Indianapolis

On July 15, Lucy went on her very first family vaca (unless you count the one where I was a couple of weeks pregnant - but didn't know it - to OBX)!
She packed up her suitcase...surprise, surprise, it's giraffe print!  And of course, we couldn't forget Buddy! She was styling and ready to go fetch our fellow vacationers - GranJan and Grandpa!

Turns out travelling is tiring stuff, so Lucy and Gerry snoozed on the ride to Indianapolis.  We took GranJan and Grandpa's new car (a Highlander!  We're jealous!) and Lucy was pumped to have GranJan on one side of her in the car and mommy on the other side!

At one point, GranJan admitted that really can't read maps well (now I know where I get it!) so this picture really makes us laugh:

The drive was great...in less than two hours, we were at our hotel and checked in...Lucy showed GranJan where she'd be sleeping:

Next we stopped at McDonald's for a quick lunch but soon enough, it was time for our first big adventure: 

The Indianapolis zoo is much smaller than the Cincinnati zoo but it was very fun!  The animals were fairly lively, especially for such a hot day, and we could get a lot closer to some of them than we can at our zoo.  We were anxious to see a dolphin show but disappointed to learn that it's been cancelled for a month or two due to new baby dolphins recently being born (maternity leave, I guess!).  There was still plenty to see and we had a great time...Dave's favorite part of this zoo was that it was not crowded at all!

We were told there was a new baby elephant and that he'd be out for the next hour so we headed back but we missed him...boo...I guess he got too hot and went back inside.  Lucy was anxious to go see the giraffes anyway...

We didn't get to see a baby elephant but Lucy was still excited to see the big ones!

Another favorite of Lucy's is the birds...she can even tell you what they say: "Teet teet!"

 

This one really liked Lucy!  It stayed right up against the glass in front of
Lucy and made incredibly loud sounds...they were "talking," I guess!

Next, Grandpa tried to feed Lucy to a giant polar bear!

Lucy also really enjoyed looking at the fish and the very lively penguins:

It was a pretty hot day so we were excited when we noticed a little splash park within the zoo!

It was lots of fun to cool off but this sweaty little girl was a bit of a mess after mixing water with the sweat!

After she got changed, she was ready for a little snooze while we walked around the zoo some more:

She was back in action after a quick nap, though, and spotted GranJan's cotton candy and decided to give it a try:

Lucy had a great day at the zoo!

That evening Lucy stayed up past her bedtime because after the zoo we did a bit of swimming at the hotel pool (you'll have to wait until GranJan gets her water camera pictures developed for images of that) and some wandering and exploring before heading to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  We had requested adjoining rooms but due to a mix up with a total b-word at the front desk, the request was not granted.  Our rooms were at the top of a set of stairs and our room was the first one when you turned right at the top of the steps and Grandpa and GranJan's was the second one when you turned left at the top of the steps...so they were fairly close but still a good stretch of hallway for Lucy to run back and forth between...she was loving life...

This is the only pic I have from dinner that night...and it's not even very good...oops...

Climbing the stairs back up to our rooms...

"Grandpa helped me find rocks!"

Once back in our room, it was bath time! 

With a few toys - like turtleturtle and sprinkle cup - from home, bath time was FUN time!

Sweet baby!

 After bath time, it was time to be silly with dad while drinking milk!

By the time she finished the milk and got to sleep, it was pretty late so after a few minutes of us chatting in my parents' room (with the monitor with us!), we all went to bed, too.

Unfortunately poor Lucy didn't sleep well and even seemed to have a fever at one point.  She got some baby Advil in her system and finally got a bit of sleep but still wasn't herself in the morning...we almost skipped the museum, but the fever was gone and her appetite was still in tact so we decided to continue with our day as planned...and good thing we did!  Lucy rallied and had one of the best days of her life!  We went to the children's museum of Indianapolis and spent 7 hours inside!  There were 5 floors filled with interactive activities for kids of all ages!

After a hearty breakfast, she was good to go and hung out in the lobby until everyone else was, too!

Finally, we were there:

"What are we waiting for?  Let's go inside!"

Sit tight, blog fans...you're about to see a LOT of pictures from museum day!  Like I said, there were five floors of fun and we explored them all...camera in hand!
The first cool thing to catch Lucy's eye was a train table...we played at the train table until Lucy could take no more of the sharing that was required at the time!  There were bigger (literally!) and better things to see anyway...a cool train we could get inside and climb around!

On another level of the museum, there were lots of cars!  She and daddy waited in line to send their hot wheels down a cool ramp:

Then she got to get inside a hot wheel and practice steering: 

She never minded being in the backseat (because there were steering wheels back there, too) but she did not care for it when another child joined her...though the seat was plenty wide enough and there were two steering wheels...

Splashing is fun!

There were quite a few spots throughout the museum where there were table and chairs and fake food...she loved these spots and spent significant time in them:

There was digging (in fake mulch)...and building (with giant Legos)...and dusting (for fossils!)...

She and daddy spent a lot of time at this water table watching and helping the boats pass:

Lucy and GranJan shared a yogurt snack but soon it was time for everyone to get lunch...we walked into the big food court and while we were all trying to decide what to get, little Lala fell asleep...so us adults got a pizza and dined while she napped...she woke up just in time to scarf down a sandwich before we went to see what else the museum offered.

Hula-hoopin'!

She spotted this horse ("neigh! neigh!") and wanted to get on it so bad!  We put her on it but didn't have any coins to make it go and a line had started to form so she got back off...we found some money and got back on when it was our turn again...she absolutely loved it...until we put the money in!  She did not want the horsey to move!

There was a little stage with dress up clothes so Lucy quickly dressed like a pirate:

...and even more quickly, took the pirate clothes off!  But she loved walking up onto the stage, back down, going around and around and up and down over and over again!

It was almost time to go (because it was almost time for the museum to close!) but there was still time for a carousel ride!  She wasn't totally sure about it...us girls waited in line and planned to ride the giraffes.  No one had been riding them on all of the turns we'd watched because unlike some of the other animals, the giraffes didn't go up and down.  However, once it was finally our turn, the first three girls out of the gate rushed to the giraffes to ride them...no worries - we settled for a tiger.  Lucy was fairly expressionless throughout the ride but I think she liked spotting daddy and Grandpa as we went around...until nearly the end when she started crying and signing "all done."

Fun day!

We figured with all of the excitement of the day, she'd poop out again on the way back to the hotel (about a 25 minute drive) but instead, it was wacky time:

Putting her foot on GranJan...

About five minutes before we were parked in the hotel lot, though, she finally fell fast asleep and stayed that way through getting her out of the car and up to the room:

Of course she woke up hungry, though, and we took the front desk clerk's suggestion of a pizzeria for dinner:

Cheese hanging out of her mouth...

What a great day!!




We decided we'd done Indy sufficiently and headed back on Wednesday morning instead of spending another day there - we were already going home at some point on Wednesday and we'd accomplished the two things (zoo and museum) that we'd set out for and didn't find anything else to interest us in town so it was back home for us!


The trip ended on a high note with some girl time at Brookwood!  We got in an hour or two before all hell broke loose and the heavens exploded with a mighty torrential downpour...but we cozied up inside Grandpa and GranJan's house and had some delicious pizza (for the third meal in a row...not that any of us were complaining!).