The second week of July, Bruce had a 5 day conference in Indianapolis, and the entire family decided to join him. We drove 13 straight hours on Saturday, and stayed overnight with the Johnson family. I was amazed at how well the kids did in the car that long. We left at 5 am. After loading up the car, the kids promptly went back to sleep. By the time they woke up again around 8:00, we already had 3 hours under our belt. We stopped at a rest area and ate breakfast. The kids ran around for a little bit, then it was back in the car until lunch. After an hour lunch break, the kids took their naps while we drove. By the time they woke up, we had just over 2 hours left on our journey. We read books, sang songs, told stories because I must add that we DO NOT have a portable DVD player, so this entire trip was electronic free! Our kids are wonderful. On a side note: they were great travelers, but terrible sleepers during this entire trip. Boo! Sunday we went to church in our former ward (which was so small compared to our glory days); and chatted with friends. It was great!
Monday morning, Bruce drove to Indianapolis, and I stayed in Champaign for an extra 2 days in order to meet up with some former co-workers I really wanted to see. Fortunately, I was able to see all but 1 of the persons I wanted to see (Denise Demers). Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture - not a single one. You will just have to imagine it. Tuesday evening, Bruce came back to Champaign to pick me up, and we headed back to Indy.
While Bruce was networking, conferencing, and listening to speaker after speaker, the kids and I decided to take advantage of our last week with 2 children under 2 and hit the adventure spots. We spent 2 full days in Indy.
Day 1 in Indy:
Buckled into the double stroller, we waltzed around down town. With a destination in mind, I walked block after block after block. After 12 blocks, the high humidity finally got the best of me and I stopped to rest inside the library. Asking for directions to the Children's Museum (our planned destination), I was told that it was an additional 20 blocks up the street. What? The ladies at the mall where I parked told me it was 6-7 or so blocks up the street from them. So.... we decided to hang out at the library. The Indianapolis public library is a huge building with 7 floors. The children's department was larger than our entire home library. It had some cool technology. Surprisingly, Eliza wasn't as excited about it as I thought she might be. I think she was so distracted by the dozens of children running around that she may have overlooked the fact that we were at the library. I only say this because she asks to go to the library every day.
Playing with the magnetic board
We started out in Mr. Bear's playhouse. Here they had a rotating sand table - Eliza loved this. A change the face on the sculpture exhibit - which Eliza was completely confused by. Zaby playing with gigantic Lincoln Logs, and an activity center, which he managed to pull on top of himself about a dozen times.
Next, they had glass statues. The entire ceiling, pictured in the bottom right corner, was covered with glass bent into various shapes, sizes, and colors. In the center of the room was plastic representations of the same things for the kids to design their own statues. They were both entertained for about 10 minutes.
The archaeologist dig site. I thought this exhibit was pretty cute. The kids could dig in this fake sand for ancient artifacts and fossils. They played in here until the exhibit closed.
We ended our time here with Eliza rebuilding the sarcophagus of an Egyptian mummy. She really enjoyed picking up the "heavy rocks" and putting them back together.
They both zonked out on the ride back to the mall where we picked up Bruce and headed to dinner.
Eliza was excited to sleep in a hotel (she's done it plenty of times before) - so excited, in fact, that she would not go to sleep. At 11:30, I'm pretty sure that both Bruce and I fell asleep before she did, so I'm not even sure what time she finally hit the sack. Despite her lack of sleep, she was every bit as ambitious to tackle the next day's activities.
Day 2 in Indy: The Zoo
I must say that I was impressed with this zoo. It was just the right size and had a perfect mix of the ordinary and exotic animals. They had a cool aquarium where you could touch baby sharks. Eliza really wanted to and would put her hand in the water. As soon as a shark would come remotely close, she quickly pulled her hand out. I don't blame her, it would probably be pretty scary to an almost 2 year old. She loved watching the fish and the seals swim around. They were quite boisterous which she found absolutely hilarious.
I don't know if we just hit a good day or what, but all the animals we saw were very active and easily visible. There wasn't a single animal in hiding all day long. They had a walk in Aviary, 2 different playgrounds, a splash pad, a dog show, and a dolphin show. As my luck would have it, both children fell asleep on my lap during the dolphin show. It made it difficult to walk down the narrow steps with crowds of people back to the stroller. Not to mention trying to put them both in the stroller while trying to keep them asleep, but I managed it. They even stayed asleep through some of the exhibits.
At the zoo, we saw manatees, penguins, and Eliza's favorite - Pink Flamingos.
Black bears, Polar Bears, Rhinos, Giraffes, Tiger, Lions, Elephants, and Zebras just to name a few.
I paid $1.50 for the kids to ride the Carousel - Eliza kept saying she wanted to get off during the ride. When it was over, she decided she didn't want to leave, rather she wanted to ride again. Silly girl - some days I don't understand her.
Zaby loved it!
Until I became a mom, there are lots of things I didn't even think about or pay attention to. I must say that the mother's nest was my absolutely favorite thing about the Indianapolis Zoo. This was a building specifically for nursing mothers. Inside, they had 1 large playing area stocked with books, and 3 changing tables. 3 enclosed private rooms were complete with rocking chairs and enough space to park your stroller. It was amazing and made me a much less nervous to feed my nursing baby. 2 years ago, I probably would have thought it was silly - my how your opinions change! The $16 I paid for an adult admission ticket, was well worth the visit. We all had a fun day.
We stayed up late eating popcorn and watching TV in our hotel room. Bruce conference ended at noon the next day. We headed back home to Pennsylvania immediately afterward eating our sandwiches in the car. The children were equally as cooperative on the ride home as they were on the ride there. We put them in their jammies after stopping for dinner. Around 8:30 that night, they fell asleep and stayed asleep when we transferred them to their beds after arriving home at 1:30 am. This trip reconfirmed to me that I have wonderful children!!
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