Foot Golf and Touring the Hotel

Woops, apparently I took some pictures with my camera and some with my phone and so didn't realize I'd lost some gems.  

Three little boys ready to "tee" off.

And one little girl kicking the ball, just trying to keep up with her fun older brothers.

Even Grams got in on the fun.

Isla lasted through the first hole and a half and then decided that the shaded golf cart was a much better place to hang out.  She literally didn't get off the seat again the whole 9 holes but she was happy the whole time just watching and trying to drive on her own.

After our foot golf and chess, I left the boys in the hotel room watching cartoons while Isla and I went out to explore the ornate gardens around the hotel.  We'd seen them on our drives in and out and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take cute pics of this little cutie.

This apparently used to be a hopping place for the wealthy and now it's just great for weddings and pictures.

Completed of course by the tiny old cemetery on the hill.

Wish we could have stayed longer in such a lovely place.

All decorated for Memorial day.

And maybe someday I'll have kids willing to just relax on a rocking chair overlooking the manicured lawn.  Yeah right.

On our drive out we nearly killed a box turtle who was crossing the road.

I made Taylor slam on his brakes and turn around to save him of course, and maybe to let our kids see him too.

Foot Golf

Our Monday morning was free since of course all the men went golfing at our hotel.  Luckily for us this hotel had a new kind of entertainment we've never seen or heard of before:  Foot Golf.  Huh?  Apparently it's a real sport.  It's a cross between golf, of course, and soccer.  My boys are suddenly in heaven.  So we showed up for our "tee time" and were handed regular sized soccer balls for each of us.  And then we drove our cart out to a normal golf course- with actual golfers just ahead of us- dropped our balls between the markers, and kicked off.

The markers are only about 100 yards back instead of 3 or 400 which is where the real golf tee markers are.  So it's a much shorter course on the same golf course.  Miles was very particular about his kick off.  He would make a triangle viewfinder with his fingers and then step up to the ball and kick off.  Very entertaining.

Good kick!

Yep, more view finders.

Even though each hole was only 100 yards, that was plenty for the boys to kick and run.  Eventually we gave up on playing the way golf is actually played which is by hitting over and over again but letting the person farthest from the hole go next.  Eventually we just let them kick off with a big kick and then run and dribble their balls.

Once they were up on the green though they reverted back to golf rules and took turns kicking into the giant hole.  It really is giant- could probably fit 3 soccer balls in it.  And it's up near the normal golf hole but kind of off to the side.  I assume the real golfers just have to treat it like any other sand or water hazard because if their ball goes in that big soccer hole, they'd just have to take a penalty stroke and pull it out.

Grams came along with us and we both appreciated the boys jumping in the hole to get our balls out.

We all loved this new game and hope more courses will put them in.  I'm not sure how much the real golfers loved having us on the course since 3 little boys kicking soccer balls and occasionally talking loudly isn't exactly golf etiquette, but we had a good time.

Since the men weren't done with their golf round yet, we got to enjoy the chess boards again back at the hotel.

It really was a beautiful hotel and a perfect family weekend.  This shot is from the cobblestone drive up to the hotel.

By lunchtime Isla was ready to go.  Car races and soccer golf weren't exactly her cup of tea.  Plus it was naptime and lunchtime.

This is how our flights went.  It's so nice to have kids old enough that they really entertain themselves.  Isla and Isaac sit with Taylor since Isaac is always very good about mothering Isla and Isla prefers Taylor putting her to sleep.  So Miles and Ethan are my buddies and the most I have to do is keep their feet off of seats.

The Indy 500

One of the other big draws for visiting Indiana- besides our amazing hotel, was that Taylor's dad wanted to go to the Indianapolis 500.  We have 3 little boys who have loved the Cars and Turbo movies.  How could we say no?

With just a little driving and a little walking we were there.

Okay so more than just a little walking, but with close to 300,000 people all going the same place at the same time, we were pleased to find easy in/out parking with just a 10 minute walk.

And then we were there.  Taylor's dad wanted 3 things- to be close to the start/finish line, in the shade, and listen to the commentators.  Our seats were perfect and with temperatures in the high 80's we were grateful to not be in the sun for 3 hours even if we didn't see all the passing on the turns.

It was neat to be close to the start so we could watch all the pre-race prep.

And the scoreboards were really useful because this is a LONG race!

Here's the first lap/slow drive around.

And really the only time I could get good shots of the cars because after this they were FLYING!

And suddenly they're all off!

And here we all are, turning left, turning right, watching in amazement.  Taylor's dad hooked everyone up with headphones that not only blocked out the ridiculously loud engines, but we could switch radio channels and listen to different commentaries and news and also listen in on each individual car's pit crew which was pretty entertaining.

Isla was very cute in her too big headphones...

But not really that excited to keep them on since they were so big.  In the end we just stuffed foam earplugs in her ears and she passed out and slept through most of the race.

There's Barb and Clint- dressed "appropriately" as they said.  If you're going to a redneck event, you absolutely need a ripped, sleeveless, jeans vest with the flag and eagle on the back.

And Taylor's parents who we really love hanging out with.

Miles was my buddy for the whole thing and entertained me with his very honest comments "this race is epic" and "this is REALLY loud!".

I guess I should have expected that 3 little boys (okay and one bigger boy) would be completely fascinated while the 2 year old girl would be bored out of her mind.  Luckily we brought along an ipod.

The time did pass quickly just because of all the things to see and all the radio listening choices.

I've never even watched a car race on TV before so everything was a new experience and it turned out that we got to see a really excited race.  There wasn't a crash or even a caution flag for over 150 laps which is apparently a record.  So we enjoyed just watching what is normally the boring parts of the race and then all the entertaining crashes and the ensuing change in leaders started and we had an exciting finish.

Luckily no one got really injured in the crashes so I didn't feel bad being fascinated by how fast the clean up crew gets out there, wraps the entire car and debri in a big tarp and gets it out of the way.

Watching the pit stops in front of up was amazing too- just like the Cars movies.

See, all 3 pit stops and the Target car is ready to go...

Wrapped, and off the track.

Ok so this isn't the car that one- that was the DHL car, but this was the only woman driver and the only pink car of course.  Isla wasn't impressed with it being pink- maybe because it was 100 feet away.  The race was really entertaining and while I doubt I'll ever care to go to one again, we had a great time and learned a lot and are grateful for the experience- and for kids that are pretty much happy to go along with anything.