2011 Hoosier Outdoor Experience

Each year the Indiana Department of Natural Resources puts on the Hoosier Outdoor Experience where anyone can try out all sorts of outdoorsy activities.  Since this was our first year, we dabbled in a bit of everything.  It was so much fun and we plan on making this an annual event!  (Here's the website if you wanna join us next year!  http://www.in.gov/dnr/5009.htm)

Alex and Andrew shooting these awesome injury-proof bow and arrows.

OK, this is me in all my pre-historic glory throwing an Atlatl, which is a weapon ancient people used for hunting mastadon.  Step back.  I'm awesome at the atlatl. 

Nick will tell you he was also awesome at the atlatl but he would be wrong.  And since I'm writing this blog, you will have to trust me.  :)

Here's Alex all helmeted in preparation for the rope course.  That was a whopping 2 feet off the ground.  A helmet?  Really?

Alex on the super-dangerous ropes course.  Of course it takes two grown men to supervise this life-threatening activity.

Alex with a real cowboy learning to rope cattle.

Andrew was convinced he was the real cowboy.

The boys in a rope battle.  Whoever pulled the other off the black box won.  For once, Andrew did not dominate in the freakishly strong category.

My boys on a horse-drawn hayride through the autumn woods.  Lovely.  (P.S.  It had been raining intermittently that morning which is why Nick has an umbrella.  He's not pretending to be British.)

First Days of School!

Alex started school way later this year than he has in the past, on August 23rd.  Andrew started 4-year-old preschool a week later on August 30.  Big boys!

Here is Alex reading his back-to-school card from Nana.  He loved it!

Our big Second Grader!

Andrew outside his preschool class.  He has the same teachers that Alex did when he was in 4-year-old preschool.  He LOVES school and has all sorts of fun tales when he comes home!

Hoilday World 2011

Our trip to Holiday World, was moved back to August from June this year.  We stayed at Lake Rudolph again, but went to Holiday World on a Friday and Saturday this year.  Big difference in the crowds compared to going on Thursday and Friday like we usually do!  Still, it was a great trip! 

I would like to thank Holiday World for always having this picture available and that the year is clearly visible in each photo.  We have this same picture for every year we've been going all the way back to 2005.

Alex got to ride his very first real roller coaster, The Raven. Mommy rode with him and almost died of a heart attack. Literally. I am not a roller coaster gal and it took me about 2 hours to recover from my Raven experience. I will most certainly not be riding another roller coaster again any time soon!  As for Alex, as soon as the crazy ride stopped I asked him how he liked it and he said "I don't want to do that again, please."  I guess that makes two of us that aren't roller coaster lovers!

Here is an awesome video of Alex riding Reindeer Games.  I think this is my favorite ride at Holiday World simply because it's sort of fun watching your kid scream.  Check out his face--priceless.



The boys got to ride The Screaming Eagles this year for the first time and loved it!  Another big difference this year compared with previous years was that the boys could ride a lot of the rides by themselves.  This saved Nick and I from a lot of nausea so it was awesome!



Here are the boys on the new ride in the kiddy area.  I was sad to realize that this is probably one of our last years when the boys will be interested in these rides.  :(

Another new thing this year was letting the kids play the carnival games.  I am going on record as saying these are a colossal waste of money and time but they seemed to enjoy them and Holiday World has a policy that kids always win a little something so that was good.

Back at Lake Rudolph we had a lovely campfire with super-gooey marshmallows, of course!

Disney World 2011!!!

June 5th we left blazing hot Indiana for blazing hot Orlando, Florida and Disney World!  We stayed at the Pop Century resort and had 7 days of Disney fun, including all four theme parks, 28 rides, 5 shows and 2 parades!  All I can say is sheesh, what were we thinking it was a great time!  :)  Here are the pictures from our most excellent, albeit hot and exhausting, adventure:

Our first night there we scored a great spot to watch the Electrical Parade on Main Street.  The boys loved the floats, although I had that catchy music in my head for 2 days!



