Slip and Slide

I asked Andy to clean off the tarp from camping (yes that was camping from a week ago) so yesterday went something like this:

The kids came running inside
Kids: "Mom we need our suits on."
Mom: "Why?"
Kids: "Because daddy is doing a slip and slide with us."



Amy talking to Andy "How are you planning to do a slip and slide?"
Andy: "With the tarp I have to clean"
Amy: "Uhhh, are you remembering there aren't any spigots in our neighborhood?"
Andy: "Yeah"
Amy: "So, how are you planning to do a slip and slide without a hose"
Andy: "It 's not a big deal. I'll figure something out." (this is so andy...the engineer coming out in him!)

And sure enough - he figured something out! He and Logan filled up containers of water.

The kids had fun and then Logan thought a bit of dish soap would be even better because who needs the water when you have a little bit of soap. But not only did they add soap to the fun but another tarp! So we had a brief pause in the fun while they got soap and another tarp and then the kids had a BLAST going down the hill. The tarp that Andy was supposed to clean was dirtier than it started but it provided some good entertainment for the afternoon. Jen and I just stood at the bottom laughing and taking pictures!




This is so Andy! Who would think to do a slip and slide without a hose?!?!

Love camping!

I think our friends, Bryan and Logan, were more than fine when our two night camping trip turned into a one night camping trip due to rain and thunderstorms! And although some may prefer hotels over camping I think fun was had by all. We had a great time camping at Turkey Run . We had fun hiking, eating, throwing rocks in the river, roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, listening to funny stories, and eating lots of treats. We will definitely be going back to this place.

Hiking
We went on a beautiful hike. All the kids did a great job and had lots of fun hiking through the water, seeing waterfalls, and climbing rocks. It was great!

Ethan, Brad, McKenna, Harrison, Sam, Ben, Eliza, Lucy, Kamryn, and Lucas

Mindi, Amber, Jennifer, Amy

Lucy and Kamryn

Eliza, Lucy, and Kamryn

Lucy being brave and climbing the ladders

Jane was happy (as always) hiking even though it was during nap time
Time for S'mores!
You can never go wrong with marshmallows and chocolate - or at least that is what Lucas thinks

Ethan and Brad enjoyed burning their marshmallows

Mindi showing off her perfectly golden marshmallows!

This is how you found Jane most of the time - either eating in her high chair or crawling on the ground with fist fulls of dirt in her hand and surrounded by other kids. She was loving it!

We did a GREAT job of wearing them out. Within minutes of getting in the car this is what our car looked like!

Mini Marathon

Training was done

Company arrived

Pasta was served

Bags were packed

Race numbers were picked up

Hotel keys were handed out

All were asleep

Eyes were opened before alarm clock sounded

Shoes were laced up

Protein bar and bananas were eaten

Two friends were reunited

Over 40,000 people were waiting at the starting line

Wind was blowing

The race was started

Twenty minutes later the starting line was crossed

Bands were playing - people were singing

Water was handed out

The Indy Speedway was run upon

Gel packs were consumed

Two hours and ten minutes later the finish line was crossed and 13.1 miles had been run!

Eric, Amy, Lisa, and Joe

This was THE BEST race I have ever been in. I have never been running with so many people. If you ever get the chance to run the mini marathon in Indianapolis you should. It was a blast. My brother Eric came with his family to visit the day before the race and then he ran the race. Lisa also came and we ran it together and talked the entire 2 hours and 10 minutes that it took us to finish. Joe also ran it and managed to finish with a great time and bad knee!

Sara (Joe's wife) came to cheer us on along with Andy and the kids and Katie and her kids. We had quite the cheering squad even though we never saw each other!

Amy and Eric

Amy and Lisa

After the race we went to the Children's museum with Lisa's family and then they came to stay at our house for the night. It was tons of fun and we hated to see them all leave.Andy is always so good to support me in my running adventures. He got the kids ready and fed and out in the cold to cheer me on. It was a lot of work and effort. I took this picture of him sleeping at the Children's museum after the race. I think the mini marathon wore him out!!

Feeling Excited!!!

Andy has one more week of school and then we are done with our first year (yes, I meant to write WE are done with our first year). Next week at this time there will be no papers hanging over him. No tests to study for. No projects to work on. No group meetings. Ahhhhh! It's a good feeling to know we survived the first and apparently the hardest year of MBA school! I will soon have a husband home for dinner every night! That is happy news. The kids will have a dad to play with. More happy news. It has been a GREAT year! The days have been slow but the months have been fast! Hard to believe we are done. Good luck to Andy with his finals!!

Little Ballerina

Lucy has been taking ballet up on campus all year and today she had her recital. She was so excited for her recital and did a great job. She was so cute and as I watched her on stage she had this smile that told me she was so proud of herself. It was really cute. I loved when she finally figured out where we were sitting and she gave us the cutest grin and kept looking over our way!!

Her friend came to watch

She took ballet with her two friends - Kennedi and Eliza. Here she is with Eliza after the recital.