Trip to Indiana

Well we made our annual trip to Indiana to see my family. We had the best time. We did tons of things but stayed pretty close to home which was so nice. We drove out with my brother and his family. They had been out for Stephanie's family reunion and headed home the same time we were going. It was a nice drive, better than I thought it would be. We traded kids back and forth and I think they had a good time. We took 3 days, first day to Nebraska, second day to St. Louis, then the third day to Bedford. We stopped the second day in St. Louis to go to the zoo. The kids loved it. It is a very nice zoo. Then we tried to go to Pointers Pizza, home of the 8 lb. pizza but it didn't work out so we headed to Bedford. Pictures of the drive are below.The day after we got there was the 4th of July. We went to the parade, the kids really loaded up on treats. Then we spent the day at my cousin Kristi's house. Her and Dustin are so wonderful to have it at their house every year. We eat tons and tons and then have a huge wiffle ball tournament. We had enough people this year to have 5 teams and a double elimination tournament. What a blast. It was rainy which made it even crazier. The mud added an extra element to the party. Let's just say, it got really interesting. Jeff scored the first home run of the day. The tourney always gets a bit heated, as you can see in the following video.



The boys had a great time. Zach got adventurous with Adam and had a mud bath. It is crazy to think people pay for that stuff. Below are a few pictures and videos from the day. We love going. At the end of the day we had fireworks and I wish I would have taken pictures of all the kids doing the sparklers. You would have thought it was world war 3 with all the smoke. You couldn't even see 5 feet in front of you. It was nuts. The babies hated the fireworks so I moved to the garage so they would stop crying. Maybe next year. Another fun activity we did was Dustin and Kristi reserved a pontoon boat and we spent the day on the lake. The babies were too little so my mom stayed with them. I wish they could have gone but it was just too much. Our other boys had an absolute blast. We were initially told not to go under the road cosway because the water level was too high but us being rebels, yea right, decided we would try it anyway. We inched our way up to the overpass. My brother Hein stood on the top deck of the boat to make sure it cleared. We made it but lets just say we made it by the skin of our teeth. When we docked on the other side, we had tons of stuff to do. There was a slide off the back of the boat, jet skis and the water tube off the back of the Matlocks boat. We barbequed on the boat and really didn't want the day to end. I felt bad, Jeff left about half way through the day because my mom wasn't feeling good so he left to watch the babies. Next year, hopefully we can do it again and the babies can come. Below are some great videos and pictures of the day.

Here is a video that I love. There was this group of geese swimming around trying to get scraps of food so Jake thought it would be a good idea to go swim with them. Just watch.

The next video is of Jake on the tube behind the boat with his cousin Katelynn and Ali's friend Merideth. He had so much fun. I couldn't believe how brave he was. He went much faster than I did and kept yelling for Dustin to go faster. I was so proud of him. He has gotten so daring all of the sudden. I am not sure I like it yet.

This next video is of me, my sister in law Stephanie and my nephew Sam. Stephanie and I wanted to go about the same pace but come to find out, going slower actually made it bouncer than if we would have gone faster. We had fun while it lasted but we were ready to be done. Maybe I will get braver another time.
We had a few other videos of my brothers. They did some crazy rides. The biggest crash of the day was my brother Terry and my niece Katelynn. They got going pretty good and Katelynn slid sideways and flipped and then because Terry was side heavy he caused the tube to flip and he went right over the top of Katelynn. She got slammed but managed to survive with only bitting a chunck out of inside her mouth. You could see teeth marks and all. It was quite gross. She was a real trooper. I wish I would have got that ride on video but I missed it. My brothers got going pretty good too. They had some wild rides usually resulting in Hein flying off and Terry hanging on to save himself. It really was a blast. This last video is of Zach finally getting brave and going in the water by himself. He would only go in if someone took him. He also finally took a jet ski ride with me, I was so proud. Jake also took a jet ski ride with me. It was great.

The last few days we went to the Lawrence county 4-H fair and went to a park in Bloomington. At the fair Jeff, Hein, and Katelynn tried to get hypnotized and that was funny. They all tried so hard but couldn't do it. Katelynn had a kid laying all over her and he was out. I am not sure how much Hein liked that but what do ya do. The boys also rode a ride that I couldn't believe they got on. I think they wondered the same thing once it started. Then at the park in Bloomington, the kids had a blast. They had this slide type set up next to a creek and the kids could slide down it into the water. They had a ball. We put the babies on the swings and as you can see in the pictures, Alex had a blast but Ryan's stomach didn't handle it so well. Here are some pictures.