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.