Spring Break Part 2: INDIANA!

I can now say that I have visited another state. I think that makes about 6 in my lifetime...I know, I'm an adventurer at heart. It was a really fun trip! It was freezing cold and we spent a lot of time in the car but I can honestly say that I loved it :). I'm just going to go day by day so I don't forget anything!

Wednesday/Thursday: I did all of our laundry from camping on the beach. Our flight left at midnight. Spencer and I went to the mall to get me some good tennis shoes for the trip right before we left. I got these really cute brown ones and I also got a new pair of sandals. While we were waiting in line to check out Spencer picked up this pair of earrings and said he like them. I said they were really cute and he says, "You can get them if you want." HOLY COW! I took advantage of that moment :). So in any of the pictures that you see, the earrings were his choosing. We left to the airport and flew from Phoenix to Indianapolis, Indiana. We got there just after 6 am. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you, the time difference is 3 hours!!! So really it was about 3 am. I was so tired. I slept the entire way on the plane (Spencer wasn't so lucky) and we headed to see if we could check into our hotel. Spencer's dad and 2 of his brothers went on an earlier flight and were there with the car when we got in. It was really nice because it was 20* outside and I was in sandals. We got checked in, ate breakfast (because it was actually breakfast time!), then we all headed up to sleep for a few hours. It was probably 8:00 when we headed upstairs and we all slept until 11. The rest of the day was spent sight seeing. We visited the Indy 500 speedway, Lucas Oil Stadium, a really cool mall, a couple of Spencer's apartments he lived in, and a burger joint called Bub's (Big Ugly Burgers). They have a thing where if you eat their 1 lb hamburger that has a half pound bun plus veggies, and can finish every bite on your own, you get your picture on the wall. Spencer did it when he was on his mission so his brothers decided it was their turn. Hunter and Hayden both finished theirs and now proudly have a picture on the wall. It was the most gigantic hamburger I have ever seen in my life. We went back to the hotel and went swimming for a bit and headed in for the night. We slept really good that night. We were all so tired...

These are one of the apartments Spencer stayed at. They have a big lake in the middle that apparently he fell into once while trying to get his laundry balanced on his bike. Tatum LOVED feeding the ducks and we actually knocked on the door of the apartments and the elders were still living there. We talked to them for a while and found out one of them lives in Spencer's aunt's ward in Mesa! Small world!

This was the other apartments we visited. I didn't get out at this one, I just took it through the window I think. His mom has most of the pictures from the trip, I just have the ones I took from my camera or that his brother has posted on facebook. The sign says 'Mission Dr'.

This was really fun. We got to take a bus and they actually drove us around the 2.5 mile track and we got to see up close all of the cool parts. Spencer did this on his mission and he really wanted us to see it too. The crazy part? I actually enjoyed it!

This is the counting tower that counts how many laps they have driven.

The winner's stand. On top there are 3 stool like things for the winners to stand on.

This is the starting line. The entire track used to be made of these bricks. Going over 200  mph.....I don't think that would have been a very smooth or comfortable ride!

Lucas Oil Stadium. Where the Colt's play. I wasn't so interested in this, but the boys went inside to the pro shop and got a mini football. They were pretty happy.

Friday: Friday morning we got up and headed out to Elkhart, Indiana which is about 3 hours north of Indianapolis. We stopped at the world's largest chocolate store (didn't even see any chocolate!), played football on the half field at the college football hall of fame museum thing (they actually are in the process of moving it so we couldn't go in), visited Notre Dame (Spencer got a shirt in the gift shop and we took pictures  of all of the cool buildings and the touch down Jesus they have. We went to the hotel so the Hons could drop off their stuff and we headed to eat dinner with the Torres' and the Alarcons. These were the people that meant the most to Spencer when he was in Elkhart. They always fed him and have kept in touch since he has been home. They made us really yummy chicken and rice. Let me tell you. I am officially converted to REAL spanish rice. It is so much better than the Americanized spanish rice that everyone makes. We visited with them for a while and then the Hons went to their hotel and Spencer and I stayed the night at the Torres. This night was really fun because they all mostly spoke English really well so we were able to talk to them. We watched Ghost protocol before bed Friday night and went to sleep.

I love these boys, mostly the one on top but the kid on bottom is pretty cool too!

We ate lunch at the chocolate cafe! We all got soups or sandwiches. It was so nice because it was freezing outside so it warmed up our insides :)

The Boys started playing football and Tatum wanted to play too. Oh man...it was so funny. She was so into it and halfway through came over and gave Kathy her jacket. She was playing hard!

