You did what?

O.K. After almost seven years and three kids, we are still learning to let the ages of our children inform our vacations. We cooked up the idea to go camping in a trailer (piece of cake) for two weeks. It was great fun, but a huge amount of work and we cashed out after a week. The lake house is where we want to be...hot water, laundry facilities, black out shades, mommy and daddy's own room. Here is a glimpse into the adventure.

Our first stop was Indianapolis. We got to meet the newest Nottingham, Lincoln Samuel. We fell in love instantly. The girls spent a couple of nights at Josh and Marisa's awesome new house while the boys went to Richmond to pick up the trailer. It didn't end up being that simple...trailers never are.

We camped at Harden Ridge Campground. We were about fifteen miles south of Bloomington, Indiana in the Hoosier National Forest. It was a perfect spot covered in tall trees and close to the lake (Lake Monroe). My bff, Susan Hoffer and her two boys came down to join the party.
Asher and Jakin were in full color swimming in their skivvies.
The lake was flooded and the beach was completely under water. What adventure!

Of course it rained, so we found some alternative forms of entertainment

...a movie in the back of the van

...bowling at the I.U. Student Union.
I just couldn't resist these sequence photos. Jakin was amazed at the ball return.Asher was mesmerized by the animation on the electronic score keeper and Winter loved sporting her rental shoes. Bo had his mind on the cookie shop we passed.

We said good-by to the Hoffer's and hello to Aunt Pat. Pat is quite the camper and she joined right in with fun.

This is a group photo of interpretive class a ranger did one night. Asher and Winter learned about butterflies and made their own version to take home.

We had the honor of meeting a great great great aunt! She is 100 years old.!!! She was a babysitter for Mike's (Jeff's dad) father Fred Nottingham! Aunt Ethel is in a nursing home in Bloomington, IN. We visited her one Sunday afternoon. She sang some songs for our kids that she learned in Bible school as a little girl. Winter also sang to her. Winter's tenderness was beyond her years.

Nothing says, "Good morning!" like a campfire.

We did attempt some short hikes....very beautiful area. We found geodes. I was the most excited and couldn't resist a real field photo. We managed to crack one and dull our ax :)

We spent a day with Jeff's best friend from high school, Matt Bailey and his family. We went to a children's museum in Bloomington and had a picnic at a local park. It was really fun to reconnect with Matt and Tamara.

They had just acquired a new puppy, Henry. Violet couldn't keep her hands off.


Sawyer and Asher
Eden and Winter

Like I said earlier, after one week of roughing it, we realized accommodations with all the amenities are more our pace so we packed it all up and headed to the Nottingham lake house in Eaton, OH. We hung out at the lake and enjoyed some time with friends and family.

We did some creekin'

...and caught some crawl-daddies.

Violet and Asher are headed California in their fighter plane.

Violet is pretty sure she has had enough camping to last her till she is at least two.