A Visit to Indianapolis

This past weekend we spent 3 days in Indianapolis visiting friends who had just moved there for one year (they are completing a fellowship like we did in Iowa City). The kids (and Joe and I!) had so much fun that we have already begun to look at the calendar for a follow up visit. Olivia experienced her first "sleep over" with Caden by sleeping on a cot in his bedroom, and all four had a blast running all around, whether it be in a house, the zoo, or the Children's Museum.

We started our vacation with a breakfast at a restaurant called "Flap Jack's". Luckily having loud children like Olivia and Caden was not frowned upon at this place!


Our first day took us to the Indy zoo. We watched the great dolphin show, and here is Joe, Ethan, Caden, Olivia, and Curt petting dog sharks. Olivia loved it, but poor Ethan's arms were not quite long enough to reach the sharks.

A rare picture with all 4 kids (Caden, Ethan, Olivia, and Cole)....here they are watching the penguins.

It never fails. You take the kids to the zoo, and their favorite thing is feeding the ducks.

Ethan and Olivia in the reptile house.

Olivia riding her horse "Ginger" in the children's zoo area.

And Ethan taking a turn riding "Sugar".

The boys with their boys.

Olivia LOVED this goat in the petting zoo area.

This was Ethan's version of eating an ice cream sandwich. He bit the cookie part off and then didn't want to eat the ice cream.

Luckily he was able to come clean in the zoo's splash park!

Olivia and Caden playing in the splash park.

It was unseasonably cool the weekend we were in Indy, so the kids did not last too long in the water before needing to get warm again.

The next day we attended the Indy Children's Museum...one of the largest in the world. It was five stories full of activities and exhibits. We spent six hours in the museum, and that was even with us skipping an entire floor. I think we will be heading back here on a return trip! Luckily, Joe was able to see the Star Wars exhibit before it ended. Here are just a few pictures from that exhibit, as Ethan posed with every character and was very insistent on having his picture taken multiple times with them.

Again, another rare shot of all 4 together.

Here is Olivia serving Ethan and Cole tea in the Egypt exhibit.

Olivia in Egypt.

Ethan and Caden climbing the tree house.

Joe and Ethan posing with a Star Wars Jedi Starfighter while waiting for our turn to enter into the King Tut exhibit (very nice...I recommend it if you are planning to attend the museum).

Olivia's favorite dinosaur is the triceratops, so she had to have her picture taken with one in the dinosaur exhibit.

Archeologist Ethan.

Ethan making a Mr. Potato Head.

Caden and Olivia at the Ice Cream Shop.

Riding the carousel.

True couch potatoes!

Ethan thinks that everything is a baseball bat. Thus far he has been a consistent lefty with batting and throwing. He is completely mixed up with right/left in other areas like coloring and eating. We have yet to determine which hand is dominate there.