Scenes from Summer

Singing sensation

Backyard cleanup

Superheroes

Buddy-Bud is Five!

This weekend was Declan's birthday weekend. He turned five in grand fashion. We started with breakfast and "rainbow" pancakes. The "rainbow" is courtesy of M&Ms and as you can see from the picture, lots of powdered sugar and chocolate writing.

After breakfast, we surprised Declan with a visit to Six Flags. It's the first time any of the kids had been there. We had a great time, rode some fun rides, and met a few characters.

It was a busy day, and here's what Megan and Declan looked like on the way home from Six Flags. Ryan had gotten most of his sleep at the park, so he was much more alert.















After we got home, and everyone woke up, we blew out candles, ate cake and opened presents. Declan got everything from Spiderman, Batman, and Transformers to Indiana Jones, Lightning McQueen, and pirate ships! He was in 5-year old heaven!!

On Saturday, we had Declan's birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza. His friends Jake, Christa, Chelsea, Drew, and Eowyn were there along with their parents. Mom, Dad, Megan, and Ryan also tagged along for the fun.

Happy Birthday Buddy-Bud!!!!!

Summer Vacation Part V

We drove from Indianapolis to Memphis for the last part of our summer vacation. We saw Graceland and had some good Memphis barbecue at Marlowe's. Megan was really into the Graceland audio tour headphones, but Declan lost interest in the first 10 seconds. I think they'll have to come back to this blog to even remember they were there. I will say that Elvis had "interesting" taste in home decor.

Summer Vacation Part IV

After Mammoth Cave, it was a relatively short drive up to Indianapolis, where we got to see a lot of friends and family. We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Wampner. We fished in their pond and played miniature golf at Rustic Gardens (which was built in the 1930s). Rob played there as a kid.

We also went to our old favorite, the Children's Museum with them. The new exhibits since the last time we were there were the super hero comic books and Curious George. My favorite is still the cool dinosaur exhibit.

We were also lucky that Grandma Ihle flew up to Indy from Florida while we were there, so we got to spend some time with her too. We met her and Aunt Kathy at one of our favorite southside restaurants, The Oaken Barrel, and also went to the Indianapolis Zoo with them. Here's Grandma with the kids in Aunt Kathy's pretty backyard.

Funny Megan story: At dinner one night with Grandma Ihle and Aunt Kathy, Megan was slouching in her chair, so I asked her to sit up straight. Aunt Kathy said she should sit like a nice southern belle. To that, Megan replied "Ding Dong" as she rocked back and forth like a bell. That's our girl!

During our trip, we also got to hang out with the best neighbors in the entire world, the Camps. They cooked out for us (great grilling Curt), and Sheila made our favorite broccoli salad that we couldn't get enough of when we lived across the street from them. We even made an ice cream run just like in the old days. Allie and Rachael are both about a foot taller since we moved away and have both grown into beautiful young ladies with hearts of gold. We missed seeing Olivia while we were there, but she was working on a horse farm practicing for her future career! Here's Rachael hanging out with Declan and Ryan while we all relaxed in the backyard. Those Camp girls have quite the knack with kids!

Next stop: Memphis.

Summer Vacation - Part III

Mammoth Cave National Park is the world's longest cave system. It's currently 367 miles long, and they discover 1 - 2 more miles every year (according to our guide). The entire park area is over 52,000 acres.

It's a really beautiful and peaceful place. We saw a lot of wildlife including this deer on our morning walk.














We took the "Frozen Niagra" tour of the cave. It sure is dark in there when they turn out the lights. Our guide was even nice enough to take a family picture for us while we were down there.



















Here are a few more pictures from our short stay there. The next stop is Indianapolis.