final vacation pics-on the way home

On the way out of the park, we stopped to geo-cashe in two spots.  The first took a little bit of time to find.  The second was super easy.  The kids have fun looking for treasures.

This one was kept in a broccoli looking container.  

Then, we had to pet Lincoln.  I can't wait to take them to the statue of Lincoln in Springfield where everyone rubs his nose.

2nd cache.  Super easy to find.

Then we drove for the length of a movie and stopped for a late lunch in Bloomington.  As we were coming in, from a distance we saw Indiana  University's football stadium and wanted to do a closer drive-by.

Actually, we were able to pull right up, get out and look around.  So much for security. There were some ship pieces from a WWII destroyer right here.

And, a photo op for Ewan and Cale.  Future IU students?

And, then we went home.  

The end.

Homeward

Well, let's finish these vacation blog posts....

Thursday morning, we took our time getting ourselves together.  Breakfast was courtesy of McD's because we had run out of cereal and eggs to feed the troupes.  After breakfast, Andy took most of the kids on a walk around the campgrounds while I packed up the camper.  We loaded up the van and we were off!

A quick stop across from the campground to get at least one picture taken of the kids with a Santa Claus.  You know, since we were in Santa Claus.  (It was a really nice, sunny morning...maybe you can tell.)

Then, we went back to the campground because I realized I had forgotten our vacation magnets on the fridge of the camper.  Oops.

After that, we stopped by the park in Santa Claus.  It's a nice park with some fun things to climb on.  Our purpose of stopping 1 mile into our trek home was to do a little geocaching.  According to our app, there was a cache a little ways up a walking path across from the park.  We looked, and looked, but could not find the cache.  There was also a lengthy discussion of what a cedar looks like.

                                      

But, the littles had fun playing at the park.

We drove another 5 miles and then stopped to fill up the van's tank and pick up some water for our dying of thirst children.  And, Andy and Cale struck gold on a geocache.

Then, we actually drove.  We drove for the length of a movie the kids watched.  Time for lunch after that.  I don't remember the name of the town we were in, but Ewan and Liam both got to find a geocache here.  We were getting pretty good at finding the caches by now.

Another movie, more driving and a bathroom break allowed us to geocache in the town of Martinsville.  We were really trying to kill time so we wouldn't hit the interstate around Indy at rush hour.

Andy let me have a turn with the kids.  Ewan and I found this one in a strip mall parking lot.

Marcus and I found one in a cemetery. 

We drove some more, picked up dinner and finally made it home.  Everyone was glad to get out of the car, especially Kinley.  She did her best, but, by the end of the trip, she was over riding in the car.

We loved our vacation.  The kids (and parents) had a blast,  Pretty sure we will be going back next year for a little longer stay.  

And, there will be a new roller coaster to greet us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bHlsalc82o

Va-cay Day 3: Marengo Cave and some more time at Holiday World

It was raining when we woke up the Wednesday of our vacation.  Now, I have been told that that is the best time to go to Holiday World because the rides are all open and there are hardly any lines.  And, if you're going on the water rides anyway, you're going to be wet.  I wasn't sure how Liam would handle being in the rain, so we did something different.

A friend at church had recommended Marengo Cave as a place to go see.  Why not? We would be inside and the kids had never been in a cave before.  

It took us about 45-50 minutes to get there.  By then the kids needed a snack and Kinley was starting to get grumpy (surprise, surprise).  We got our tickets, snacks and souvenirs.  We were hoping to carry Kinners in the hiking backpack, but there's some rule against that.  So, Andy got the privilege to carry Kinley through the tour.  

This cave was discovered by siblings who thought it would be a great idea to crawl into a sinkhole entrance with two candles and go exploring.  I can't imagine.

Our walking tour was about 45 mins long.  There was another tour you could do that was an hour long, but I didn't think we (Kinley) would tolerate that. 

Ready to go.  Like the stair-step look?

There was some pretty cool stuff to see.  There was a little bat right when we walked down the steps.  It was just sleeping on the ceiling.  Then there was a little "lake" at the beginning of the tour.  The reflection was so clear, that the water looks incredibly deep, when, in fact, it was only 2-3 inches deep.  I'll admit, I freaked out and started grabbing kids hands and telling them to get back until I found out how deep the water actually was.

I think the kids thought it was cool.  Andy wants to bring the scouts back down for a trip and possible camping.  The cave has some program where you can go crawling around in some other areas through little tunnels.  I think I would have a panic attack, but I want the kids not to be scared of stuff like that.  The scouts might come.  It would be a good cold weather activity.

We came back to the camper after lunch.  Kinley took a nap, Kella took a rest and Andy and the boys took the shuttle to Holiday World and rode every single water slide in the park.  Even Liam rode all the slides and he had a blast.  They all did.  The ladies and I met up with them in the evening.  We rode the Merry-Go-Round before we met the boys. We spend a little time in Hollidog's Funtown with the kiddie coaster that our kids rode at least 5-6 times.  We rode the bird ride again.  The boys rode the Revolution-the ride that spins you around so fast that you stick to the wall.  Liam rode it and love it.  Then we went to Halloween, where Andy, Marcus and Cale rode the Legend (and loved it and Liam had a fit that he couldn't ride-due to height), all the boys rode Frightful Falls (log ride), Andy and the big 3 rode the Raven and then back to the log ride to wind up the evening.  

I would definitely recommend getting a 2 day pass for Holiday World.  We didn't feel pressured to see all the rides the first day because we knew we would be back the second.  If we had more stamina to spend the entire both days at the park, we would could have ridden more of our favorite rides several more times.  Especially the second day, the lines were almost non-existent due to the weather.

