a mini vacation

 The girls earned a trip to Pottery Bayou to create some Christmas ornaments.

 Anna chose an owl.

 Maria picked a snowman.

 I did help Anna bit.

 Posing with their creations.

 We headed to Indy on Saturday and stopped at Fort Harrison State Park to play, eat a picnic lunch and attempt to hike.  The girls didn't last long.

 But they did have fun playing.

 They had a really cool slide in the side of the hill.

 Daddy even tried it out.

 Our next destination was to Elisabeth's 6th birthday party.  The girls were friends back in Culver, but we haven't seen them since we moved.  It was a surprise for both girls!

 The four girls!

 My good friend Kim.

 The were so excited to stay in a hotel, especially to go swimming.

 We spent Sat. night visiting with friends and swam in the morning and then we went to visit some other friends.  We ate lunch with them and then hit the road.

We had to stop along the way for a short treat diversion.  Can anyone figure out where this is?  Maria is only slightly covering the town's name, but it's the specific place we stopped that had us driving a bit out of the way to stop.
We have plenty to praise God for; a chance to get away as a family and see some friends. 

bouncing and teeth!

 Oh bouncy houses are so much fun!

Love the crazy face she makes to show me her 2nd lost tooth.(yes, I gave it the final yank again!)  Just for kicks I looked up when she got these teeth and it was almost exactly 5 years ago, only off by 2 days and the 1st tooth was off by a month from when she got it.  Let's see about the top teeth, if they follow the pattern they should be around Jan/Feb.

Stone's Trace

 We spent the day as a family at a Pioneer Festival near Ligonier.  They had great activities for the girls to do.  We really enjoyed the day and the weather was perfect!

There was a Punch and Judy puppet show, do you think the girls liked it?

 They were able to make, with a little help, their very own corn husk doll. (for free)

 We got to visit the sheep and chickens and watch one sheep get shorn.  Elsewhere we saw spinning looms making the cleaned wool into yarn.

 Maria riding a wooden cow?, wearing her new feather hair piece(also free to make).

 They rode in a horse drawn wagon, which was only $1.

And Maria tested her corn maze skills.

We also had some yummy food including apple fritters and ice cream!  If you live within driving distance we highly recommend visiting next year.  It's held the weekend after Labor Day.

Also we are gearing up for more changes around here.  Larry starts his new job tomorrow at Symmetry Medical as a manufacturing specialist, we will find out all the details tomorrow at orientation.  We are truly blessed to get medical coverage that starts immediately, no wait.  Since our coverage from the church just ran out Aug. 31, we are extremely thankful.  I guess the part that gives me some dread is Larry will switch to 2nd shift once he is trained.  This means that essentially I will be a single mom during the week as he will go in at 3 and home after 11.  This is a blessing as we won't have to take Anna to the sitter, whom we love, but any extra $ is helpful in our tighter budget.  So, after the dust settles we will see how things all fit together, but I can't thank God enough for providing for us as He has in the past 3 months since moving.  He is truly God of our everything.

We have plenty to praise God for; a wonderful day as a family and looking ahead to how God is providing for our needs.

rainy mini golf

The girls have been filling a jar to earn a reward.  The reward they chose was going miniature golfing.  It was a bit rainy when we went, but we still had fun.

 matching ball and toenails and shoes.

 Maria's handiwork.

We have plenty to praise God for; happy girls!

Mommy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow....

Okay, maybe you don't know that song, but the girls like it and I think of it every time we talk about the zoo.  I think it's Raffi, at least it's on one of his CD's.
Anyhow, we had told Anna back in may we would go to the zoo(Fort Wayne Children's) at some point for her birthday, and have her cousins go with us.  So, it finally worked out for our schedule and they were able to meet us.  We had a fun, hot, day!

 driving the jeep on a safari!

Anna actually did touch the black rat snake, Maria not so much!

 camping cousins!

 I love the giraffes

 Gotta have a picture with little poof!  That thing has been there forever.

 Anna and Everly playing peek-a-boo!

 crazy cousins!

 ah, relaxing on the log ride

 such a sweetheart!

 They had to climb on every statue in the zoo!

 Riding the train!

We also made sure to stop and meet our newest nephew/cousin.  My brother and his wife have been trying to adopt for over a year now and we are elated to welcome Winston into the family!

We have plenty to praise God for; new and not so new cousins!