Indianapolis

Sunday was busy. We had a Linger Longer after church and I really only attended because the person leading it had been good about attending the last 2 craft clubs. I suppose I wanted to support her in the way she had supported me. I am not sure I was needed though, it was very well attended. It was orginally going to be outside but due to rain, it got moved inside. I was hoping they would cancel because of the rain but no such luck. I brought chicken salad and croissants. It had been a long time since I had made (or ate) chicken salad it was very tasty. I did not really socialize with anyone, basically I ate some food with my family and left.

Then for dinner we had the missionaries over. This was nice because it was Sunday which meant Tyler was the one cooking, not me. Such a relief. I really don't like cooking for others- I worry too much about it not turning out well. One of the missionaries was from Mesa, Arizona so we chatted about familar things with him. Then Tyler made them Shirley Temples after dinner which they seemed to think was scandalous even though it definitely does not have alcohol in it ever. 

Sunday evening I found out our airbnb was getting a new owner so they had to cancel our reservation and then the new owners would get us in. This ended up taking a few days and it made me anxious but it ended up working out- despite airbnb trying to help. Airbnb kept messaging me and calling me the wrong name and offering me new airbnb's in different states- basically they get getting in the wrong message thread...it was obnoxious.

Monday evening I had Craft Club at Tana's. Caroline, Sasha and Sandra B all attended it. Sasha teaches perschool and Caroline's a sub so most of the time was spent talking about the challenges they have with teaching. Honestly it was kind of a bummer conversation but everyone needs a chance to vent I suppose.

Tuesday morning I went on a walk to the library with Grace, Penny and Ruby. It was good weather, a nice chat, and I founds some good books at the little book shop there for the trip. Sharon was there and helped me get change for my 5 so I could buy them. She is a good lady and offered to get our mail while we were away. She is always so helpful. (She even sent me pictures of our mail while we were gone). It was day full of Grace because that evening I went to her house as well to color. 

Tuesday afternoon Nahoko came over with Mimi. She had asked if she could pop by so of course I said yes. Mimi had an incident with her thumb (it got smashed between a bat and a baseball at a summer camp) and I think she just wanted someone to talk to about it. I think it traumatized her- I can understand that. So we chatted for about an hour and then she left. After that Ben had an orthodontist appointment. Ruby and I went with him and Ben was told that he was doing a good job cleaning his braces. I hope that this sentiment lasts throughout this process.

Thursday morning I packed. I also debated the merits of taking 2 cars- extra space for people and things- but in the end I decided it wasn't worth the extra hassle and gas. After making decisions and getting things packed, I went to Marshall's with Penny and Ruby. I had promised Penny real Crocs this summer and we were on a mission to find them. Spoiler alert, we were not successful. They did not have her size for any of the fun colors.

Once we finished our unsuccessful errand- we came home, had lunch and then headed out. The drive itself went very smoothly. The new things I had purchased for Ruby held her attention well and there was no fussing from her. Our first stop was a rest stop for bathroom breaks and snacks- there is no eating in Tyler's work car. Our second stop was Sweetwater. It was a really cool music store that had some free games- arcade, pool, ping pong, foosball, arcade games. It also had a giant slide that was too scary for Ruby. We played all the things and then looked at instruments. There were some fun ukuleles for Tyler and Lucyto play and then we all had a pretty good time with the keyboards. Lucy and Tyler ended up buying some ukulele music.

Our third stop was at Uranus Fudge store. I always thought that store was funny but it fell kind of flat this time- maybe because I have a whiney toddler that wants me to buy her everything?

Our last stop was at Walmart for some groceries and then we made it to the airbnb. The area of town wasn't the nicest but we never felt unsafe. The airbnb itself looked remodeled and new but holy cow are the floors creaky. You couldn't move at all without making a sound. 

That night was awful. Ruby had fallen asleep in the car for the last half hour of the trip and was wide awake when it was time for bed. The girls' room had no curtains so it was bright and that didn't help. She ended up in me and Tyler's bed and she didn't fall asleep until about 11:30pm and then woke up several times in the night crying. 

Ruby not sleeping meant we were all pretty crabby Friday morning. We had a slow morning and then headed out to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It was pretty packed for the holiday (Juneteenth) but we managed to get decent parking and the walk to the entrance wasn't too bad. It was quite a cool entrance with dinosaurs peeping in, a transformer and teenage mutant ninja turtles.

The first exhibit that we visited was the dinosaur one and that had a lot of cool bones to look at and some fun interactive things- like uncovering bones and coloring in a dinosaur and watching it get projected on a screen. Everyone was doing pretty good in the beginning, only Steven was being grumbly.

