we made it!

well i'm happy to report that we made it to indiana on our second try and had a super fun time! we were there for nearly a week and stayed busy with lauren's softball games, taylor's birthday, grilling, and outdoor games. here's how the trip went down...

mom and dad and i started out really, really early on wednesday morning (again). thankfully they brought along my morning cup of mooo and blankie for the airport. if i have those things, i don't really care what time it is or where we are, i'm breezy...

i was great on our first flight and then stayed busy during our layover in chicago too... here i am at harry caray's chugging some more milk, replenishing from all the running around i did in the terminals...

by the time we got on our flight to indy, i was pretty silly and just ready to be there...

it was so great to see beamee and grampee in indy, and we even went to a cute farmer's market in carmel near their house. later that day and also the next day we went to lauren's softball games near lafayette. she's really good at softball and aunt elaina is one of the coaches. here are some pictures of us (okay, mostly me) at the field...

here's grampee giving lauren some pointers while i look on with what appears to be milk again, but is actually water. i'm a thirsty guy, what can i say :)...

isn't aunt elaina so cute in her visor and shirt!?!

here's lauren decked out in her catcher's gear...

mommy can't remember what i was looking at in this picture, but it was probably taylor. i really like her a lot and had fun playing with her during the games...

speaking of taylor, she celebrated her golden birthday (she turned 5 on the 5th) while we were there. she had a party at a place with lots of those blow-up jumpy things inside, and we had an awesome time!! i think mommy actually had the most fun of all, but i really, really liked it too! we tried to run around a lot and just fell and laughed and got silly...

sadly, somehow we didn't get any good pictures of the birthday girl herself, but here i am with a little cake on my face...

back at SELT's house, lauren took me for a ride in their barbie jeep, which was much more macho than it sounds - look at those big tires...

it turned out that i was actually able to pick up a few ladies in my ride, so i'll have to talk to mom and dad about getting one of these myself...

i tried to drive for a little bit, but lauren thought that wasn't such a good idea...

cousins are cool...

speaking of cousins, here's another one - my buddy nolan from michigan! brandon and mo came down to visit on monday and we had a great time playing with all of them. he's (nolan, that is) about 6 months younger than me and is pretty cool...

we also had visits from mommy's friends ashley, megan, and holly (sadly, again, no pictures) and also from brent and jen. here i am playing that old favorite, peek-a-ben, with them... mommy has really nice friends...

here are a few extra pics to close out our visit...

and here i am with beamee and grampee at the airport. you'll notice i'm smiling, because no one told me we were actually leaving them...

once on the plane, daddy broke the news to me, and i couldn't believe it! why would we leave? it's so fun up there, and more importantly, it's not 100 degrees everyday (some days it was barely 70!!)...
but, being the laid-back guy that i am, i took the news well as my trusty lanyard cheered me up again... plus i was reminded that we'd be coming back to IN in just 2.5 weeks for mommy's high school reunion, so i figured that wasn't too long to wait...

i also enjoyed some juice on the flight, which also had a hand in keeping me happy. i don't drink juice very often because i'm so good at eating fresh fruits instead, but when i do - look out! yum...

okay, maybe a little too much juice...

...and, blankie saves the day again...

see you next time, hoosiers!!

*** disclaimer to aunt aimee, uncle greg, and gabrielle: all the fun that we appeared to be having in these pictures was fake, manufactured, and certainly not real fun. we could not have possibly had fun without you and actually spent each day sad that you weren't there and remorseful that we had a missed you by only one day... the fake smiles pictured and good times described above were merely an act for the audience of this blog... hopefully we can see you up there next time and have some real fun instead!! :) ***