Year 3, July 18th, 2018: Wednesday, V4, Home Again, Away Again

Jared took Abishai with him early to the office to get some orders ready while he let the rest of us sleep in. Benaiah had to work at 11, and I had an appointment at 11:30, so it worked out perfectly. Jared got home, I gave him instructions for the kids, and I left. Now I'm playing a “Gary” and typing up a blog post in the car while I wait for my appointment! I could have gone in early, but figured my brain was wide awake and it's quiet, so why not stay and get this done. It would make me feel like I accomplished something for the day. And so far, I'm keeping up with the journaling part of blogging.

We also slept in our own beds, did laundry, Benaiah worked a 4 hr shift, and I saw my chiropractor.  Boy did I feel a bunch better after seeing him!  I'm glad I timed that well, and I'll have my next appointment the day after we get back from Chicago.  Then it was time to pack everything up and again and head south to Santa Claus, IN and Holiday World.  It was a quick turnaround, but we got it done.  We had supper at Wendy's on the way and then had just enough time to go swimming in the motel's outdoor pool and splashpad.  Abishai learned to swim all by himself with his floaties!  So he made laps in and out of the pool, sometimes jumping straight in, sometimes sliding in on his belly.  I didn't get in because I didn't want my bathing suit wet before the water park tomorrow, or worry about drying it out.  I walked laps around the pool though to stretch my legs and keep my step counts up.  Such high numbers I got on Monday and Tuesday! (and probably will on Thursday).  No wonder I'm utterly exhausted.  But physically, I don't have any specific complaints because the chiropractic treatment is keeping me in good shape.  I'm battling this severe headcold though, which is causing a lot of mental confusion because I'm having to keep taking medications that make me sleepy and unable to focus.

Meanwhile, on the way through Bloomington to Santa Claus, Justin exlaimed, "We are in Bloomington!  We need to find Bryce so we can smuggle him in the back of the car in the trunk so we can take him to Holiday World with us!   He never gets to do stuff (amusement parks, which, is only half true.  He doesn't do as many as we do, but I'm pretty sure he has done some in his lifetime) like this!"

After Abishai's car ride nap, he kept asking, "Are we almost to our rrroooooommmm??? (go long and up with the word "room." It was so adorable!)  He's only a little bit confused about what these hotel stays are about, and I think he understands more than he communicates back to us.

One more quote for the day.  Because I like to play "I am woman, here me roar!" a lot aka I get anxious and throw hissy fits and raise my voice when life gets chaotic, i.e. I'm bossy, Jared had to correct me.  I'm not a lioness, I'm a hippo.  Not necessarily because of my physique, but because a) I am loud b) I throw my weight around and c) I don't sleep much.  Bwahahahahaha, I'll take that! I don't have the finesse of a lioness and I'm not into the "I'm the boss and you will not be top dog of our household" part of the feminist movement, but I do know my place, and I can be strong when I need to be, and fierce, and look after the household, etc.  I love the hippo analogy though.

Abishai had a good 2 hr nap in the car, and once again, despite having pool time, he didn't fall asleep until 10:30pm.  That's rough, especially since I was trying to have some computer time with photo uploads and everything.  The hotel did not have great wifi speeds like our first hotel did.  I now have to go back through the previous unpublished blogs to see what did or didn't get uploaded.  Everything is up in raw form on their respective websites I use as backups, as well as on my external hard drive, but I didn't get that caught up until today (Friday).  I'm just trying to focus on this big block of journaling each day and keeping the pictures and videos backed up so I don't loose them.  I'll "marry" everything and publish them after vacation.  See ya then!

I had to take Benaiah to work before my chiropractic appointment, and since I was early, I got started on some blog writing!  I probably could have gone in and gotten into my appointment earlier, but I know that I wouldn't have been as productive at home afterwards.

Are you comfy? He hasn't had much electronics time because we don't use the tablet without a wifi connection, although it does have the ability to function on it's own wireless number.

And we are off!  We don't travel southwest from Indianapolis that often, just mostly south, and we traveled mostly west to St. Louis this week, so we haven't seen all the new construction of re-purposing parts of state road 37 and creating new roadways and exits into an extension of I-69 from the northeast of Indy.  It used to stop in that northeast corner, but now has been extended to the southwest.  They've built bridges over the highway for the local traffic.  They've blasted away through hills to make new stretches of roads.  And it's been a few years for some parts because it looks established already.  There was a big controversy for some of it because people had to give up some of their farmland, just like some had to do in the Bonshaw area of PEI when they straightened out that road.  I'm sure this particular road was already established, but I thought of how appropriate it is for a new road.  Sample Road, like test road, or new road, or something.

Signs similar to the ones in St. Louis while we were in the Bloomington area.  Bloomington is a college town for Indiana University.  It's about 45 minutes south of Indianapolis.

A sign showing that I-69 and state road 37 have merged in southern Indiana.

Old road merged with new? Brand new road? I can't tell, but it's pretty open with no small towns going through it.  A lot of the state roads go through the center of small towns.  I'm guessing this is new road.

Off the highway and onto a different state road or local road.  Lots of corn and soybeans in these southern hills of Indiana.

Quiet back roads.

Lots more hills here.  Getting close to the where the caverns are.

Soybean fields

Big farmhouse in the distance.

Sleeping through it.

Are we to our room yet?

Another day, another outdoor hotel pool.  Abishai can now swim with his floaties and no other assistance!  He wasn't touching the bottom either.  He wasn't afraid at all!  He swam back and forth the shorter distance from side to side.

This one swims without assistance or fear, too.

Boys being boys.

The Little Mermaid.

This pool area had a hot tub, a splashpad, and a kiddie pool!  Abishai sat down in it for a little bit but preferred the big one.

Just keep swimming.

The splashpad was very cold and didn't have as much appeal as the big pool.  But Grandpa went through with the kids.

Now that Abishai doesn't need to be held onto, Jared has a tiny bit more freedom to get out and jump in doing a cannonball.

Sploosh.

Abishai was kicking big brother Miah who was a wicked farmer's tan!  That's what you call someone with tan arms but not a tan torso because usually only a farmer's arms are exposed to the sun.  Most work with a shirt on.

Daddy wearing Abishai like a backpack.

Grandpa teaching Keturah how to hold her arms so she can sail through the water more easily.

And they're off.

I swim all by my big self!

Abishai kept jumping in, swimming over to the steps, walking up the steps and out of the pool, just so he could jump back in.  Rinse and repeat as Benaiah said.

We were all watching him and still keeping him safe of course.

Kicking Benaiah without us holding him up!

Grandpa likes throwing the younger ones up and over his shoulder.  There were multiple missed throws and full body slaps before they got it right.

Keturah's turn.

There ya go, now you did it right.

Boom!

The moon is up there somewhere!  Nice night for a swim, but I didn't want to get my bathing suit wet and then have to dry it before the water park tomorrow.  We barely got the other ones dry in time.

My office/desk for the evening because the kids are sleeping in our room and it's smaller than the suite we had in the other hotel.  It works and wasn't that uncomfortable!  However, the wifi was much slower this time around, so I had to screenshot my uploads and try again when we get home this weekend.