After a while at grams' house, we decided to pack up and see what Carmel, Indiana had to offer. Just a short 3.5 hour drive is all it took to get to Aunt Jenni's house. Henry is always excited about how long it will take to get to a new state, so he learned a new lesson about how interstate mile markers work. The last 45 miles from Dayton to the Indiana line featured Henry yelling "Exit 13 coming up! Exit 13 is for Highway 127! That sign means you can only go 65! This is Highway 70! Go right here for exit 13 and Highway 127!"
Mama also took the opportunity to steal Grams' GPS. As a former Northwest Ohioan (and Wisconsinite), she always thought GPS units were a waste of time. If you missed a road, go one mile and turn on the next one. But down south, the roads bend around the hills and if you start out headed north , you can guarantee that you'll eventually turn east then south. Plus, mama thinks there's a conspiracy in which South Carolina changed the names of all the roads after Google Maps came through just to confuse the outsiders. So it was nice to have the GPS when we traveled between everyone's houses. We used it so much that when we slow down to turn, I like to yell "Turn right here!"
Aunt Jenni kept our days full. One morning, we went with her to a cool park with a little town of small buildings.
We played in it for about 10 minutes before we found the sand pit.
Despite the fact we had no sand toys, we spent the next 90 minutes digging and burying things in the sand.
When we got home, Aunt Jenni wouldn't let anyone inside the house. We had a picnic outside, then mama spent about 20 minutes emptying sand out of my diaper and used about a half a bottle of baby powder to get all the sand out of my hair.
The next day, we visited a splash park. It was so much fun running through the "little rivers."
Look at how much these kids are stretching out! It breaks mama's heart that our chunky baby Evie is now a gangly 6 year old who mostly wants to spend the day reading her Rainbow Fairy books.
Even Annalise is losing her chunky thighs and round belly.
Good thing I'm still soft and squishy and totally kissable.
Somebody feed that kid some ice cream to get a little padding on those ribs!
After running around for a while, Henry took up post on this rock to make sure all the little stones and pieces of mulch made it over the little waterfall.
I ran from end to end waiting for fountains to shoot up.
I wish we had one of these in Clemson!
After us girls got tired of splashing, we headed to the playground. I climbed all the way to the top and mama had to send Evie up after me to make sure I came down. The slides were really long and came out all the way at the bottom of the hill, so mama couldn't keep track of where I was.
Aunt Jenni packed a great lunch to eat outside. We took great naps that day.
On Friday, we had a cookout and made s'mores over the fire. Aunt Jenni was feeling really crazy and bought chocolate-vanilla swirl marshmallows. They were good, but turned green when you roasted them. I didn't last very long at the fire because I kept breaking the rules and stepping on the tile close to the fire.
Aunt Jenni kept our days full. One morning, we went with her to a cool park with a little town of small buildings.
We played in it for about 10 minutes before we found the sand pit.
Despite the fact we had no sand toys, we spent the next 90 minutes digging and burying things in the sand.
When we got home, Aunt Jenni wouldn't let anyone inside the house. We had a picnic outside, then mama spent about 20 minutes emptying sand out of my diaper and used about a half a bottle of baby powder to get all the sand out of my hair.
The next day, we visited a splash park. It was so much fun running through the "little rivers."
Look at how much these kids are stretching out! It breaks mama's heart that our chunky baby Evie is now a gangly 6 year old who mostly wants to spend the day reading her Rainbow Fairy books.
Even Annalise is losing her chunky thighs and round belly.
Good thing I'm still soft and squishy and totally kissable.
Somebody feed that kid some ice cream to get a little padding on those ribs!
After running around for a while, Henry took up post on this rock to make sure all the little stones and pieces of mulch made it over the little waterfall.
I ran from end to end waiting for fountains to shoot up.
I wish we had one of these in Clemson!
After us girls got tired of splashing, we headed to the playground. I climbed all the way to the top and mama had to send Evie up after me to make sure I came down. The slides were really long and came out all the way at the bottom of the hill, so mama couldn't keep track of where I was.
Aunt Jenni packed a great lunch to eat outside. We took great naps that day.
On Friday, we had a cookout and made s'mores over the fire. Aunt Jenni was feeling really crazy and bought chocolate-vanilla swirl marshmallows. They were good, but turned green when you roasted them. I didn't last very long at the fire because I kept breaking the rules and stepping on the tile close to the fire.
