Staycation

Ever since moving here, Stephanie and I have been lamenting that we will not get a bona fide vacation this summer. Yes, I got about a week off of work during the move, but believe me, that was no vacation. Yes my hours are flexible, and I can often go to work late or come home early to do something fun with the family, and just make up the lost time once everyone else is asleep. Yes, Stephanie and I are planning a day away for our anniversary in a week and a half, but that will be a day trip at best. The chances for a real, just-have-fun-and-relax-as-a-family-for-a-week vacation were looking bleak. The blame could be equally divided between a busy workload and lack of discretionary family funds (see previous references to move and anniversary).

Tuesday evening, I decided that although we couldn't have a real vacation, I would take the next few days off and have a family stay-cation. I went in to work on Wednesday for a meeting (over Skype), and then came home early and spent the rest of the week with the family. We didn't do anything super out of the ordinary, but we did have a lot of fun doing the things we normally do. We went grocery shopping, swam at the the pool, ate popsicles on our back porch, went for walks outside, played at the playground, went to the mall, and played at the splash park, among other things. And finally, we topped it off yesterday with our first trip to Indianapolis. Here are the highlights of the trip.

• We started the day with square donuts for breakfast. Heather was very excited, but kept on asking if we could have circle donuts instead.
• Our first stop in Indianapolis was the Provident Living center. We used up our wheat right before moving, and we were about out of oats, so we loaded up on our bulk grains.
• We then headed over to the Circle Centre mall right in the center of downtown. On the way over there passed stadiums for local pro sports teams, as well as a few museums and history centers. We'll definitely have to make another trip soon!
• We did a bit of window shopping at the mall, but mostly we were looking for a new swimsuit for Stephanie. We found one not too long after our lunch break.
• Stephanie and I would have loved to walk around downtown and check out the sites after shopping, but the kids were done. Joshua had missed his typical morning nap, and Heather was just plain tired of obeying. We packed up and headed home, making a final stop at Sonic for happy hour (1/2 price slushies).

So it wasn't the most amazing or extravagant vacation ever, but we got to spend a lot of time together and eat some special treats. Stephanie and I are really looking forward to some one-on-one time during our anniversary date in a week and a half. Hopefully that will be enough to charge up the ol' batteries until we can have a real family vacation again!

Catch up on videos

While Stephanie has been catching up on family photos the last month, I've been catching up on some of the latest family videos.

This first one shows the kids dancing to the "Kingdom Dance" from the Tangled soundtrack. For the last month or two before we moved, that was their reward for cleaning up their toys after dinner. They loved it!

Yesterday during dinner, Joshua was laughing hysterically whenever anyone said "wow". This second video captures the tail end of the fun, as well as the kids just being their cute little selves.

We've moved!

I am sure that some, if not most of you knew that we were moving to Indiana this summer. Well, we're here! We are starting to get settled and back into a good routine. The house is starting to become more like home, and we are starting to find new friends and find our way around this (much bigger than cozy Ames) town. We will miss Iowa tremendously, but look forward to new adventures here. We are enjoying our new ward. Daniel has been called as a primary worker, and they must be stumped with me because I still don't have a calling. That could either be a good thing or a bad thing. :)

Because I favor looking at photos to reading long, drawn out posts, I will post a TON of photos to update you on our life. :)

We visited the Iowa State Dairy Farm about a week before we left IA. It was a lot of fun.

We especially enjoyed petting the calfs and eating dairy products! 

Just before we left our "Iowa home." 

Heather had a very hard day the day we left Iowa. On top of having to say goodbye, she bonked her face and got a swollen lip, and got a bee sting (literally moments before we got in the car to leave),  but we were able to get a smile out of her, and we had a (mostly) uneventful drive to Indiana. 

Our "Indiana home."

After a very busy first week, we needed to bake (and eat) some yummy cookies. The kids got to lick the beaters.

Mmmm...

There's just something happy about licking cookie dough from the beaters. 

Heather: Look at Josh's face! Josh: Uhhh, are you going to eat that?

Decorating 4th of July cookies. 

 Heather was super excited she got to stay up and do fireworks and eat cookies and (homemade) ice cream with mommy and daddy!

Not a great photo of Heather, but some of you have been wondering what our new van looks like. Well, that's what it looks like! :)

"Reading train." Yep, our main room has camping chair furniture for now. Just until we can get a nice comfy chair for our "reading corner."

There was a little girl, who had a little curl....

Picnic on the balcony.

I love to see the temple...

We went to our new temple in Louisville on Saturday. It was a good day. 

Hope this post hasn't been TOOO boring. We love you and miss you all!