This week marked our 10th wedding anniversary and Tony's birthday. We'd toyed around with a lot of options (some far-fetched, some not) for marking the milestone, but in the end we made our plans based on time constraints, finances, and the desire to spend some time as a family. Our plan? Three days and two nights of camping at Lincoln State Park. It's hard to find a cheaper vacation - $12 a night for a campsite and two days worth of Holiday World tickets Tony got from work.
Tony took Thursday (our anniversary) and Friday (his birthday) off work. The weather looked sketchy for the weekend - 40% and higher percentage chance for storms and rain - but we had already made plans and so we forged ahead. We decided to set up camp on Thursday morning and then head to Holiday World because the weather looked better for Thursday. Spencer County is an hour behind us, so the kids were ready for lunch by the time we pulled in to the park.
We picked out our campsite online, so we knew what it would look like and it's proximity to the bath house (important with a three year old in the middle of the night!). What we didn't know was how empty the non-electric campground would be. We had the place virtually to ourselves on Thursday, and even with neighbors it was quiet on Friday night.
Be warned, I have uploaded almost 70 pictures from our adventures. I just couldn't choose and we had such a great time! Don't worry - I won't narrate all of them!
After making camp, we headed to one of our favorite places: Holiday World!
It was warm and we got a later start so we headed straight to the water park. Sophie is tall enough for a lot of things, so we dragged her kicking and screaming onto a huge water slide with a tube big enough for the entire family. She hated it, but the rest of us were entertained just by her reaction. Unfortunately, she decided she didn't want to ride much of anything else after that!
Dinner at Kringle's Kafe
Visiting Santa - Sophie wanted no part of him
And finally...RIDES!!!
Tony wanted to ride the roller coasters, so the kids took a break to check out the map.
Here's the other ride I forced her on - the Turkey Whirl. She wasn't really speaking to me by this point. They actually stopped the ride to ask me if she was okay because she looked terrified.
We had to take a break for Tony's favorite treat - Udderly Blue ice cream
We actually shut the park down, leaving when it closed at 9:30 our time. We headed back to camp, where the kids wound down playing video games in their tent. I know, I know. Not what camping is about. But, it was a good reason for the kids to get in their tents. The last 20 minutes before bedtime the had "quiet time" in the tent.
Of course, we had to roast marshmallows before bedtime. We paid for our fire wood at the gate, and the ranger delivered it to our campsite. It's room service, state park style! The s'more making was just an excuse to build a fire that Tony and I could sit by after the kids went to bed, of course. The weather was nice and cool for July, and the fire felt great.
Although I hate to see the kids grow up, it was nice that they were more independent this camping trip. Both boys took their scooters and rode the loop around the campground after breakfast on Friday.
Mmm...breakfast alfresco!
We had decided to spend Friday in and around the state park because it was supposed to rain. We were so blessed - not a drop fell and we crammed in an amazing amount of fun. We started by driving around the park. This is the grave of Abe Lincoln's sister, Sarah.
All Sophie wanted was a playground. After traumatizing her the day before, we felt obliged to comply.
The entrance to the state park has a beautiful bicentennial memorial to Lincoln's years in Indiana. Knowing how Aidan loves all things Lincoln, we stopped to read everything on the monument. There are no pictures of Andrew here because he was being a grump and sat in the car.
The memorial had Lincoln's approximate height marked from the time he arrived in Indiana at age 7 until he moved at age 21. Aidan was so close to Lincoln's height at 7! Maybe there's still hope he'll grow.
We left the state park and drove across the road to Lincoln's Boyhood Home National Park. We spent the better part of a couple hours in the museum and at the cabin site and reenacted pioneer farm.
Filling Lincoln's shoes?
Abe's mother
I love this next series of pictures. I know I shouldn't, but Sophie's just so darn cute when she's mad. At this point, she was angry at us for making her walk and not carrying her.
Being three years old is hard work.
We left national park and headed back across the street to Lincoln State Park for another playground to appease the baby and some lunch.
We absolutely loved staying in Lincoln State Park. Everyone we came in contact with went above and beyond to talk to us and make sure our stay was perfect. The park has a list of activities run by the rangers every day. After lunch, we took the kids to do a creek walk and look for wildlife. They found turtles, scorpions, and mayflies.
Sophie wanted no part of the turtle. Look at her clinging to my leg. She and I ended up walking back to the van, pulling out lawn chairs and just hanging out until the boys got back.
Andrew found an opossum skull in the creek bed.
After our creek walk, we made the obligatory trip to Santa's Candy Castle. Look who's not grumping now!
I suggested to Tony that we find a decent restaurant for Friday's dinner to celebrate. This was his choice:
Yup, we made the 30 mile trip to Owensboro for the famous MoonLite BBQ buffet! I made fun of Tony for it, but it was quite scrumptious.
We got back from dinner in time for the kids to play around camp a little bit. Then we headed to another park activity.
Bingo! The kids and I went to play bingo in the nature center while Tony got the campfire going. Aidan knew all the clues and answers, and I was really proud of him. But it was Sophie who actually got the "bingo".
On Saturday, we finally awoke to rain. It was nice to sleep in the tent with the gentle rain - not so nice to try to break camp. We throwing stuff in the back of the van and we'll have to dry it outside later this week. We drove to a shelter house by the lake to eat a dry breakfast.
My pictures turned out unintentionally awesome. You can see the sky get darker and darker until finally another downpour.
We were so excited that our friends from Nashville, Tennessee were driving up to meet us at Holiday World on Saturday. Unfortunately, the rain slowed their drive down so we set out to occupy ourselves until they were in town. We went to visit the new Santa Claus, Indiana museum. It was very cool! The kids got to write letters to Santa and mail them. The museum workers promised responses come December.
So, our friend Susan and three of her kiddos arrived before noon. The kids were able to ride a few rides before the skies opened up again. We found a dry place to eat lunch and waited a long time to see if the the rain would stop. About the time we decided to give up, the rain turned to a sprinkle and the sun came out. My camera SD card was full, so I took a few pictures with my phone. However, two nights in a non-electric campsite doesn't exactly charge one's phone.
Here's Sophie and her "best friend", Veronica. The two of them got to bond a lot while the bigger guys rode rides.
My favorite picture of the weekend - look at all our angels in front of the Nativity!
We almost closed Holiday World down a second time. We loaded kids full of fudge and cotton candy into the vans and all of us headed for our house. Even thought it was late, the kids played while the grown-ups visited. We finally made it to bed about 2 am. Susan and kids spent the night and we all went the the Latin Mass this morning. They lived in Louisville originally, so it was nice for them to visit with some friends at St. Martin's.
We had a wonderful weekend and feel so blessed! If you had told us ten years ago that we'd be spending our anniversary tent camping with three kids, I would have laughed. But I can't imagine any better celebration than the one we had!
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