Keyton and Lola

Parke County Covered Bridge Festival

Saturday we headed a few hours south to check out some of the 31 covered bridges in Parke County during the covered bridge festival.

Oh, how Nick wished we had a minivan!

Lola didn't seem to mind.

Did you know that wooden bridges were covered because without it the the untreated wooden bridge decayed pretty fast? The cover also helped horses not freak out while crossing the river.

Some of the bridges were still in use, this one was not.

They used to be painted white, if at all, but now most of them were red. I don't know why.

Two main companies built all the bridges, so they all looked pretty similar.

Painted across the entrance of each bridge were the instructions to "cross this bridge at a walk" meaning walk your horses so their steps are out of sync so the bridge doesn't get all Tacoma Narrows on you.

We visited an old school house nearby one bridge.

October 17, 2009

Auntie Em!!

Nick's sister Emily came to visit! We went to XXX Root Beer featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It was okay. Lola liked the onion rings.

Keyton liked the way cool pancake available at any time of day.

Emily brought some frisbees, courtesy of Tom. We played frisbee golf at nearby Murdock park.

Keyton was actually not bad.

Sneaky Lola took advantage of all the commotion to raid the cupboards.

We went to the park.

Also to the pumpkin patch & corn maze. Everyone picked a pumpkin then we explored the maze.

Nick and Lachelle debated the difference between orienteering and reading a map. We decided that it is pretty genius to have places to go for prizes in a corn maze. That way it isn't quite so boring.

We went to a covered bridge festival (stay tuned for pictures later) and texted.

Keyton showed us around his campus--Purdue University.

At the end of it all we were all tired and had a big mess to clean up--I'd say it was a great visit.

October 15-19, 2009

Lola strikes a pose

October 11, 2009

Feast of the Hunters' Moon

I seriously doubt my ablity to convey the enormity and hilarity of this event, but here goes: The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is a re-creation of the annual fall gathering of the French and Native Americans which took place at Fort Ouiatenon, a fur-trading outpost in the mid-1700s. Thousands of the kinds of people who fashion their own chainmeal and may truely believe they are living 300 years ago reinact this event. Including the dude wearing just a loincloth--is that even legal? Our resident lawyer says no. It's not everyday you get to see a stranger's hairy butt, I digress. . . Thousands more, including boyscout troups from Chicago and colonial die hards from Ohio, attend. It is in a word, hilarious.

Here on the banks of the Wabash, the French soldiers await the arrival of whoever it was who arrived in about 8 canoes for the grand opening of this 42nd annual event.

Keyon could not be dragged from the mediocre 17-century choir. "One more song!"

Nick and Keyton covet the Newfoundland. Lachelle relents, when we live in 1750, you can have a dog.

Here is the mighty fort,

adorned with six flags, all of which at one point may or may-not have flown over the fort.

Oh, the iconic turkey leg,

to be washed down with a little rootbeer. And a pirate sword, because nothing says 17th centry trading post like a pirate sword.

The flaming juggling act.

Snare drums = perfect soundtrack for Pirate Keyton Boogie Nights

It's all too much for Lola.

In a rare act of 17th century generocity, the proud saw weilders gave their wood chunk to a nice man minding a 50-gallon pot of stew for him to add to his fire.

Yet again Keyton demands we listen to the music--this time a nice family blue grass band complete with 5 and 7-year-old fiddlers. I want Keyton to fiddle! Nick says when we live in 1750 Keyon can play the violin.

We say goodbye with rock-candy in hand to go home and process what just happened.

October 10, 2009

Keyton is so old

Keyton, on his way to preschool, is all grown up.

He wanted Nick to make him a pink beanie. It turned out way too big which, in combination with the glasses and the Mardi Gras beads, adds nicely to the Bob Marley effect I think.

Oh, what a guy!

October 8, 2009

We've been. . . .

Going on walks.

Perfecting the silly face.

Crocheting beanies (Nick).

Climbing Rocks.

Picking apples.

Canning.

October 4-7, 2009

It was all Keyton's idea

October 2, 2009

Arni's: a bummer or a blessing?

Keyton forgoes his lower case n skills and pretends he can't read the DON'T FEED THE DUCKS sign.

Nick finds us breaking the law at the park and instead of going home to make dinner we walk down the block for our first go at our neighborhood Arni's.

Lola finds the service to be slow.

Keyton doesn't mind at all.

Somehow I managed to order the most disgusting cheeseburger of my life. Only slightly better was Keyton's might-as-well-had-cheap-frozen-pizza.

To get rid of that Arni's aftertaste we got some frozen custard with the Banana/Larry ice cream fund.

Lola practices her skills.

We debate the meaning of our adventure on the way home. Either. . .
A. It's a good thing the restaurant a block from our house is gross so we won't waste money eating there.
B. Dang. What a waste.