That was an issue for the last year. The closets are big so we have plenty of room to "stuff" extra stuff in. I can live with less now so we can have more later. Who wants to pay a lot of money on rent? Not us! We will hopefully save a lot of money so we can buy in the next year or two. That's the plan anyway.

We haven't done a whole lot yet, just unpacking. Our community does have a pool which we used on Monday. Not too crowded at all, which was surprising. Brooke got sick that night with an ear infection and we haven't been back since. Charlotte was sick the beginning of last week, Nathan the end of last week (while moving in, good thing we had movers) and now Brooke. Anyway, I hope to get to the pool often, so I can work on my tan ;-) And the farmers tan.

We did visit the Noblesville library to sign up for the summer reading program. They also have an adult summer reading program! I love it!! The library is very nice and very big. That is one of my requirements when moving to a new place- must have library!

I guess I didn't mention Nathan was just transferred to the Indianapolis office with his job. Not a promotion or job change, same thing, just different location. The office is on the northside of Indy, hence our northside location. :-)

I always feel like posts are boring without pictures. While waiting for Brooke's scrip at Kroger the other day, I snapped this of Charlotte. These small carts may come in handy while shopping. Brooke was so puny she couldn't even walk.





We went to dinner with our friends, the Anderson's, the night before they moved. We moved a few days after them.



Charlotte modeling some new birthday outfits.