Summer fun

What's more fun during summer than camping (at a beach!), building a fort, and going to a baseball game?  We hit all those in August, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed it!  We've been to the Indiana Dunes a number of times, but this was our first camping trip there.  I must say they have very nice bathrooms and campsites.  Not only was the beach lots of fun, but camping with the Cripes is always a good time.  We will definitely be going back again. :)

The boys (Alex mostly) wanted to build a fort.  So Mimi and Alex built this while the other two took a nap.  I didn't get a picture, but it wasn't complete without a "No Bears Allowed" sign.  In fact, the sign was made first.  They are quite proud of their fort. :)

 We and the Bergers left right after church on Sunday to head to Indy for an Indians game.  They have grassy slopes behind the outfields where you can sit, which is really nice with kids!  But the boys dont really care about baseball yet, so me and Jessica eventually took the kids back a ways to where there was trees (ie. shade).  We spent most of the game back there with the kidos while the men watched the game in the hot hot sun.  The boys enjoyed the trip, but I think in their eyes the Steak'n'Shake stop afterwards was probably just as fun as the game. :)

Museum and Bye to Stu

Sorry a few of theses pics are sideways.  Not really sure why they did that.  But it's just been that kind of day I guess.  However, these pics are from last week.   We went to the Children's Museum in Indy and then to the Jackson's for the weekend.  It's Stu's last week in the US, and then he's off to Berlin!

The boys loved the museum!  Adam just wanted to stay in the train exhibit all day.  After we'd look at a different thing, he'd ask, "Time to go back to trains now?"  That boy loves his trains! :)  Alex says his favorite part was the whole thing. :)  We'll have to go again this fall when school is still in so maybe there wont be so many people there. 

We had a nice time at the Jackson lake house.  I was so excited to pack pants!  It rained and cooled off this weekend so it was such a relief to wear long sleeves a little bit.  The only bummer was it was too chilly to do the slide into the lake!  Oh well.  I'll take the cool weather gladly!  We had a nice visit with Phil, Chelsey, and Stu (and Mom & Dad!).    Hopefully we'll be able to Skype with Stu every now and then.   Have a safe trip Stu!  Miss you!

Hot Wheels exhibit

funny faces!

Chip and sealed our road today...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok so here's a cropped pic of Andy and the boys from the first museum pic.  At least you dont have to turn your head. :)

And this picture is going to take some explaining.  Thurs night/Friday morning Erin woke me up and I found police cars (with lights flashing) lined up on the road outside.  I looked out and there sits a house on the other side of the road.  I woke up Andy to ask if there had been a storm (tornado) that I slept through.  He came out and went down to check it out.  Turns out someone was moving a mobile home illegally, on a trailer too small for the size home, and with a truck too small for the load.  So at 3am when he came to the dip in our road right in front of our house, the trailer broke, jack-knifed the pickup truck and sent it across the road into the creek and then the mobile home followed.  It didn't quite make it as far down, so all you could see from our house was the back end of someone's old house.  All the junk from inside the house was strewn all over in the woods/creek and it took a very large tow truck a few hours to get it and the truck out of the woods.  So when we woke the next morning, we found our road closed with a house sitting in the middle of it.  This is right before we left to go to the Jackson's for the weekend.  When we came back this is what we found.  I think it will be here for a while.  I'm just so thankful that it did not land in our yard! 

On a brighter note:  here's one of our watermelons!

Fun at the lakes

We spent a bit of time at lakes during the end of June and most of July.  I took the kids up to Mom and Dad's house when my great-uncle came for a visit.  The boys enjoyed playing in the big sand pile by the lake.  Since it's been so dry, Crystal Lake is a few feet out from the shore line.  But that made it easier to find rocks to throw into the water. :)   

We also make a trip up to the Indiana Dunes.  Nat, Jeremy, and Andy's parents met us there.  It was breezy and bit cooler that day, so it was a nice change of weather.  We couldn't go into the water due to strong rip currents, but that didnt' bother the boys much since all they wanted to do was play in the sand.  I dont have too many pics of that trip since my camera batteries died. :)

More recently, we spent another weekend at Crystal Lake.  While there, we drove up to Irish lake to visit the Zurcher's. Rob took us on a boat ride and then Alex even tubed a little (with Mommy and Daddy).   After dinner, the boys decided they wanted to fish.  Alex caught 3 fish!  They were biting as soon as you threw your line in, so it was great fun for the boys.  One of Alex's fish swallowed the hook pretty good, so Rob decided to show Alex how to clean a fish with that one.  :)
Once back at the Jackson's,  we just played in the sand again and went down the Bodle's waterslide.  Alex went last year, so it wasn't too hard to get him on a little tube to go down.  It helped that his friend, Colton, was there to go with him.   It took awhile, but Adam eventually went down too, but only with Mommy.  So not many pictures of us, since I was busy.  However, once Adam got going, he didnt' want to stop!  

The car ride home was pretty quiet, but we'll head back in a couple weeks to see Phil and Chelsey and say bye to Stu.  Can't wait for more fun at the lake!

ready for church

short walk down the lake to see the Creighton's

turtle eggs!

at the dunes

boat ride under a bridge

paddle boat ride

California 2012, Part 4

Roaring Camp & Big Trees

We gave Grandma and Grandpa Mowell (or Papa G and Grandma G as the boys call them) a bit of a break one day and took the boys down towards Santa Cruz.  There's a nice redwood forest state park down there and right next to it is Roaring Camp.  They have old steam engines (and diesels too).  They have two trips you can take.  One goes up the mountain where they used to log long ago.  That one is pulled by a steam engine.  The other trip is a diesel train that takes you all the way to Santa Cruz and drops you off at the beach and board walk.   We just had time for one trip and chose to go up the mountain on the steam engine.  The boys were fascinated!  We got to watch them back up and hook up to the open cars we got to ride in.  Then once we were all on board they pulled up a bit and filled up the engine with water.   Going through the woods in an open car is lots of fun, especially with towering redwoods all around you.  

There was one spot where a bridge was burned down in the 70's.  It used to make a loop and if you were riding in the last car, you could could be going under the engine that was pulling you!  The boys thought that was pretty cool.   Since the bridge was out, we got to go up a switchback to get to the remaining track that would continue our journey up the mountain.  It was a pretty steep grade...so much in fact, that the engine was 2 stories above the last car! 

Needless to say, the boys really want to go back again.  I think the Santa Cruz trip will be lots of fun once we dont have to work around nap time so much. :)    This train trip was so much better than Day Out with Thomas!  It was a real steam engine.  The boys talk about their train trip alot.  They can't wait to go back. 

walking thru the little western town

filling up with water

the old burned bridge

the switchback

the steam engine

the diesel engine (or "the red engine" as the boys say)

 After our train trip, we walked back over to the state park (where we parked) and walked down one path to see some of the really big trees.  It was getting close to nap time, so we didnt' have much time.  But they enjoyed getting to see some up close and personal.    They liked to walk into the cave of trees that had been burned long ago.    It's actually really hard to take pictures of these trees.  They are so big you can't possibly get even half of the tree in one picture!  So these will have to do. :)

here's the bottom of the tree (which is 17 ft wide)...

here's the top of the tree (270 ft tall)