Day 8

We met up with Kathy at Chuck E Cheese today. It is funny how we both made vacation plans which included Elkhart at the same time. It was nice sitting and talking with another parent who understands the challenges of parenting children who come from hard places. I hope that next summer we can actually coordinate a vacation.

We spent our evening on the water.  The kids really enjoyed it since we don't do that activity.  Two red heads in the family make water activities challenging.

Our host, Captain Mark.

Packing up the suitcases tonight to load up the van in the morning. We have made some reservations for hotels for the trek home.  We are stopping to see one more aunt in Illinois.

Day 7

 

We wanted the kids to go through the Amish-Mennonite story. This is not a story of how they live but more of about their history.  They went through a lot of persecution back in Europe before they came to the United States.

 

There were several videos and interactive areas.  They also had the kids answer some questions.

 

It was very informative and they did have a little house set up in the end.

We met with family for lunch and dinner and then in the evening relaxed with some s'mores.

Tomorrow is a down day with John going to visit some family that don't live in a place that is good for kids and the kids and I will meet with Kathy again at Chuck E Cheese.

We need to get some laundry done and pack up for our move to Chicago. We will spend the weekend there before we head towards home.

Day 6

Our plans for the day evolved; we ended with morning at Shipshewana, afternoon zoo with Kathy Cassel and dinner with John's family.

Shipshewana is an interesting place with lots to see and do, especially shopping.  The kids each got a toy, candy and I bought a quilted table runner. We were in a hurry so decided to leave a history tour for another day.

This tricycle was so cute, too expensive for my taste though, $699.

Reconditioned washers.

We met Kathy Cassel at the Potawatomi Zoo.

This was Benjamin's first trip to the zoo.

The train ride was a must after he tried to chase it down.

Goat slime, yuck!  I agree.

The following pictures were stolen from Kathy.....

The kids got along real well and had a great time. The kids paired themselves up so they are going to be penpal buddies. Plans were made for a meet up on Friday.

Day 5

In the morning we drove to White Pigeon where we met with John's sister and had lunch.  We drove around the property where he grew up and then headed out to his cousins house.  They graciously offered to put us up for a few days in spite of our many children.

The kids have been enjoying the time here and it has been nice having a space where they can run around. The weather here is beautiful, some say it is cool.  We are enjoying it after our scorching over 100 degree days in South Carolina.

We will stay here for a few days while we visit with John's family.  The last time we were up here was around 2003 so there is a lot of catching up to do!

Day 4

I can tell we are getting older.  There was a time when we were travelling when we got up at the crack of dawn to get our day started.  Now we get up when the baby gets up.  Thankfully it has been around 8 am.  Thankfully many hotels have black out curtains.

We took off for Canada around 9 am and had no problem getting into the country.  Most of us had passports but the baby had a birth certificate, foster parent contract and letter from DSS giving us permission taking him into Canada.  They looked at the birth certificate and didn't ask for the rest of the paperwork.

We walked the sidewalk along Niagara Falls.

 

 

Our original plans were to go to Toronto and do a few things.  We thought about going up the CN Tower but after looking at the price (almost $200 for our family) we decided to just head across Canada and into Michigan.  However, we made plans to stop off at London, Ontario at a small children's museum.

It was located in an old school.  It was affordable and almost empty.  The facilities were very old but the kids loved it. After a few hours we had to drag all of them away so we could get back on the road.

They made fossils and watched a star show.  They had activities all say and posted everywhere.

Yes, he is kissing the dino.

We got back on the road and stopped for dinner before leaving Canada.  Getting back into the United States was quick and easy too.  Guess we don't look suspicious.  Our van was never checked except to count kids.

After we got into the US we drove past Detroit and started looking for a hotel.  Many were filled so I finally stopped and looked at Roadtrippers to find an availability. We finally found a place to say somewhere past Ann Arbor and stopped for the night.