Michigan!!!

I can't believe it's taken us this long to get to Michigan in the summer! We all had so much fun, and we even decided to stay longer. The girls loved having fun on the lake and doing all the lake activities. Kacy's favorite thing to do was kayak, Brookes' was fishing, Adilyn's was paddleboardingand Cory's was playing cornhole. The all loved tubing, taking boat rides, and playing dress up with all the cousins. The whole family came over on Saturday, and it was the first time that all the first cousins have been together since Hannah's wedding. There is nothing better than just relaxing and hanging out at the lake! I even slalom skiied, which I haven't done for at least 15 years. I remember seeing Marcy slalom when she was 40, and I thought that I would have to try it when I was 40. I thought I was pretty cool until Marcy did it, too - and better at 56! :) I guess I will have to make a new goal and try it 16 years from now. It truly was amazing to see everyone play together. It was such an interesting thing to see all the kids doing all the things that my cousins and I did when we were their age. It was like nothing had changed in all those years, just different kids, and we became the old people! I also loved seeing all my cousins' kids. It was a great trip, and I am so happy that we decided to add that stop in on our journey.

Brooke's lost her 1st tooth!

Brooke lost her very first tooth while we were in Michigan. It was a little traumatic because she came to me and said it was loose. I just tugged on it a little, and it popped right out. She kind of freaked out, but she recovered. We weren't sure if the tooth fairy would find her, but she sure did!

Kentucky and Indiana

Next stop was the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This was more for Cory at first, but the girls ended up having so much fun and wanting to stay longer than he did. They loved seeing all the cars, and learning about the sinkhole that happened there. They also liked looking for cars that were from their birth year. There were a few interactive activities there, but they were just happy looking at all the fancy cars. 

I was really looking forward to stopping at the longest go kart track in the United States, but unfortunately there was a huge rainstorm and they were closed. We stopped to eat dinner at a really fun restaurant before heading to our campsite at Charlestown State Park. When we got to the park, we realized that there was nobody there! It was the middle of the week, but still, I was expecting there to be some people there since it was summer. There wasn't, and we essentially had the whole park to ourselves. It was beautiful, and the girls loved riding their bikes all around and exploring all the different campsites. They were trying to find the best ones and the ones that had a good hideout. We bought them walkie-talkies in Memphis, so they would just go off on there own. They loved it! It really was a great campground, and Brooke finally learned to really ride her bike there also. We also took a big hike to Rose Island which was an abandoned amusement park. We thought it was going to be really cool, but it really wasn't. But, it was a crazy hard hike back! I really didn't think we were going to make it :) While we were there, we got a rental car so we could explore Louisville. We went in to the Louisville Slugger Museum and the Kentucky Derby Museum. Both were really fun! I was super impressed with the Kentucky Derby Museum. The kids absolutely loved it. Once again, Cory was way more ready to go than we were. The Louisville Slugger was pretty fun, too. We saw them making McCann's bat (an Astros catcher), so that was pretty cool. 

 

We also went to the Charlestown Family Park, which was the coolest little place! They had outside roller skating, splash pad, and mini golf. It was all you can play for $5 per person. The girls loved it. They skated for a while, and they got all crazy hot and sweaty. It was almost time for them to close, so we played a quick game of mini golf before the sun set. We also had a surprisingly delicious Mexican dinner. Who knew a tiny little town in Indiana would have great Mexican food?

Let the Great Roadtrip of Summer 2018 Begin!

We have been waiting for this all summer long! Our very first big roadtrip in the camper. I have been so excited for this trip since our summer has been so busy. The very first stop we made was on the mighty Mississippi! The campground was so nice, and we looked right out on the river. This RV park was so much better than some of the other ones. Usually there is nothing to do and nowhere for the girls to explore, but here they could ride their bikes and there were some trails to hike on. We got spoiled with this one, because after that the RV parks were nowhere near as good as this one. The girls loved riding around after our first 8 hour ride in the camper. The next morning we got up, and we headed to Memphis. Our goal was to head to the Civil Rights Museum and the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. Cory was driving the camper through Memphis, and it was a little stressful. He had to do a little work, so we found a parking spot and left him there. We walked to the Civil Rights Museum, and the line was so long to get in! We sat in line for a bit, and then we were noticing that these huge bus fulls of churches were coming and getting in before us. I think they had group reservations or something. We finally made it inside, and the line was still wrapped around in there. I also noticed that once you got in the museum, it was packed full of people. Everyone was kind of moving around in a big, slow line. After about 45 minutes, I decided that by the time we got in there, the girls would be over it, and then we would be stuck moving around the whole place. So. we got out of line and dropped that whole plan. We made our way back to the camper, and we decided to go eat BBQ at a place called Rendezvous. Cory and Kacy loved it, and it was a pretty cool little place. After that, we just walked up and down Beale Street for a bit. There was not a ton to do there, so we headed over to the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. We had heard it was really cool to take the elevator up a ton of stories, and go to the lookout. The girls and I paid to go up there, and it was a pretty interesting little elevator ride. After that, we headed to Nashville to stay at an RV park there before continuing north. It was a great beginning to our adventure!

Summer Volleyball

This was probably the biggest waste of money and time of all the volleyball we have done. We kind of did it last minute, and I sure wish we had just skipped it all together. It was a summer league with practice one day and scrimmages the next day. Adilyn's team was one of the 11 and under teams, but that meant that it was for every single girl that was under 11 years old. The picture below is her playing with 7 and 8 year olds. It was humorous, and ridiculous, and not helpful for anyone involved. I was ready to pull her out completely, but we like to fulfill our commitments. We were all so glad when it was over! Needless to say, we will not be putting her back in that club next year!

La Toretta Tradition

We keep thinking that we aren't going to go back to La Toretta for a quick summer trip with Mom, yet we keep going back every year. I thought the girls were over it, but when I told them we may not go they freaked out, so off we went! The weather was pretty good this year, hot, of course, but no storms this year. The girls could come and go to the different pools, which they love. Brooke went down the waterslides this year, and it is so much easier now that she can swim. We had s'mores and ate at our favorite little restaurant for breakfast. Mom brought stuff to celebrate the girls' birthdays, so we had balloons and lots of games of keepy-uppy - our favorite family game!