After the dinosaurs things kind of soured. It was really an awesome place for littles, but not so much for teens (the reviews said even adults love this place, LIES). Ben and Penny were good at humoring Ruby but Steven and Lucy just hung back looking bored. And unforunatly Ruby was so crazy from lack of sleep, she would get mad about leaving exhibits or sharing things or pretty much everything. Basically the one person this museum was geared towards wasn't much fun. I felt bad that I had spent so much on tickets for something that felt like a flop.

Our next exhibit was the American Pop exhibit which had some dress up clothes and some mini mannequins to dress. It also had "old" toys which were mostly from my childhood. Offensive.

After that we went to the Princess Tiana exhibit. It had flowers to plant, wrist bands to stamp, fake food to serve, some clothes to put on child sized mannequins, secret sauce to "make", etc. 

Then there was the Peru exhibit. It had airplane seats to sit on, models of homes and schools in Peru, a place to make pretend smoothies and of course, these amazing Alpacas to feed and brush.

One of Ruby's fights was over this cool work of art in the middle of the staircase. She wanted to go touch it which simply was not possible.

Our next stop was a place specifically made for toddlers with water to play in, blocks to build with, a little play place... Ruby mostly played in the water and went around taking all the toys so that other toddlers could not have them. The big kids were not allowed to play here so they were bored silly. When I finally pulled her away from this stop, it was with the incentive that she could ride a carousel. Unfortunately there was a bit of a line and she did not appreciate waiting. It was rough but worth the wait- lots of smiles, even from the big kids.

The last thing we did at the museum was the sport's area. I thought this would be more fun for all the kids but Steven still would not engage. Lucy shot a few hoops at the basketball court but that was it. Ben did basketball and played some soccer with Tyler. Ruby pretty much cried at everything and even was uninterested in the giant tree playground. 

Honestly it was a really amazing children's museum, just wasn't for my boring teens and not great for a tired toddler.

We left the museum around 1, grabbed a bite to eat at a sketchy Wendy's (nice workers there though), and then we headed back to our airbnb for some much needed quiet time. After taking a bit of a break we headed to a public pool in Franklin because the kids really wanted to swim and this one got decent reviews. Orginally I was going to go to a lowkey water park (not very big and fancy) but at $20 a person, I opted for the $2 a person public pool instead. It was nice- had a slide, some diving boards and a splash playground for Ruby. Ruby seemed to have mellowed out and really enjoyed it there. Steven got bored almost immediately but I think the other kids liked it well enough. The middle 3 all got brave and jumped off the diving boards. They were quite proud of themselves.

On our way back we grabbed a 6 person folding bench at a local sports store so we could have somewhere to sit at the racetrack. We hadn't had room to pack all our camping chairs and for $40 this seemed like a good solution. Spoiler alert- it was! And then it was back to airbnb for TV dinners and bed. The older kids went and got ice cream while I put Ruby to bed. She still fought bedtime but went to bed at a more decent hour- 9:30pm.

Saturday was the day of the Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We weren't 100% sure what to expect but it ended up being not very peopley (probably because that place can house 300,000 people and there were only hundreds). We were able to park in the lot in the middle of the track and walk a short distance to a mound by a turn. We set up our folding bench and blanket, sunscreened up and got to watch the excitment of cars racing. It was very loud when we arrived and Ruby had a meltdown but as soon as she calmed down enough to let me put her earmuffs she did good. Not all races were loud so she didn't have to wear the earmuffs the whole time. While I wasn't really able to follow the races, I did enjoy watching different kinds of cars take that turn and there was some excitement with spin outs and a car that caught on fire. One big adventure was walking to the food - it was a long walk with a toddler. Tyler went again with the older kids and they got to go on the brick (original) track and touch the bricks and meet some drivers. We were there for 4 hours and it wasn't until the last hour that Ruby got restless and I had to give her my phone. Pretty good for a toddler.

After our racetrack fun, we went back to the Airbnb to rest up. Then we went on another outing. Our first stop was The Shop in a small downtown area of Indianapolis. Parking was a pain but the kids were wanting souvenirs and this place was supposed to be a good one for Indiana things. It ended up just being shirts and hats. Ben managed to find a hat there but he was the only one with success. There was a pizza shop next door where we ordered some overpriced pizza (the slices were large but tasted like Costco pizza). The kids and I watched Reels on the curb outside of a bank while we waited for the pizza. Once we got it, we drove to a nearby park- Holliday Park. There were some cool ruins that none of the kids wanted to get out and see so we just parked by the playground and ate there. The playground was really cool and the kids had fun there (well everyone except Steven). As we left, Lucy found a good climbing tree that everyone climbed- even Steven!

