Flora Vacation Attempt #1 ...

Every time we plan to camp, something happens.  Something like, it pours rain, somebody gets sick, or like this weekend, the car has some totally random, unexpected repair.  I won't go into details, but the whole ignition had to be replaced and the car had to be re-keyed.  Lucky?!?!  A very large expense for a very random and unpreventable problem, which just happened to occur about 3,000 miles and two weeks after the extended warranty expired!  Oh, well -- this time we didn't let it keep us home and we all piled into the Corolla.  Good times :)  I think Master S was the biggest trooper, considering he had to sit squished between two car seats in the back, but he didn't complain ... well, I guess he could have complained a lot louder than he did!

We headed down to Santa Claus, IN - yes, it is a real town!  Holiday World and Splashin' Safari is located there, apparently known for some of the best water slides and roller coasters in the world.  There is also Camp Rudolph right next door - also known for one of the best R.V. campsites.  You can get a tent site, or an R.V. site, or you can rent a permanent R.V. to stay in or a cabin.  We choose to tent it and got this site right on the 'lake' that overlooks the 'Raven' roller coaster at the park.  The kids loved it ...

Had s'mores ... 

 laughed at Miss Lilly ...

 Cheesed for the camera ...

 And found lots of fireflies ... Miss Lilly discovered, after a little coaching from Daddy, that she can hold them in her hands ... very cool!

 Big D checking out the campsite.  Our neighbors in the camp had a movie going - they brought a projector and strung a sheet between two trees and invited the kids to watch Toy Story 3.  Oh, so fun when you are camping! 

 The next morning we headed to Holiday World.

 The pics don't do it justice - mostly because we spent the greater portion of the day in the splash park and the camera was in the locker, safe from water and cement, but it really was awesome!  As our neighbor who is Master S' age said, 'The water slides at Holiday World are off the hook!'.  I totally agree! 

 Master S and I went on the 'Wildebeast' together.  It has been a long time since I've been on a roller coaster - and this was a water coaster and it was AWESOME!  Loved it -- even if we waited in line for almost an hour, it was worth it! 

 Big D loved the train and the wave pool and the splash park and even took a little nap in the wagon mid afternoon.  Lovely!  Miss Lilly loved the smaller kid sized water slides.  Once I went down with her a couple of times she was a fish and spent all day sliding and running back up to slide again. It brought back fond memories of summer passes to Wild Waters in Boise - I'd forgotten how much fun that was!

 Master S driving?!?  Scary! 

We headed home at the end of a very long day, but very good 36 hour vacation - here are the kids in the back seat showing off their souvenirs -- Big D's train isn't in the pic, and Miss Lilly's was a butterfly necklace in a butterfly box.  Trying to decided if we should schedule the next 'planned' camping vacation for the summer on the calendar or not ... maybe we'll just keep the weekend open and be spontaneous :)

Giant Turtle

My neighbor was sitting on her front porch eating dinner when she noticed something crawling out of our garage ... she thought at first it was Big D's nightlight turtle (stuffed animal with a light that shines stars on his ceiling) but when she noticed it was moving it's head decided that wasn't it and called me. 

 I've been bugging J.D. about cleaning out the garage for several months now ... makes me wonder what else is in here ...

The neighbor next door came over thinking he'd be moving a little dessert plate sized turtle ... he's a fisherman and has seen his fair share of turtles, but never one this big.  Even he was a little nervous to move it.  Master S even chicken out holding the bucket with the turtle snapped and jumped when pushed from behind.

Sitting in the bucket ... 

 Hopefully returned to home in the pond behind the homes across the street ... thinking I'll keep my garage door closed more in the summer afternoons :)

Summer!

The kids are home, the weather is hot and humid ... we just need some fireflies to appear and I think we can declare that summer is here in Indiana!  We took off to McCloud Nature Park today, took a hike and had a picnic lunch.  That picture of Miss Lilly kind of scares me, it gives me that feeling of 'I know you from somewhere', or 'you look so much like someone I know, but I can't put a name to it'.  I suspect it is because it looks like a picture of me or my mom or my sister ... yeah, like I said, I can't put my finger on it.

Some large black dogs, not on leashes, with no owner in sight, but very friendly, interrupted our hike ... I had one child in my arms (Big D), one freaking out running around screaming and skinning her knee (Miss Lilly) and one calmly trying to be the brave big brother putting his hands out and backing up a little (ok, so a lot) as the dogs got closer, but who had enough sense to tell them to stay ... and they listened!  So grateful for a level headed son -- I was trying to tell Miss Lilly and Big D to calm down, say hi and stop yelling - should have realized that dogs usually listen much better than freaking out children!  When we came back through the same spot on the way back, he very bravely and with a protective attitude walked in front of all of us to make sure he was the first should the dogs appear again.

I discovered that all three kids love to watch for and listen to the birds today.  I think a summer surprise is in the works.  At the nature center they had a bird watching room with these fun little hand held gadgets with bird cards that when put into the gadgets and you pressed the buttons gave the appropriate bird sound.  They also had some kid size bird watching binoculars and bird books.  We saw a hairy woodpecker, a black capped chickadee, a few cardinals, and even an indigo bunting.  see a picture here:  http://www.roysephotos.com/IndigoBunting.html

 One of the things I LOVE about Indiana is all the back roads and the fact that civilization doesn't cease when you get 10 miles away from the city.  There were farms and homesteads all the way to the nature park, which is a good 20 to 30 minutes west of us ... and of course I took back roads to get there!  It is planting time here and the corn is starting to sprout - always so amazing to see field after field after field ... I just had to snap a picture, and there is no irrigation here, it just grows!

Taking back roads also means I get stuck behind this kind of thing often.  This happens to be a tractor pulling a sprayer/tiller (I have no idea what the real name is, I just assume that is what it is, from what learn talking to people who seem to know more about farming than I do ...) with a tank of what it will be spraying ... ammonia.  It must be the time of year to apply this, because there were lots of farm trucks moving very slowly pulling these tanks. 

I think the ammonia is a bug killer - kills the bugs that eat corn.  You can tell when they are applying it around here, because you can smell it in the air.  Makes for a great humid afternoon outside ... ammonia floating in the already stagnant, heavy intolerable air.  Yeah, not my favorite thing about Indiana!