Summer Trip to Indiana

The Indiana Crew

Three quarters of the Ward family just got back from our annual summer trip to Indiana to visit family and friends. Zach and Dylan did great. My brother was nice enough to drive the three of us (his family wasn't able to go because they were starting school on Monday so needed their rest). Off we went on a 10 hour drive each way. The ride wasn't as bad as I had imagined it could be. Zach was happy as could be to sit and watch movies the whole way. Thank goodness they had Bolt in the car and we don't own Bolt so it was a new movie to watch. Not to mention Alvin and the Chipmunks that he must have watched 4 times in a row....why? I'm not sure. He was pretty funny on the ride up. The headphones to watch the movie made him sound like your older relatives at Christmas, talking way louder than everyone else or any reasonable person needs to talk! I think my brother was reminiscing about the "old" days when his kids were that little. Probably the first hour he kind of missed the young age, but by hour 2 we had him thankful he could ride in peace with his children now that they are old enough to play video games and listen to Ipods!

Zach and PJ - Fast Friends

We arrived in Indiana and went to dinner with the Chambers. Then after Zach "drove" the table in honor of Paul, the "adults" went to the Chambers house and dropped the kids off at the hotel with the grandparents. The story was that while my Mom put Dylan to sleep in one of the adjoining rooms, Granddad was entertaining Zach in the other room. My Mom reported that she went in to find Granddad sound asleep and Zach wide awake watching TV. No one was too surprised. Meanwhile the "adults" were learning the rules of the Chamber household and enjoying an adult beverage or two.Zach showing his bottom after he sat in the Lightning McQueen bubbles

After a late night at the Chambers and a 5:00am "wake up call" from Dylan, I started Saturday a little groggy. Zach, Dylan and I swam in the hotel pool, then we all played at Aunt Betty's for awhile. We got to visit with Aunt Betty for a bit before heading out to Uncle Terry and Aunt Stephanie's for a fabulous cookout and lots of playtime for Zach. He had a great time playing with PJ in the pool. Lightning McQueen bubbles were a hit as well as the bubble airplane!

Grammy, Dylan and Zach
Swim time for Dylan

After a long two days, we woke up on Sunday and headed back out on the road to come back to Kansas. The trip home was longer, because it always is for some reason. The last half hour, Dylan decided he had had enough of sitting backwards staring at nothing for 20 hours and was going to cry until someone did something about it. The someone was Dylan and the something was falling asleep. Of course, it was about 5 mins from our exit where we switched cars and he woke up. Zach refused to sleep even though he was working on about 6 hours of sleep each night. He finally gave in when Craig picked us up in Joplin and he slept in our van and then continued to sleep for another 17 hours. He only woke up to have Craig change him into his pj's and get a drink of water. We were all beat, but had such a fun time seeing all our friends. We miss you all and are so happy that we still get to see you, even if it is only once or twice a year!

Granddad entertaining Dylan or maybe the other way around?