After the park we got drinks at Swig (everyone was so excited that there was a Swig nearby) and went back to the airbnb just in time for  Ruby to go to bed.

Delicious Water

Sunday Ruby was very vocal. After she got bread for the sacrament she was asking for water. She was vey excited when it came and after gulping down her little cup she shouted "That was good water!" and then "That water is amazing!" It was a good little testimony of how we should all feel about taking the sacrament. 

Sunday afternoon we had Alissa's graduation party. I got in some good socializing- catching up with Jen who I hadn't seen in ages and Grace came too. The food was good but the tables had to be shifted so we weren't all sitting in the sun. The tables also had my favorite banana laffy taffy candy on them but they had melted while they were in the sun. Soupy laffy taffy is not as much my jam. Tyler was nice and watched Ruby most of the time. Lucy helped too. She is a good big sister. Their help meant I got to actually sit and socialize, that was really nice. 

Monday morning Ruby discovered the fun of taking a shower. Only she mostly just wanted to wipe soap everywhere and did not wash it off properly. So although she started off having a good time playing in the shower, she did not have a good time at the end when I forced her to wash off the soap because she was wiping it in her eyes and slipping everywhere. It was definitely a traumatic ending. Also, to note, she left the shower at one point and pooped in the potty. She unfortunately had some still left in her cheeks when she tried to go back in the shower, but she got most of it in the potty. The only time she has successfully used the potty is when taking a bath or shower but I am still impressed with that little progress.

On Monday I also went with the RS Pres, Emily, to visit a new sister in our ward. She is 23 and living with her in-laws, the Days. She seems great but also visiting her made me feel so old. I could practically be her mother. I pretty much had to lead the conversation because neither of them were too chatty so that was a bit exhausting. At one point I invited her to craft club and book club and she seemed interested but she could have just been being nice. We will see if she actually comes.

Monday afternoon Lucy went to Sam's house because she will be cat sitting for them. I went along with Ruby and for some reason thought this would be a bigger ordeal than it was. It was just a here's our cat, here is the food, bye! It was kind of awkward.

Tuesday, very early in the morning, Tyler took my parents to the airport. They had some issues with their original flight being rescheduled to a really awful flight and ended up having to reschedule it again to this early morning flight. I am glad it all worked out and they were able to change their closing on their new house. They need to hurry up with all their stuff in Arizona and get back to hanging out in Michigan with us.

The rest of us Hatch's had a nice, slow morning. Then around lunch time we went and dropped all our books off at Renaissance. After that I took all the kids (except for Steven) to Chuck E. It was a bit more crowded than we would have liked but it was still nice to get out. Afterwards we hit up Costco for lunch. I enjoy getting out with my kids.

Tuesday evening I went to Grace's. We chatted about a lot of things and it was mostly nice. At one point though, her and her husband had a bit of a disagreement about their daughter and something she was doing. It was a bit awkward but also, normal. All couples have their disagreements. I just am fine to not be there to witness them.

Wednesday was another slow morning and then I took the girls to Once Upon a Child. I was looking for new church shoes for Ruby and a swimsuit for Penny (so she could have an alternate). Ruby ended up finding some gold sparkly shoes and purple Crocs that she just had to have. She did not need Crocs but I ended up buying them-- and now she doesn't like wearing the Crocs so that was a lesson in not caving into her whims. We also found Penny a bathing suit. It is kind of flesh colored with lemons on it so she sort of looks naked when wearing it but...she said she loved it. After our thrift shopping we went to the mall. We ate some pretzels while Ruby played in the play area and then the girls wanted to do a little shopping. That is never very fun with Ruby but we survived.

Thursday we were going to do another beach day with the preschool group but I ended up cancelling it. 2 families were out of town, 1 was sick, another had a dr's appt and the last one is just so flakey. Instead Lucy and Penny ended up having their friends Brooklyn and Linda meet us at the beach. Kara also came for a little bit with baby Amelia. It was a quieter day at the beach but still nice. Kara informed me that they will likely be moving next year. They are hoping to move closer to her husband's work. It's going to be a bummer to have them leave but maybe she won't move too far away and we can still get together?

Friday I took the girls out to Milford. We got cookies at the bakery and then walked down to the park to play. The weather was absolutely perfect and Penny was nice and played with Ruby at the park.

