indiana!

We surprised Grace when we picked her up from school on Friday by telling her we weren't going home. Instead, we'd be going to Indiana. Her reply, "Indiana?! What?! Why?!"

Well, why not?

We headed to Indianapolis and scored ourselves a deal off Priceline. We stopped at what Jimmy affectionately refers to as "Jimmy Johns about my Pancakes" for dinner in a fine city called Terre Haute (we're still unclear as to the correct pronunciation). Our verdict on the IHOP - we're clueless as to why Grace and Jimmy love it so much.


Onward and upward, we finally find our hotel and immediately do what all kids do when they arrive in a hotel room well past bedtime:


After sleeping in and our breakfast buffet repast, we trekked even farther North to the land of West Lafayette, Indiana, home of the home of the Boilermakers - Purdue University. Turns out we timed our trip perfectly to coincide with their Spring Fest. Big on engineering, sometimes basketball, and always Agriculture (with a capital 'A'), Purdue puts on a terrific festival. There were cows to milk, chicks (chicken, duck, and turkey varieties) to hold, roach races to watch, and goldfish races to participate in. There were crafts, snacks, mimes, and lovely people watching.

Jimmy with a [chicken] chick, Gracie with a [turkey] chick


Evidently milking a cow was a life-changing event, Grace has decided to be 'THE farmer's wife' when she grows up so she can milk the cow. Makes me wonder if she thinks THE farmer is going to be as cute and nice as this guy was...

Jimmy was so excited to see these BIG rockets!

Its just so fun to run oneself ragged at a festival.

We drove through Urbana/Champaign and Arcola, Illinois on the way home. Turns out Arcola is a delightfully quaint town on the outskirts of a large Amish community and is the Broomcorn Capital of the World. We dined at the Dutch Kitchen. Not only was dinner delicious - they had homemade pie (hard to beat that)!

This little jaunt proved to us that we really can make it across the country together on a road trip, actually have fun, and get much needed sleep. We'll just have to take it one day at a time.