Trip to Shipshewana

We took a short two day, one night trip to northern Indiana to celebrate Kathy feeling better and the end of summer vacation. Kathy isn't up to a theme park type trip quite yet such as to King's Island or Holiday World. This was sort of a continuation of our trip that we took to this part of the state last October that was cut short by the tornado in Nappannee. Shipshewana is in the heart of Amish country. We drove home along the Amish "Heritage Trail" past Amish farms and buggies. This is a very beautiful part of the state, but not as hilly and lush as southern Indiana. In the fall, we plan to take a trip or go camping in southern Indiana or western Tennessee.

We stayed at a swim park-themed hotel. The hotel was really nice. The indoor swim park was fun, but less than amazing. The kids enjoyed the arcade more than the swim park!

We ate a huge Amish-style family dinner at this restaurant. Good food - especially the homemade noodles, fried chicken and pie!

We took a carriage ride through town and stopped at a number of Amish shops. The weather was great! The highs were in the 70s and lows in the 50s for the weekend.

Waiting for the carriage ride.

Lego Collection

Our family is Lego crazy! We have our creations divided up between a "bad guy" table, a "good guy" table, and a couple of town tables.

Indiana Jones

Sith base

Imperial base 1

Imperial base 2

Imperial base 3

Imperial base 4

Rebel base 1

Rebel base 2

Jedi Council Chamber 1

Jedi Council Chamber 2

Rebel base 3

Town area and Hogwarts. We still have a few containers full of loose bricks to build with even after everything that we have created. We have built up a good portion of our collection from sets and other pieces bought at yard sales.

Our House

The big tree to the right was damaged by a thunderstorm earlier this summer. 70 mph winds snapped a major branch off of one side. The damage was bad enough that we may end up having remove the entire tree.

It takes us almost 2 hours to mow the fenced back yard, the back yard beyond the fence, and the the front and side yards. We haven't had a lot of rain lately, so the grass isn't as green as it usually is and most of the flowers have wilted. We are too cheap to water them!

We spend a lot of time outside sitting on the deck when the weather is nice. We added some outdoor lights that come on automatically when the sun goes down.

View of the side of our backyard where the garden is usually planted. We did not have much of a garden this summer with Kathy being sick. We have only have one tomato plant and some onions. However, on the opposite side of our house where we have our flower garden, some stray seeds took root and we actually have some squash and pumkins growing among the flowers!

Jared's Room

Jared has definitely got a Star Wars theme going on in his room. Kathy painted the room half sky blue and half sandy brown to give it a Tatooine effect. This is a rare occasion when Jared's room is actually somewhat clean.

Lauren the Cook

Lauren loves to bake cakes and cookies. She is becoming a great cook like her mother.