Friday evening Ben was taking the girls to the temple. On his way there he was picking up Reggie and while leaving their neighborhood, turning left, he turned into a truck. Thankfully it was minor damage to both vehicles, but the cops were called. The cop was nice and did not ticket Ben but gave him a stern talking to. Tyler is having Ben help pay and fix the car. Ben feels pretty awful about the whole thing but I am thankful it was just a small thing- nothing like the accidents I subjected my parents' cars too. Needless to say, they did not make it to the temple that night.

Saturday afternoon we went to Gavin's graduation party. It is crazy that these kids I have known since kinder are graduated and heading on missions. It is crazy that we have been here this long. I met a nice lady with a toddler only a few days younger than Ruby. She is a substitute teacher, lots in common with her. I will probably never see her again but it was nice chatting with her. I also chatted some with ladies from the ward. Lots of socializing in my life lately. I would be ok if that all wants to simmer down sometime soon.

Steven Graduates

Sunday was a long challenging day. We started off the day at Stake Conference which is never very fun when you have a toddler. Ruby spent the beginning sitting with her Grams Hatch but then she started wandering and I had to go grab her a few times as she began to wander away from all of us. The lady next to me did not seem very toddler friendly and that made me anxious when Ruby was on my lap. Ruby is in a very touchy phase of life. Then the last speaker went over time and that made me even more anxious since we were on a tight schedule for the day. Ironically he was talking about Martha and Mary and focusing on what was more important but that is really hard when you have anxiety. I understand Martha's plight.

After Stake Conference, I went right to work setting up for Steven's Graduation Dinner. The weather was perfect so we set everything up in shady spot in Gram and Poppy Brady's yard (our yard has no shade). It was windy and things kept blowing away. The Hatch's were nice and helped tape down the tablecloths. My center pieces kept blowing over so I ended up grabbing Steven's archery trophies and using those instead. It was a good move. Then I clipped the pictures that I had for centerpieces onto the banners. 

After I had everything set up, I went to pick up the food from Olive Garden. My mom was nice and came along for emotional support. Thankfully everything went smoothly with the pick up. They brought out the food when we got there and had everything I had ordered. I should have picked it up earlier though because it came with chafing kits and you need to put boiling water in the pans to use them. I was still boiling water when the first few people arrived. Once it was set up though, all was good. The food was delicious overall. My only complaint was the breadsticks- they were tough and not very well seasoned. It was disappointing. But everything else was really tasty and we didn't end up with too much leftovers.

We had a great turn out, there were only 2 couples that were unable to make it. We had Steven's old seminary teacher Bro Herd and his wife, the Bishop Bro Davies and his wife, Bro Perriton who seems to have just always been with the young men and his wife, Bro Wells a counselor in the Bishopric and then of course we had both sets of grandparents there. It was the perfect amount of people and I would highly recommend a graduation dinner with your kid's mentors. It felt much more meaningful than a crazy big open house. We started with eating of course. Then everyone filled out a little quiz to see who knew Steven best. Steven got to go over his answers and some of his answers actually surprised me- like him preferring country over city and books over movies. He never reads but whatever. Ben got the most amount right which seemed reasonable. When we finished with that, I started cleaning up the food so I could bring out the cake and I spilled a whole pan of water on myself- thank heavens the water was only luke warm and I  didn't scald myself along with embarassing myself. I went and changed out of my wet pants and everything was cleaned up by the time I came back out so I am grateful to all those who helped. I had my ice cream cake and a cheesecake and everyone was very complementary. The last thing I had the guests do was fill out bucket list of advice for Steven. I plan to put those in a little book for him. There was some good advice given.

All in all I think the party went well for everyone, except for maybe me. Ruby was crazy and I should have followed my intuition and had Grace watch her. Ruby was just a whiney mess and up to all sorts of crazy antics like sticking her hands down my shirt and saying she likes my boobies. That's super awkward in general but even worse because I was sitting next to Bishop

After the party we were off to the graduation at EMU in Ypsilanti- almost an hour drive away. Ruby fell asleep in the car and did not wake up happy. She was crying in the parking lot for a bit but thankfully calmed down before all the security lines. We were not early enough to get seating in the lower sections so we ended up high. Ruby touched a girls leg while we were going up the stairs and the girl cried "Ewww" So embarassing. And then she kept touching the hair and heads of people in the row in front of us. She was just super wiggly and fussy and she didn't seem to be interested in anything I had packed in her diaper bag. Tyler eventually went and bought her chips but that only calmed her for a bit. The ceremony itself was nothing exceptional. I did think the principal gave a nice, sentimental speech- probably because his daughter was graduating. But the Academic Honors girls that spoke- a gaggle of girls who all took turns talking- were hard to listen to. They basically all said the same thing- we all dreamed of being princesses and firefighters when we were young but now our dreams have evolved.  The orchestra played a nice number from La La Land. And then there were 300 names to be read. All in all this would have been better without Ruby but it still would have been boring.

