The Josephs Family: A speedy Trip to Indianapolis

We headed out a little after noon on Friday, April 29th on our way to Indianapolis!

Packed up with the crew and on the road:

Yay! Indiana! (PS - What a BORING drive when you don't go through Chicago!)

Once we found our hotel, our next order of business was to find a restaurant to celebrate my birthday! As birthday magic would have it, there was a Cheeseburger in Paradise three blocks from our hotel!! Their fruity drink is so yummy! :)

The next stop that night, before it got dark - was to find Lucas Oil Stadium!

Found it! And gave it the big old Thumbs Down! ;)

The Josephs in front of the stadium. Much bigger than Lambeau! Well, LOOKS bigger than Lambeau as it actually holds less people than Lambeau! (67,000 in Indy to 81,435 in Green Bay)

When we got back to the hotel we finished off the night sharing some shakes from Steak & Shake - mine was appropriately the Birthday Cake Shake! :)

Saturday was a crazy busy day! We were planning on heading to Michelle and Abdul's wedding around 11 - but I got a call at 9:30 that their photographer didn't show up and they were hoping that I might be able to step in. After a quick prayer for God to help me through and capture some wonderful memories we were off! I had a TON of fun taking the pictures and I hope that Michelle and Abdul enjoy them!

I'll share a couple of my favorites - cause I can! ;)

And our kiddos enjoying the cake and dancing!

Since the wedding was an afternoon wedding we had the evening free for more exploring. We headed to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Mom & Victor.

The kiddos in front of the museum:

The Josephs:

Mom & Vic with the kids:

Near the track

and by the big logo on the stands!

We went out to dinner that night at Fuijiyama. The kiddos got kiddie cocktails!

Nathan was a huge fan of the soup!

and the sushi - which he used his chopsticks for!

Brantley was concerned about the show...

Mads with a umbrella in her hair:

The kids really wanted a Frosty - so they enjoyed a snack at bedtime.

On Sunday we decided to head home without a specific plan in mind. We ended up at Notre Dame!

Nate took a picture by the football stadium so if he ever plays college ball there we can show him that he was there when he was 5! :)

By "Touchdown Jesus"

We continued on our trip in South Bend, Indiana and found the World's Largest Chocolate Store. We only got a couple snacks, it wasn't actually that impressive...

But next door to the Chocolate Store was the old site of the College Football Hall of Fame. (Apparently it moved to Atlanta in 2014) The kids had fun running some routes on the turf, though!

Onward we went and stopped in Valparaiso - we said hello to Orville Redenbacher!

He told the kids his secret to success!

Andrew and I just hung out for a bit.

Andrew was wishing he had some nifty suspenders too!

Guess what the kids found next... 7-11 and that meant a stop for Slurpees! (Man, we shouldn't have introduced them to Slurpees when we were in Jacksonville!)

We drove home through Chicago and I wanted to stop at the Statue of the Republic in Jackson Park. It's a replica of the statue that was made for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.