Styven and I took the boys with us to my home state of Indiana for my good friend Libby's wedding this past weekend. Boy what a trip home that was! I got to see my childhood best friend Lisa and her mom and dad. I can hardly believe Lisa and I have been best friends for 22-23 years. The boys had a field day at Lisa's house and had so much fun with her mom. I guess her mom reminded them of their nana. Funny thing is, Charlie and Danny kept calling Lisa's mom by Lisa's name. It was hilarious. After a yummy pizza dinner at Donato's (if you ever go to Indy, you've got to go to Donato's in Carmel....so, so good!) we went over to the Moran's house to let the boys run loose for awhile. Styven and I got to meet Lisa's boyfriend Alex and he's really funny and sweet. On Saturday morning, Styven and I took the boys back over to Lisa's house and waited for Lisa to get ready. Lisa and her mom thought since it was nice out, it would be a good day to do the Indianapolis Zoo...so that's what we did. Charlie loved the penguin exhibit. There was a penguin who looked just like Lovelace on Happy Feet. Danny seemed to like the Polar Bear exhibit the most. They made a lot of changes to the Indy Zoo since the last time I had been there. My mom used to take me quite a bit as a child. They don't have the big Great White anymore, now they have a huge pool of sharks that you can touch. Saturday night was my good friend Libby's wedding. I hadn't seen her or her family in like 13 years, so it was really good to see them. Libby made the most gorgeous bride I have ever seen. It was a really simple, but elegant outdoor garden wedding. She had 10 people stand up with her and her husband Chris had 10 people stand up with him, plus the ring bearer, and 3 (yes 3!) flower girls. I promise you, you did not read and count the size of the wedding party wrong. The ceremony was surprisingly short. I think it was only a half hour, if that at all. The reception was inside at the Deer Zink Pavilion at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I got to see some old neighbors of mine from when I lived in Sugarbush Hill in Zionsville. It was nice to catch up with them and to catch up a little bit with Libby and 6 of her siblings (she has 7 total). Styven and I left a tad early, since it was getting close to the boys bed time and they were starting to get a little cranky. Then on Sunday we went with Lisa, her mom, and her dad and went to the Children's Museum. I hadn't been there since I was at least 9 or 10 years old and the whole place is just different. It's one of the biggest children's museums that I know of (it's 4 floors, but the exhibits are huge and no that is not an understatement). We got there at noon and we were there for 3 hours, and still didn't do all of the museum. Part of the museum is still being worked on (they're building a huge travel to Egypt exhibit). On Monday, we went with Lisa's mom and took Charlie and Danny to Holliday Park (my mom used to take me quite a bit when I was little and it's still just as big). It has one of the biggest playground areas for kids in Indianapolis. There are 3 separate playgrounds. One has all kinds of slides, bridges, etc. for kiddos to climb on and play. Then right next to it is a smaller play area for toddlers or smaller kids. Then next to that one is a huge tree house play area with super fast slides (not kidding, I got scraped on part of my arm from trying to slow myself down at the end) and all kinds of ladders. Monday night we met up with my Godparents Lorna and John for dinner and went over to their house afterwards. I told Styven, it's sad that we've been together for so long and he hadn't met my Godparents up until then. My Godfather and Styven got along fabulously (I never had a doubt though, they both LOVE science and Styven finally met his match). Styven laughed at me a little, since my Godmother pulled out those old school California raisins from the 80's that I used to play with all the time when I was little. She even still had my Little Pony that I played with and my Godmother still has the crayons and Little Pony coloring book that I had. Charlie and Danny had so much fun running around and playing with all my old toys and playing in Lorna and John's yard. My original plan was to leave at 9ish when it was the boys bedtime and have them all worn out so they'd sleep the whole way back to Atlanta. At 10PM it was still light out, so Styven and I thought it couldn't have been any later than 8ish. We ended up leaving at around 10 and about 15-20 mins. later both of the boys were out like lights. We drove through to a little north of Nashville, TN and stopped for the night. Yesterday, we headed back to Atlanta and got home around 3 in the afternoon. It's good to be home, but at the same time this last trip home to Indy makes me miss Indiana that much more. I don't get to see all of my childhood friends or Lisa as much as I'd like to. I told Styven that I'd really like to save our trips to Florida for the spring time and I'd really like to go home to Indy every summer from now on. There's just something about Indy that once you leave and go back and then leave again, you just miss it more and more. At least I do. I don't know if it's because I'm a midwestern girl who never really got over her love for her hometown or if it's because I miss my friends or a combination of the two.
The above pictures are some that I took over the weekend. Some are from Libby's wedding and some are other random ones that I've taken over the weekend. Sorry, no funny or hilarious videos this time guys. I'm saving that for later.
XOX