There was a beautiful sunset on our way home and I was quite happy to be done with the crazy of the day.

Monday morning Poppy Hatch bought breakfast from Leo's for all of us. Then I took them out to the farm in Kensington. I even managed to get Steven to go with us. The weather was perfect for an outing. We managed to make friends with a goat, see some fat pigs and tall horses and we took a little walk to the shore of a lake and threw sticks in. It was a good time until it wasn't. There was definitely a time when Steven and Ruby expired. Steven manifested it by complaing and Ruby manifested it by crying. 

After Kensington we all ate leftovers for lunch and then not too long later it was time to take Tyler's parents to the airport. It was much too short of a visit with them.

Tuesday morning Ruby and I went for a walk with Miss Grace to the library. We had a nice chat at the library while Ruby played with the toys there. She was in one of her nice moods where she was happy to play alone and was not fighting. It was a really good outing. We even found some good books to buy in the little used bookstore they have at the library. She got a book that plays Jesus songs that she has been thoroughly enjoying since.

Tuesday after dinner, the grandparents wanted to go get ice cream at Dairy Twist while Ben was working. I had been having stomach issues so I didn't get any. It was quite sad to be there and just watch everyone else eat all the delicious things.

After we got ice cream, I went over to Grace's to color. We had not done that for ages and it was really nice. She had also made her delicious homemade salsa and that made me very happy.

Wednesday evening Steven had seminary graduation. Another hard event with a toddler. The youth that spoke did a good job though and at least there were less than 20 teens graduating so the reading of names did not take long at all. 

Thursday we hosted the preschool coop group at our neighborhood beach. Lucy's friend Mila came as well. I felt pretty out of place at first. All the other kids were not getting in the water at first so the moms sat away from the shore eating. My girls were all in the water so I needed to sit close to shore so I could make sure Ruby was safe. I only 90% trust Lucy and Penny with her. That meant I was by myself for quite a long while. Honestly I didn't talk much with the moms overall- it was an off day I suppose. When the other kids came over, it somehow became my responsibility to pull them all around on the kids' kayaks I had brought. It was fine, it beat sitting alone awkwardly. Julie had talked about coming and I wish she had, I could have used the friend. She said she didn't come because she wasn't up to hanging out with new people- she is such an extrovert I don't quite understand that but whatever. I was just frustrated because I have gone out of my comfort zone for her many times. 

Friday was busy for the girls and I played the chauffeur. I took Lucy to go mow the lawn for Sister Miller and while she mowed we did our traditional walk to Scarlets Park. Then we all went out to lunch with Grams and Poppy to Tropical Smoothie and Subway. After that the girls went to their new friend's house (Brooklyn and Linda). They discovered that these friends had some pretty cool pets- axolotls and sting rays. They also got to swim in their heated pool. Then the girls had a sleepover at Anna and Lara's house- this time it was for reals their last sleepover with them. So an exciting day for them but not a super thrilling day for me.

Saturday we picked Penny up from the sleepover and went to her last soccer game. Her team creamed the other team- the other team seemed a bit smaller/younger than her team so it was kind of hard to watch them get creamed.

After the game we went out to lunch at Taco Bell. It is always fun to see Steven working. I love embarassing him. Then the girls were off to another social event- Mimi's birthday party. I went to Salvation Army after I dropped them off. I was on the hunt for sleeveless tops or dresses that work with the new open sleeved garmets. I managed to find one top. The new garments really don't work with most sleeveless tops.

We ended the day going to Eva's Graduation Party (Tyler, me and Ruby). I hadn't seen Stefanie in probably a year so part of me didn't want to go- I kind of felt a little hurt by her but I am glad I went. I think she was happy I was there and I felt like I did the right thing. That didn't mean it wasn't awkward though, because it definitely had its moments. We didn't know anyone else so I sat by her and she was sitting with 2 ladies she has been friends with since middle school. Stefanie left often to greet people so it was often just me trying to make awkward conversation with her besties. Ruby had no problem making friends with everyone though, and she had fun following their dog around. She even offered the dog her waterbottle which it promptly licked- and then Ruby drank out of it. Blech. They had Chipotle and yummy cookies and beautiful cupcakes. It was a beautiful party but due to the awkwardness we didn't stay too long.