Back Home in Indiana....Again!

 

 

 

 

 

The kids and I were just in Indiana for about a week, but I just didn't feel like it was enough. We had so much fun. So about halfway, or maybe not even halfway home from our May trip I told Zach to just think about a second trip back. I knew that my sister and her family were coming in for almost two weeks in July over 4th of July. So I had already calculated how much time Zach could take off and how we could make it work, but I had to have Zach on board because it was going to have to be a quick trip since we really didn't want to use a whole lot of vacation time with the baby coming at the end of the year.

I think Zach said something to the effect that it didn't matter what he thought because it sounded like I was going to make it work and get back to Indiana over July regardless of what he said. That wasn't entirely true because I wouldn't have felt comfortable if Zach wasn't on board, but I was making a pretty strong case for him to see that it was a good idea. And we made the trip for the second time and spent some time all together. All my sisters, their husbands and all the kids were there. Of course we had a lot of fun.

We were there over the 4th of July and this would have been the first time that Chloe and Levi have ever seen fireworks. Chloe may have seen them when she was about 8 months old, but I can't really remember if she actually had seen them prior to this year. And I know that Levi hadn't seen them before. So before we went back to Indiana we had looked up where the fireworks would be because I didn't want to go downtown with the crowds. It ended up that there was going to be a fireworks show at the high school so we decided to go check it out. All the kids had a great time and really liked the fireworks. I was a little nervous that Chloe and Levi would get scared from the noise, but they did good and actually enjoyed looking at the different colors in the sky.

We had a great time in our short few days there. Besides going to the fireworks we also went to a parade for 4th of July. The kids had a lot of fun because during the parade they had candy thrown out by all the floats and so of course the kids thought that was great. Chloe would only pick up candy that she liked, while Levi would pick up anything. A trip to Pizza King was also needed. It was probably the best Pizza King pizza that we've had in awhile, even Christina said it was good. There was a lot of kickball played in my parents backyard and a time or two at the orange park and of course at Tina's house to jump on the trampoline. All seven of the cousins played really great together which is always just amazing to see.

As I reflect back on our trip I have to say that it truly is amazing to see how our family gets along so well and genuinely enjoys and loves each other not because we have to, but because we want to. We live in three different states, have different type of jobs and do different things during our free time, but the one thing we have in common that makes it all work is that family is our priority. I must say it all trickles down from my parents who have made it work and have many times bent over backwards to make sure we are able to spend quality time together.