Wildcatting in Bloomington, Indiana

On the last weekend of October, Cas, my parents and I flew to Bloomington to spend the long weekend with my brother and sister-in-law.  My wonderful mother-in-law stayed at our house with the kids, and so we enjoyed a weekend of relaxed meals, comedy clubs, and sleeping past 6:45am.  That we got to do it in beautiful Bloomington with my delightful brother and sister-in-law was just blissful.

Friday we arrived in Bloomington for an awesome vegetarian lunch at this cute restaurant overlooking their downtown square.  Then we walked around, snapping photos by a tree that folks stood outside and knit designs around - 

And photos of the amazing fall scenes like this of the downtown courthouse -

And a nearby church.  We saw this same tree on Sunday at brunch and it lost about a third of its leaves just over the course of two days, so we lucked out, hitting their town on the perfect fall weekend to catch the optimal foliage!

After touring Bloomington, we went to their home and picked up Coady, who had worked that afternoon.  We walked a block or two and were on Indiana University's campus.  

 It was gorgeous - wooded trails, beautiful limestone architecture, hills, statues - and we had beautful company -

The clocks throughout campus that play songs on the hour -

There was a college talent show in the auditorium and around hundred lovely college girls in little black dresses.  My dad had to jump in "for his first photo bomb."

Through the wooded trails -

Photo opp time!  My parents with Coady and Alex -

Cas our photographer had us posing -

And cracking up -

Look at this lovely campus - puts A&M to shame!

 Alex and Coady by the IU President's house -

Also by the president's house, these lovely hydrangeas!

I started deleting pictures of trees, but I took many, many more photos of fall tree over our three days in Indiana.  Here's our crew walking along the lovely campus -

Our final round of pictures for Friday night were at the Sample Gates, the main entrance to the university -

The only photo of all six of us -

My parents, happy to spend the weekend with both their children and their children's spouses -

Alex and Coady by the gorgeous tree -

The four kids -

Like we did in the last picture on their wedding weekend, we took a jumping shot (and Cas and I got a little fancy)

My dad taking his first i-anything (ipad, iphone) photo!

We wrapped up Friday night with ice cream followed quickly by coffee to warm up, a walk to a hilarious comedy show at Comedy Attic, and late night pizza.  After walking miles around town and getting up at 5am for a flight, we drug our exhausted selves to our hotel to crash.

The next morning, we met Alex by his office, where we made him pose by the "Solution Tree" and visited their bustling farmer's market, full of fresh produce, meat, and flowers.  

We stopped along a street to snap yet another fall picture -

Then we dropped Cas off at a sports bar (he didn't have hiking shoes and isn't a big hiking fan anyway) and my nuclear family (Coady was working) went to Brown County State Park.  

We hiked a gorgeous 4-mile trail through the woods to a lake

We took so many photos, but none could do the scenery justice -

 At an overlook, someone snapped a picture of us with the rolling, wooded hills behind us -

We had a great rest of the weekend - rounding out Saturday with a trip to Nashville, Indiana, a cute artistic community where we all left with soap and candles.  And we took my parents to their first meal of Indian food, which we all enjoyed, capped off by more ice cream of course.  Sunday we had a brunch with my favorite pancakes I may have ever consumed.  They had a hint of gingerbread - I tried to recreate them this weekend, but my recipe for gingerbread pancakes wasn't even close to their subtle flavors.  Cas had to fly out early Sunday, but Alex and I did a 12-mile bike ride - and saw a groundhog - while my parents walked the town.   When Coady returned from work, we took a few more pictures of them, with their adorable dog, Darby, making it into a shot -

Thankful for my brother and sister-in-law for planning a fabulous weekend and for my mother-in-law for holding down the fort at home.  We had a weekend packed with activity, food and laughter - and a few hundred photos of fall leaves!

Zoo Boo

On Friday, we arrived at the zoo at 9:20, quite impressed with ourselves and quite amazed that we didn't have the zoo to ourselves.  It was a beautiful morning and one of a few days of Zoo Boo where they have candy and other fall festivities, and half the children - including half of mine - were in costume.

Grammy beat us there, and ninja Collin snuck up on her.  We headed in together and before seeing an animal, had to climb on and pose with the sea lion statue.

I was often pushing around a stroller filled with our diaper bag and snacks, and my mom was walking with the kids. In typical toddler fashion, Maya was equally fascinated by the wheelchair ramps and black crows as she was by the giraffes.    

They had some carnival-type games, and Collin tried his strength.  Both kids jumped in the bounce house, though Maya was uninterested in leaving, and I had to go in to drag her out, kicking and screaming.  

On to the elephants -

Maya was amazed/terrified by the elephants and kept a pretty tight grip on my mom or me -

Posing with the statue -

We visited a very crowded pumpkin patch where kids could decorate mini pumpkins with paint pens.  Maya lasted about 30 seconds, but I was happy that her cute dress stayed paint-pen-free!

We saw the leopard pacing, the male lion roaring, but the cheetahs must have been sleeping near the fence, so we posed with their statue and moved on.  

Checking out the giraffe, zebra and ostrich -

Taking a snack break.  I pushed Collin in the stroller more than Maya, so she needed the nourishment and rest, plus she likes to climb on everything, benches included -

My little monkeys near the orangutans -

One last bench pose after a fun morning at the zoo -

And more realistic, Collin showing off his ninja moves, Maya singing Twinkle, Twinkle and performing the hand motions for "like a diamond in the sky" -

I am thankful for a fun Friday morning with my mom and kids at the zoo.  And I was even more thankful that my parents took our kids for the night, giving Cas and me our first night together without the kids since Maya was born.