Summer trip to Tennessee- July 2007

July 8, 2007

I starting writing this July 8, but got so overwhelmingly busy that it has taken until today to actually finish it! I took a major final this week, completed 3 lessons, am taking 2 midterms next week, and registered for 3 more classes. That is in addition to Marisa going to college for kids every day taking 3 courses at Coe College: French, Psychology, and a literary class on Laura Ingles Wilder. She even made a doll from corn husk today. Very cool. The other 3 kids started swimming lessons at the Marion pool and are truly enjoying it. We also have band lessons, orchestra lessons, violin private lessons, etc. It has been a very busy week. Anyway…
We arrived home Saturday night after a fun-filled part family reunion in Tennessee. It was a long drive, but we had a good time. I should have kept notes since I don’t remember everything we did. Maybe Nina remembers better or wrote it up in her blog?? I also have Nina to thank for pictures since I was too tired to get my camera out! I will post some fun pics on the website. It was so great to have Grandma and Grandpa Ribera make the trip to come see us as well.

Saturday: We stopped off in Macomb to pick up Marisa from the Harts and grab some lunch. We arrived in Indianapolis that evening and went to Steak and Shake for dinner. The food was great!

Sunday: We drove to Knoxville, Tennessee, to my sister, Nina’s house. My parents also came. It was so fun to be all together. We played games and enjoyed the company.

Monday: We noticed Alayna’s eyes weren’t doing well. We ended up taking her to a walk-in clinic where we got medicine for pink eye and a staph infection starting on her nose. She was also running a fever. Great start for a vacation don’t you think?? Ninas car was leaking something as well, so she had to take it into the shop.
In the afternoon, we all went to see the new movie Ratatooie (sp?) It was adorable and all the kids seemed to love it. Then we headed down to a fun little park where the kids waded in the pond, in bare feet with water skeeters.
In the evening we started our game challenges with a round of Trivial Pursuit. We sure had a funny group…hey, brothers in Logan, ask dad about “One potato, two potato”!

Tuesday: We went to the bowling alley for a morning of silly entertainment. The kids were so fun to watch. With Kayla sliding half way down the alley with her ball, or Marisa throwing hers backwards, it was definitely entertaining. I think we all did quite well, and no, I am not admitting to you that we used the bumpers as well. Sh!
In the afternoon, the kids made tie-dye shirts (red white and blue). We also blew up the pool, (with air, silly’s!) and the kids played in the sprinklers and slid down the slip-n-slide.
We played the Name that Tune for the 80s on a DVD. Boy did that bring back memories. Our kids sat there shocked we knew the words and more shocking was the fact that we all dressed so hideously for an entire decade. Oh well.

Wednesday: We had fun 4th of July celebrations. We took family pictures in the morning, and played a HUGE game of Super UNO for the afternoon. What a fun game! For the evening, the kids did sparklers and we were able to watch fireworks on the deck from several different areas around town.

Thursday: We left Knoxville early in the morning and dropped mom off in Nashville. She got to spend a day alone in a quiet hotel before her flight left Saturday.
We drove into Indianapolis and went straight to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. (Discover the world’s largest children’s museum where you can walk among the dinosaurs, ride a vintage carousel and explore art, science and history like never before!) It was a free night for families, but apparently everyone in Indiana knew and came as well. It was so crowded, but we got to see some cool stuff. The BEST part was the spy kids- when you entered you actually got an ID, you did body scans, ID scans, had to go through a room without attracting lasers, all the time gathering info, etc. It was too crowded to do it all, which bummed Marisa out bad. So, maybe I will track where that goes next so we can try again. Tyler got to see a skeleton of a SuperCroc, which was so awesome. I will attach the pic where Tyler and Alayna look scared because it is going to eat them.

Friday: We decided to stay in town and go to the zoo even though we had two kids with pink eye, two with a cold, and one with an upset tummy. It was so hot but BOY did we have a blast! We went to the worlds largest shark touch tank and all got to pet some sharks. So cool! We saw the dolphin show, the birds of prey show (where we saw a falcon snatch a dead mouse out of the air that the guy threw), and animals in your backyard show. Got to view dolphins from an underground dome, and view penguins who swam below our feet. We came back exhausted, so the kids went in the pool to cool off.

Saturday: We drove home from Indianapolis. We started the journey off by having a great brunch at IHOP. It should have only taken about 6 hours, but instead, since we stopped several times, it took over 8. We were all worn out by the time we got home. Thanks to Nina for letting us borrow some movies- it really helped pass the time!!
When we got home, we had a phone call from the city water dept saying that there was a huge flooding of a street and they tracked it to our backyard. Apparently one of our kids left the hose on, it burst, and then proceeded to water the entire neighborhood for several days. They were calling to let us know why our water bill will be severely high next month. Welcome home!!
We also found our robber bunnies had snuck in and helped themselves to our garden. The Japanese beetles had eaten my roses and all our grape plants. The ground squirrels ate my new Lillies. That was the last straw- we have now declared a full scale war!! If you hear a BBgun, just ignore!

Funny Note:
Alayna asked me the other day for a “grad crapper”. When I asked her, she said it again, “Can I have a grad crapper”. FYI, I discovered the interpretation is “graham cracker”.

We got home noticing we all had upset stomachs. I think we caught a flu type virus. I felt awful for about 4 days. One day was completely flat on the couch. I hope, Nina, that you guys didn’t get anything! I was exhausted too since Alayna had been sick the entire trip, she never slept = neither did I! Well, I guess that sums up our summer vacation trip. Thanks again to Nina and family for the southern hospitality and to mom and dad for making the effort to come see us. Next time we go down we decided we just HAVE to go see the Smokey mountains and mammoth cave. Too bad we had little time this trip. New pics will be posted at the website:
http://www.hartfamilynews.blogspot.com/