We're back from a short vacation to Indianapolis. Mom and Dad flew in for a visit today and we picked them up. But since we were going there anyway, we thought why not make a little vacation of it? So we did. Unfortunately we had the date of the flight wrong...so we spent a day longer than we were planning. Alex, who has been going to orchestra 'summer school' all month since we got back from DC, had a mini-concert / parents meeting in the morning on Friday and we headed out as soon as that was done. We went straight to the Indianapolis Zoo, which none of us have been to in years, the kids never. It has changed quite a lot since Beth and I were there last. You need to see the orangutan habitat. Biggest I've ever seen, and with lots of things to swing from, from the central building to several out-buildings with towers and cables (kinda like ski lifts, only without the chairs) so the apes can swing high over the people visiting almost like being free. We spent most of the day at the zoo, then the rest of the evening at the hotel pool. Saturday we spent the day at the Eiteljorg Museum (we bought a membership because they would validate parking, and we figured out if we go back here to park tomorrow, it's cheaper that way) which is a real hidden gem, and the Indiana State Museum to see the Madagascar: Island of Lemurs IMAX movie. And spend a lot of time at the pool at the hotel again, too. Today we had to check out hours before Mom and Dad's flight, so we headed downtown, did a bit of geocaching down by the museums, and then went to that giant mall. We did some glow golf, ate at A&W (must be one of the last ones left) and kind of killed time until it was time to pick up the 'rents. They got in without incident and we headed home.

Today our baby girl hit double digits. We've hardly had time to think about her birthday with the big trip last week but I think we pulled off a good one. She herself wanted to make sure that I got to have a Father's Day (what a sweetie) so she wanted he birthday party on Saturday the 14th. For her party this year we took a bunch of her friends out to see "How to Train your Dragon 2" which was awesome, although slightly less awesome than the first, but not by much. Afterwards we got lots of pizza and had the kids swim in the pool and/or jump on the trampoline until evening, then did presents and brought everyone home. Sunday I thought about going geocaching but decided to stay home and get some more work in the laundry room done. Almost ready to put up the last of the drywall now. I also ran in the Water for Good 5k, in which my time was 25:04, good for 3rd in my age group. Missy got to pick the restaurant we went to so we went to Golden Corral for dinner. And my presents were gift cards for Red Robin, iTunes, and Barnes & Noble, so I guess someone wants to go to Fort Wayne soon.

The whirlwind tour of Washington DC has concluded. We rolled back into town early this morning. The group (57 kids and adults) packed up the bus and hit the road (an hour late) by around 7pm last Wednesday, then drove all night as we all tried to sleep in small, narrow seats that didn't recline very much. The neck pillows didn't help much at all either. Beth and I did doze some, but we were in the very back row of the bus and thus had even less room/reclining. I did wake up at one point because the bathroom door was banging open and shut because someone had set it to lock when it was open, therefore it wouldn't close. I also woke up one time with some kid's (from across the aisle) feet stretched onto my lap. Anyway, we got to a breakfast buffet restaurant around 7 or so, which wasn't exactly a truck stop, but a place that catered to tour buses. Strangely, they had only 2 sets of very small bathrooms for the 8 buses that were there by the time we left. We were all able to get changed and cleaned up, mostly because we were the first ones there. Right after breakfast we started the tour in earnest. Walking through the FDR memorial and MLK memorial first, then hoofing up Capitol Hill to do a tour of the Capitol including the House, which was not in session. Lunch was a walk down to the food court at Grand Central Station. After lunch, the Vietnam, Korea, and WWII memorials (then skip the Nat'l Archives because everyone was beat), then the White House (no tour, only go-see). We checked into the hotel around 8:30 and everyone needed showers, then Friday was an early day again. Ford's Theater first (just for a short Ranger talk, it seemed too much waiting), then the Washington Monument and hoofing it back to the Capitol for a group photo. Lunch at the station again. After lunch, the Holocaust Museum (just Daniel's Story, a bit simplistic and a little disappointing that we didn't get to see the rest), then a lot of walking through Arlington Cemetery (including all the way up the hill to the Lee Mansion). And yes...we got to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns on D-Day. The guard called out someone in the crowd during his patrol ("IT IS REQUESTED THAT EVERYONE REMAIN SILENT!") but not from our group, thankfully. Dinner was at Pentagon City Mall food court, then a night tour of the Air Force, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Iwo Jima Memorials. Saturday morning we headed up to Mount Vernon, which was also a lot of standing in line for what we got to see, but nice. They even have a 4-D movie now. We did lunch at Pentagon City again and skipped the 9/11 Memorial because everyone was too tired again, then headed right to the Smithsonian area, where we split into groups depending on what everyone wanted to see. We saw the Air & Space, Natural History (Alex wanted to see the Hope Diamond, but I think he thought it would be bigger than it was), and American History Museums in about 3 hours. After that, we hit the road again and ate after about an hour on the road. We all changed into jammies somewhere in Maryland. If anything it was even worse coming back home as far as sleeping goes, but I finally nodded off somewhere in Ohio and woke up in Columbia City. We finally made it to town around 5:30am. We were going to drop Rebekah off but her mom was already there;someone texted her and woke her up. Once home, everyone went back to bed and slept until at least 11:00.

It has been a weekend to get stuff done. Travis finally returned our lawn tractor a couple weeks ago, which meant we could finally do the mowing in the backyard...but that only lasted 15  minutes before the tractor engine died again. He did say he wasn't sure how long it would last. So, at that point we decided to cut our losses and just go buy a new tractor. So we have a new tractor now in addition to the dead one. Flush with the feeling of accomplishment, we went out to Superior Excavating again and bought another truckload of dirt, so I could finish up filling the area near the SE corner of the house by the retaining wall which has been finished but not backfilled for a good year now. However I forgot to return the ramps I used to load the tractor into the truck  before getting the dirt, and the loader either didn't see them or didn't care enough to say anything, and the dirt went right on top of them. I didn't remember the ramps until I was unloading the dirt. Anyway, I finally got the space filled with dirt and well packed, got the ramps out and cleaned up, and we are all set for the gravel.