Notre Dame touchdown Jesus. 

Spencer's dad later said to someone that if you wanted to sit in a comfortable chair, go to the Notre Dame gift shop...he actually fell asleep in that chair!

Saturday: The Torres took us to a place called Bob Evan's for breakfast (it's like a Village Inn). It was so yummy! The Hons picked us up and we said goodbye. We really loved staying and visiting with these two families and I am so grateful for their hospitality and love towards Spencer on his mission :). Hermana Torres also got me some baby clothes :). I am so happy to be having a baby girl, girl clothes are so dang CUTE! We left to get back to Indianapolis where we had a dinner date with another family Spencer knew on his mission. On the way back we stopped at another apartment, the church building in Goshen where the Elkhart people all drive 30 min to church, saw some Amish people, and we stopped by the mission office. When the mission president wasn't there, we went by the mission home. Lucky for us, President Collins was there! We got to go in and visit with him and see the house where Spencer stayed the first night and the last night of his mission. It was fun to meet him and hear about how the mission has changed since Spencer left 2 years ago. We were late to dinner, but let me tell you, it was SO GOOD. It was chicken and rice again. For those of you that know me and my picky taste buds, I will eat chicken every single day. This visit was a little bit less fun for me but Spencer had so much fun there. Christina (the mom) spoke really good English but her husband and her mother didn't speak much/any English at all so they all just talked in Spanish the whole time. I just focused on my chicken for the most part and tried to follow along the best I could. I can usually understand Spanish fairly well, even though I can't speak it. But they talked SO FAST I couldn't keep up! Once the Hons got there they started talking in English so I was much happier. We said goodbye to them and headed to our last hotel of the trip. That night I was so tired, I decided not to go swim and neither did Spencer or his brother Hunter. We just hung out, watched Storage Wars, Spencer gave me a foot massage, and went to bed pretty early.

This church building used to be a storage facility. You would not even know it was a church but if you look inside, it looks exactly like a normal church building. So crazy!

There were Amish hook ups EVERYWHERE. And the horses just stood there, not budging. Tatum said it's because they were cold...

This is Janis, Christina's daughter.

Sunday: Sunday morning was a fun and stressful one. Since I was the only girl in the hotel room (Spencer, Hunter, and Hayden shared with me and everyone else was in the other one) I felt like I had the responsibility of getting everyone packed up and ready for church. Church started at 11 so we needed to leave by 10:15 because church was 30 minutes away. I had to help Spencer get his garments dry *Oh yeah, funny story. Apparently Spencer thought I was going to pack his garments for him, even though he packed the rest of his clothes. Long story short, Spencer only had the one pair of underwear he was wearing for the whole trip. Every night we would wash them in the tub with shampoo or body wash and then hang dry them overnight. It was quite the adventure.*, I had to get ready, I had to pack up all of our clothes, I had to keep the boys moving, and try to get Spencer to move quickly which he is not so good at. We left on time, but at that point, I was in a pretty bad mood. I didn't feel that good either so I guess that didn't help. We got to church and Spencer got to see a bunch more people that he taught and knew on his mission. At the end of Sacrament meeting, the branch president asked him to get up and bear his testimony. Spencer said he had really wanted to do it so he was glad that they asked him. It was a Spanish branch so the whole meeting was in Spanish. We all got to wear headphones and listen to the translator. It was a cool experience. After church, we went to one more apartment, visited two people's homes (Even thought they had moved. Spencer was so sad), and went to Cracker Barrel for lunch/dinner. Our plane left at 6 and since we were flying standby we needed to be there by 4. We got in and checked in so fast that we had almost two hours to spend in the airport. Spencer and I walked around looking for a souvenir for baby Hon but didn't find anything. Spencer surprised me with a key chain that I had like in one of the stores and then we just sat until the plane left. It was a little bit longer of a flight back...not sure why....but it seemed way longer because I was awake the whole time. Spencer was in a weird mood because he didn't like the fact that we were leaving and he was sad. Add to the fact that he thought he left the camera in the airport AND was missing his headphones...it was just a rough ride. We found the camera (Spencer's mom had picked it up thinking it was theirs) and she also had the headphones (somehow they had gotten into the other hotel room so she had just grabbed them). We got our luggage, grabbed the bus to the parking place, and headed home. It was a really fun trip and I am so glad that we were able to go. It was a trip we had planned probably four times and never actually got to go on. It was cold, but not as miserable as I thought it would be, and I got to spend 4 strait days without leaving Spencer's side. Sometimes, it's just nice to have some time together, even if we aren't alone. I will always remember this trip and I hope that Spencer will too.