Back to the camper for a super-late dinner and bed.

Va-cay Day 2: Let's go to Holiday World

The first full day of our trip we spent at Holiday World.  We were there for 8 hours and probably could have done more, but the littles were tired and we had a 2 day pass, so we weren't worried about missing anything.

My impressions of the park:  very clean, friendly staff, the free drink stations were great (Pepsi products) and free sunscreen, too.  We went on a Tuesday and the wait for rides was never longer than 20  minutes-even for the "big kid" rides.  Probably our longest wait in a line was just to get into the park.  When we did get in, we immediately went a rented a locker to put our swim stuff in for later.  Then, we started to walk around and see what rides we could see. 

Holiday World is divided into sections by holidays.  The 4th of July section has a bunch of what I would call "fair" rides-rides that reminded me of state fair rides.  The kids did the birds (see pics) and rode some ride that spins you around so fast that it makes you stick to the wall.  We wandered into a little kids area called Hollidog's Funtown that had a kiddie coaster and some other rides we ended up riding the next day.

 The big three boys were tall enough to ride all the rides.  Liam could ride most of them, except the roller coasters.  Kella could ride the tamer rides, with an adult.  All of them, except Kinley and me, rode the Raging Rapids ride.  They loved it.

Then, we made our way to Splashin' Safari, the water park.  We ate lunch there-pizzas and then changed into our swim stuff.  Splashin' Safari is huge.  We only saw, maybe half of it the first day we were there.  We spent some time at Monsoon Lagoon-that had a zero entry wading pool and some slides.  The boys, Liam included went and did a water slide, we did a wave pool and then over to Hyena Falls and some more water slides for the boys while the girls and I found a splash pad to play on.  Liam was able to do all the water slides and there was only one slide that Andy thought they might die on-just because he couldn't hold onto Liam on that one and the tube went up a big wall.  Anyway, everyone survived :-).

We left the water park and went into Thanksgiving.  They have a big boat swing called the Mayflower that the kids got in line to ride, but then the ride broke down, so they never did get to do that one.  The park had it fix in under an hour, though.  

And, then, we walked by the Voyage-the number one wooden roller coaster in the U.S.  The wait line was super short.  "Come on boys!  Go ride it!", I encouraged.  Andy, Marcus, Cale and Ewan all went.  Liam was mad he couldn't go, too.  We didn't wait too long for them to get through the ride and meet us at the end.  I had some very angry looking boys meet me at the exit.  The ride had been a little more intense than I thought it would be and, being their first time on any roller coaster, had scared them thoroughly.  They wanted to leave right then and swear off roller coasters forever.  Uh-oh. Andy, said the Voyage was the best roller coaster he had been on.  We had some candy, rode the merry-go-round and a car ride and then the boys perked up a little.  We ended the day in Christmas at Rudolph's Reindeer Ranch which has a bunch of little kid, fair type rides.  Kella was in heaven and the boys had some fun there, too.  There were no lines, so you could ride the same ride over and over.  How fun.  

We left the park and went back to our camper.  Had dinner, Had s'mores. Put a movie into the laptop for the kids to watch outside (which they did for a while).  And then it was time for bed.  Everyone went to sleep pretty quick that night.

Favorite rides of the day:

Voyage-Andy

Ewan-the Revolution

Liam-rockets, water slides

Kella-the bird ride

Kinley-merry go round

Marcus-just not the Voyage :-)

Cale-the Revolution

A R-V-ing we will go. Our vacation at Lake Rudolph in Santa Claus, Indiana.

A few weeks ago, we took a vacation to Santa Claus, Indiana.  Our family vacation before school started up.

We are here at Lake Rudolph in Santa Claus, Indiana.

 

We drove. And drove. And drove. And Kinley was over the drive about halfway through. Thank goodness for the DVD player and hand-held electronics.

We finally made it, though and the kids were pumped to get inside the RV we had rented. A first experience for them, and me.

The RV sleeps eight with 1 king, 1 queen and 4 twin bunks. The boys were immediately excited about the triple bunks and Liam especially liked how one of the bunks (he claimed as his) was above the queen bed. Kinley got her own private room: the half bath fit her pack-n-play perfectly and we were able to slide the door shut, too.

There are a lot of people here in all different forms of shelter: cabins of a couple sizes, RVs and tents.Prices are listed on the website and vary based on the size of shelter you need.  For the 8 of us, renting an RV here was less expensive than staying in a hotel.  And, it was right next to Holiday World.  The campground offers a shuttle there, running every 20 minutes and picking up from several stops in the campground.  Andy and the boys used that one of the days we were there.   I felt like there was a really community atmosphere at the campground. The employees were helpful and polite. You can rent a golf cart to drive around the site.  The campground has a swimming pool, water slides, basketball court, a lake to paddleboat on,scheduled daily activities,  playgrounds and much more. If there is one thing I will add next time we go, it's more time at the campgrounds to just hang out and do stuff on-site.  The RV we stayed in was clean and the campground was also well maintained.  There are quiet hours at night and, really, I didn't think the area we were in was ever loud and crazy.

We ate out at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in a town called Dale.  The food was pretty good.  There are only a couple restaurants right in Santa Claus.  There is also a grocery store and a Dollar General.  We went to both almost every day.

We came back to the RV and Andy coached the boys in starting a campfire.  That took a while.  Finally, success.

Then, it was time for bed.