IN * KY * WV

We just got back from our latest adventure. We got to go visit my brother, Dallas, in Indiana. We got up at 4:00 AM on Saturday morning to catch our flight. The girls wanted to practice getting up that early, so each day that week we tried to get up 30 minutes earlier than the previous day. I'm not sure it was very effective, just made us very tired every day! But I like getting up early, so it was a good reminder I need to do it more. We got to Indiana with no problems and made it to Dallas and Jessica's just in time -- Jessica was on her way home from the General Relief Society meeting and Dallas had taken his kids to the library. We had dinner and played a game that night.

Sunday we went to church with them. After church we went to the Celery Bog. It was beautiful. We just walked around through the trails. I don't remember if it rained on us (probably), but the temps were pretty cold our whole time there. So much for trying to pick a nice week for our vacation! We didn't let the rain stop us from having fun, though. After the bog we went over to Happy Hollow Park. The kids wanted to play on the playground equipment while Brandon, Dallas and I went for a short hike. We were fasting that day, so we didn't have a whole lot of energy for hiking.

Monday was supposed to have nicer weather, so we tried to do more outdoor things. We drove to downtown Lafayette and parked the car at a park, then walked over to the bus stop so we could take the trolley. That was a crazy ride, trying to hold on with these slippery wood benches. It didn't sound too good, either, and eventually they made us get off and get on a different bus. We took it through campus, to get a quick tour of Purdue. Then we got to go out for lunch -- Panera! Then we went to Columbia Park where the kids had fun playing. You can see in my pictures this awesome standing teeter-totter they had. Well, it was fun until you get knocked off. They even had merry-go-rounds at all their parks! After playing for a while we walked over to the zoo right next to the park. They had a porcupine, a monkey, lots of farm animals, an Aussie section with wallaby, singing dogs, kookaburra. Chloe's favorite was the butterfly exhibit -- even though it was closed. There were still butterflies flying around that she loved to watch. It was a cute little zoo. And free, I almost forgot to mention the best part! Monday night we had Family Home Evening with them, and we went out to Red Mango for dessert (frozen yogurt).

Tuesday was our last full day in Indiana. We tried to find something to get us out of the rain, and so we chose to go to Jump It. The kids all had a ball. Chloe kept trying to get me to take pictures of her. I told her they weren't turning out. She said she didn't care if they were good, she just wanted pictures to remember it by. So... you can see lots of pictures of her having a ball in really bad lighting. After dinner we watched a movie before heading off to bed.

We left there Wednesday morning so we could make it to Louisville in time for lunch. We were a little late, but we made it. We ate at the Derby Cafe and then toured the Kentucky Derby museum. We took the historic walking tour to view the track and learn about the race. But then we went back in to finish the museum. They had a movie that played around an oval screen, but the ceiling was open so we were able to watch it from the second floor. Who knew we would have so much fun there? But they had to kick us out because it was closing time -- and we still weren't done looking at everything!

We drove down to Elizabethtown to spend the night, so we would be able to visit Abe Lincoln's birthplace first thing in the morning. We spent quite a bit of time there, and then drove out to the site of his boyhood home. There wasn't much to do there. They closed that visitor's center for the winter. So, we just looked around for a bit before we realized we needed to grab some lunch QUICK and get on our way to the mammoth caves! So, after rushing to get there we went in to get our tickets and then were walking back to the car to get jackets (they told us it would be 54 degrees inside the cave), we hear them announce the 12:45 tour would now be departing. Our tour was scheduled for 2:00. I was trying to figure out if they had messed up, when we realized that they were on central time. Apparently Elizabethtown is the divider -- we were in Eastern time all week, but south of there is central time. Crazy! So we now had an hour to kill. Sophie spent her time in the gift shop, and we went for a short hike up to Old Guide's Cemetery. Then we got to take our tour. Brandon said he's glad he did it, but has no desire to do it again. I liked it, mostly just proud that I wasn't too scared to do it! The girls did great -- after hearing a lot of complaining from Sophie. Chloe was proud that she was in better shape than some of people in our group who had a hard time with some of the steep spots. I didn't think we were allowed to take cameras, so I got no pictures of our tour. Apparently you can take cameras, just no bags or cases. I'm sure it would have been too dark to get anything good anyways. Then we drove to Lexington where we spent the night.

Friday our goal was to get to West Virginia and do lots of hiking. Our first stop was at the New River Gorge Bridge. This is the longest arch bridge in the western hemisphere. It used to be the longest in the world, but now it ranks third. They have a bridge day each October where people will jump off the bridge. That's supposed to be pretty cool, but we didn't plan our trip around that event. After seeing that we were pretty much behind schedule and it was raining and cold, so we decided to cut out the scenic drive I had planned. We just headed to our hotel and let the girls swim. We went out for a late dinner -- just to make Dallas jealous we went to Cici's. They had an all-you-can-eat buffet for $3.99 and kids ate free. Our entire meal was $8. I told the cashier we don't eat meat (she was also a vegetarian, so she knew how we felt), and so she had them make a whole vegetarian pizza that they brought to our table just for us. They still had several options in the buffet line as well.

Saturday we had a late flight to head home, so we tried to go to some state parks and look around. It was still raining, so we mostly just drove around and were able to listen to a bit of conference in the car and caught the exciting news about Star Valley getting a temple. We drove by the West Virginia state capitol and then went and got some lunch before heading to the airport. This is where our story should be coming to an end, but no. After getting on the plane the captain announced that we didn't have enough air in one of the tires, so a mechanic was coming out to fill it. He was about 20 min away. After he got there they told us the air was coming out as fast as it was going in, so they needed to get a new tire. Of course, they don't have any spare tires in Charleston so they had to fly one in from Atlanta (where we were headed for our connecting flight). So, we all got off the plane and got to hang out in the freezing cold Charleston airport with only one restaurant that closed at 6:30. They gave us our choice of staying in Charleston or taking the plane back to Atlanta that was bringing our tire in. We chose Atlanta -- Charleston was too cold, I needed out of there! So, they put us up for the night at a hotel in Atlanta and gave us vouchers for food. When our vouchers printed out, they assigned us to hotels. Out of the 4 of us, we got assigned 3 different hotels! We just chose Brandon's (because it sounded the nicest) and shared a room (like we would have done anyway). Most people took the first flight out of Atlanta they could, but I requested a later flight so we could sleep in and enjoy the day. We weren't in a rush to get home. We used our food vouchers to eat breakfast in the hotel, and then grabbed some lunch in the airport. We still had a couple left, so after landing in Salt Lake we stopped and got some frozen yogurt :) And that is where our trip ends.

The girls are taking an extra day off to recuperate. They both came home feeling a little ill, so they've been resting while I catch up on laundry and blog.