The boys really liked this float in particular--Captian Hook's pirate ship!



Then it was onto the rides!  Here is Alex getting eaten by Bruce from Finding Nemo...

So many of the rides are 3-D now, which is awesome!  Here are the boys sporting their 3D glasses to watch Star Tours...

Here is Pirate Alex sailing his ship on Tom Sawyer Island...

On a leisurely riverboat cruise on our last day...

The awesome fireworks show at Magic Kingdom as seen from our fantastic vantage point at the Mainstreet Railroad Station, looking down toward the castle.  (For those contemplating going to Disney, this is the BEST place to view the parades and fireworks--great vantage point and you miss the tsunami of people coming up mainstreet to the exit after the show is over.  Perfect!)

Andrew and Nick on the Peoplemover in Tomorrowland.  (For those that have been to Magic Kingdom, can I just say that I inexplicably LOVE this ride?!  It has everything--it's partially air conditioned, you get to see all sorts of cool stuff, it's dark much of the time so you can "rest your eyes" and you get to sit down.  What a wonderful combination!)

Here are the boys in jail with Emperor Zurg from Toy Story after the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Nick and Andrew on the Peter Pan ride, one of my favorites...

On the magical Disney bus that whisked us to and from the parks all day every day.  (Best part of staying at a Disney Resort, by the way!)

A rare picture that includes me.  I'm looking particularly fetching after an ultra hot and humid day at Epcot, no?  Anyway, this is us waiting for the Illuminations show.  Very cool.

Right before the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom they project these amazing images onto Cinderella Castle.  I still can't figure out how they do this.  Magic, I suppose...

After our day at Animal Kingdom.  You can't see very well in the picture but we are all soaked after a raft ride on Kali River Rapids.  That cold water was most-welcomed after a hot day!

And of course, there are the all-important character greetings!  Here are my three princes charming with the "Real" Prince Charming...

Not too far behind him was Cinderella.  That girl's complexion is entirely too perfect.  I'm reasonably sure that she was a robot...or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself...

Here are the boys with one of the wicked step-sisters from Cinderella, who was by far my favorite character encounter.  She was hilarious and informed Alex that he was marrying her.  Being the gentleman that I've raised him to be, he said "Of course!"...

After he said he'd marry her, she gave him a big fat kiss on his forehead!  Too funny!

I love Alex's reaction when he saw Mickey!  So excited!

Here is Andrew kissing Minny's hand.  Check out Mickey--he looks like he's about to square up on the boy making a move on his best girl!

We inadvertently booked our trip over one of Disney's Star Wars Weekends, when they turn the Hollywood Studios into Star Wars-apalooza.  The day we were there the guy who played Chewbacca, the guy who played Darth Maul and the voice of Yoda for The Clone Wars were there.  Pretty cool.  Here are the boys in front of a life-sized AT-AT.  They were speechless!

Andrew on a speeder...

Andrew as a StormTrooper...he wouldn't smile, telling me "Mommy, StormTroopers are mean, they don't EVER smile."

We signed boy boys up for Jedi Training, where they get to dress as Patawan Learners and get taught some real Light Saber moves by a Real Jedi.  Their class was also taught by Ahsoka from Clone Wars, on the right.

Here is my little Patawan Andrew checking out Ahsoka.  He was really into her!

And then the Light Saber training commenced!  Andrew is toward the front on the left and Alex is toward the back on the right.

Shockingly, Patawan training was interruped by Darth Vadar himself!  You can see video of Andrew fighting Vadar at the very bottom of this post.  So cool!

After each Patawan got to fight Vadar, he invited them to join him on the Dark Side one last time and they all showed their Light Sabers as a sign of unity in The Force...

And Vadar took off, vowing this was not the last we'd see of him.  (I guess he hasn't seen Return of the Jedi yet.)

Each Youngling got their own diploma and a bag with fun Star Wars stuff.  So very cool!!!

Of  course there are about 50 millon other pictures and stories I could tell you but those are the highlights!  Great trip and wonderful memories as a family!