Indiana

We had parent teacher conferences last week so we decided to spend our Friday off from school traveling to Indiana for the weekend to see Uncle Josh play football.  We left for the Sioux Falls Airport in the morning and I kept saying, "I know I am forgetting something."  Don't worry, I totally realized what I had forgotten after we finally made it to the end of the security line, placed everything in the bins, had our shoes off, and our flight was leaving in less than 30 minutes.  Ah yes, I forgot every single one of Saylor's bottles for our two flights in the fridge at home.  I only panicked for a few seconds before we realized we had one random dirty bottle in our car that was parked in the long term parking lot.  Saylor and I made our way through security and Dad ran to the car to grab our saving grace.  Dad made it through security for the second time thanks to some cutting in line.  After we made it through security with bottle in hand we noticed the whole USD team was also going through security.  We decided to wave to Uncle Josh.  Unfortunately, and very innocently, we went past the signs (not the obvious doors) that sounded off an alarm and flashing lights.  Security came after us and informed us we must go through security again.  No big deal since the entire USD football team was in line, but lucky for us security was sick of us, especially Wade, and let us budge in line again to make our way through security for Wade's third time in 15 minutes.  The rest of the traveling day was pretty low key.  Saylor was probably the best one-year-old traveler you could possibly ask for.  Here is how she spent her two flights:

           

We made it to Indy!

After we arrived in Indianapolis we drove an hour to Terre Haute and met Grandpa and Grandma VM who had drove to Indiana.  We went to Walmart to get another bottle, stopped at a mall and tried to get into a car that was actually owned by the people walking right behind us in the parking lot.  Yikes, I was just glad we were wearing USD clothes all day so most people thought we were from South Dakota!  On Saturday we did some more shopping, ate, and headed to the football game.

New skill while eating out!

    

 The football game, like the entire season, did not go as we would have liked, but we were glad we had the opportunity to go watch Uncle Josh.  We are so proud of him and love to see him play.

At least the trees were pretty (and tasty) in Indiana!

 After the game we drove back to Indianapolis and drove through downtown.  We saw Lucas Oil Stadium from miles away.  From a distance it looked bigger than the skyscrapers in town! We also stopped to glance at their downtown riverwalk.  It looked neat but it was dark, cold and Saylor was sleeping so we opted to drive to an outdoor mall near our hotel to get some warm food and shop at our favorite store, Dick's Sporting Goods.

We spent some good quality family time in the hotel.  Saylor enjoyed running around, spinning around, and eating some random little kid soccer team's leftover pizza.  She enjoyed every minute of the trip waving to strangers, running around new places, and spending lots of quality time with mom and dad who looked through, pointed at pictures, and read the same books over and over and over again.

Saylor's favorite part of the hotel.

The flights home went the same as the flights to Indianapolis sans the forgetfulness and multiple security line trips.  We had smooth, quick flights and a little girl that either slept the entire flight or waved to everyone in the plane.  She is such a good traveler whether it be driving, flying, running around airports, sitting at cold football games, entertaining herself in hotels and looking at new sights.  We are thankful we could go somewhere to see family and also for these little trips that allow us to spend time so much time together just the three of us as a family, too.

And all I have to say is thank goodness for the Sioux Falls Airport where it is actually possible to "run" to your car in long term parking. And just a little FYI if you plan to use the baby changing stations in any bathroom at the MSP Airport. You must be at least 5'8" tall unless you plan to change your active one-year-old on your tippy toes which I do not recommend. Ever.