Family Weekend 2012

Last weekend we took the kids to Family Weekend at Ball State.  It also happened to be the weekend before Pepaw's birthday, so Memaw and Pepaw met us out there for some tailgating and football goodness.

Tailgating was interesting.  First off, there were wind gusts around 40 MPH, and we also happened to park right by the Delts' tailgating party complete with booming speakers and very young looking college students.  If I had thought to wear my black leggings, I would have fit right in (apparently that's the college girls' new uniform).  And we must be getting old, because those kids were annoying and Sean and I insisted we were never that stupid when we were in college :)

The kids scored some rad foam fingers:

 And face tattoos:

 The kids were rocking out to the college jams.  I will say they were kind enough to come over to us and assure us they would avoid playing the songs with bad words:

 Chirp, Chirp!

 

 Ava liked watching the drum line and cheerleaders come in:

 

 They had fun hanging in the end zone cheering the Cards on to a HUGE win:

  Eating popcorn with Pepaw:

And catching some zzzzs with Mommy:

A Boy and His Puppy

All of us in the family have taken such a liking to our new puppy, Finn, and he has taking a liking to us too.  However, there is one member of our family who Finn seems to really, really like - and that's Aidan.

We all have a bond of our own with Finn, but there is just something about these two - they just seem to "get" each other:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We think about how lonely our house would feel without Finn - he has filled that empty feeling left by our dear Coop-man!!

All You Need is Luck

This past weekend, we got to go to another Colts game!  The last three years we have bought season tickets from one of my mom's co-workers who has had her tickets since the Colts moved here from Baltimore (that means they are REALLY good seats).

This was the first time we had been to a game where the roof was opened - so cool!

 The seats are in the corner of the end zone where Reggie Wayne always comes to say hello before the game:

 Indiana's Olympians were there too!  David Boudia and Tameka Catchings:

 Blue came to say hello:

 And, man was it weird to see another QB taking the snaps for the Colts!  We have grown accustomed to watching Peyton Manning for so long, so it took a bit to get used to seeing Andrew Luck at the helm:

 And Luck was pretty impressive in his home opener, and we thought it was cool that we could see them win the home opener, and Luck get his first NFL win :)

FOCUS.

Lately Finn has had a penchant for playing fetch.  He is getting really good at it, and is making some pretty impressive catches.  What is hilarious is the intense focus he has acquired.  I believe this is what they mean by the "wolf eye" border collies get - the stare down their target.  Here is Finn showing his sharp focus prior to catching his ball...so funny to see the seriousness in his eyes!

Cousin Catch-Up

Speaking of our whirlwind King's Island trip...the very next day, we spent the day at Sean's parents to visit with them as well as his older brother Rhett and his family.  We drove to Ross and Ashley's after King's Island, stayed up waaaay too late, spent the night, then went to the in-laws in the morning.

Ava and Aidan soaked up every bit of Lily and Quentin goodness they could.  It's so cute to watch them play together:

 And like and younger cousin, Lily always wants to do what her older cousin Ava is doing:

 And the boys played nicely together too:

 This is definitely trouble :)

King's Island

Our King's Island trip this year was, shall we say, a whirlwind?  We had been so busy this summer that we had to put off our trip a little later than usual.  With the approaching fall weather, that means King's Islands hours start to change and the weather can be questionable.

We planned on going the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, however, Hurricane Isaac had plans of his own (or so he thought).  Since the hurricane was supposed to be blowing through our area that weekend, we went to bed Friday night not knowing if we'd go.  We had been checking the weather up until 6:00 am Saturday morning.  It looked like it would be dry most of the day, so we went for it!  We quickly woke up the kids, packed up the car, and hit the road.

With the threat of impending rain, most people stayed away and we had little to no lines all day long.  To top that all off, they had specials on food and games, so we got to grab some of our favorite treats at a hugely reduced cost - hey, it's always fun to save a few bucks here and there :)

 One of the specials was $1 blueberry ice cream!! 

 I love watching littles try to figure out the bumper cars:  there are usually a few that can figure it out, but most just kind of drive in circles :)

 She looks like a giant!

And so does he!

 Ava was tall enough to ride nearly every adult ride!  She even was brave enough to ride her first upside down coaster!!  When it came to the Viking Fury, she chickened out, so Daddy and Aidan took a turn.  Sean is in the green t-shirt with his back facing the camera, and Aidan's little blonde head is right next to him:

 I was so proud of our big girl on this ride...when they were approaching their airplane Ava said, "Hey buddy, you can sit in the front if you want"...sweet :)

 Aidan was no slouch when it came to rides either.  He was tall enough for everything in kid land - as well as some adult rides.  I'm on the far right in the gray and white striped tank, and again you should be able to see Aidan's little blonde head:

 It was rather hot and sticky, so the kids wanted to take a trip through their little sprinkler park:

 Another special were some games - again, only $1!!  And this one was extra cool because it was a kids-win-every-time game, so the kids showed off their muscles with the High Striker:

 I told you they used their muscles:

 Because we barely had any lines to wait in all day, we were able to leave at a much more reasonable time.  The kids wanted to squeeze one last ride in before taking off:

 And the last few pics on the way out.  Yes, in the first one there is a casket behind the kids, that's not your imagination.  They had started decorating for their Halloween-themed days: