Saturday, Day 8, arrived....the day that 2 things were to happen:
1) On our agenda was the Indianapolis Children's Museum....it is billed as one, if not THE best children's museum in the USA. Wow...that is enticing, isn't it?
2) We were to make the 6 hr trek home.
But we woke up to:
1) Tired children
2) Ava with a "barking dog cough"....and sorry hotel guests, we probably used ALL the hot water the hotel had to offer when we continually steamed our little barking cougher!
3) NO desire to spend an entire day at a children's museum and then still drive home.
SO....we had a light bulb moment...
The children LOVE Build A Bear and the cost for 4 Build A Bears plus outfits would be almost the same price as the admission for 6 into the children's museum (our pass excluded Indianapolis' museum)....AND....(here's the best part)....we'd get home a full 6-8 hrs earlier!!!!
We then did a quick internet search, found active BAB coupons which made our day cheaper than the museum and used the hotel's "office" to print 4 coupons off. We snagged our coffee and diet coke and off we went...our destination was Merrillville, IN. Lunch would be (yum yum) Portillos and then we'd hit the BAB at the local mall.
What a great idea, let me tell you. The kids had a blast picking out bears and clothes and/or leashes...
1) On our agenda was the Indianapolis Children's Museum....it is billed as one, if not THE best children's museum in the USA. Wow...that is enticing, isn't it?
2) We were to make the 6 hr trek home.
But we woke up to:
1) Tired children
2) Ava with a "barking dog cough"....and sorry hotel guests, we probably used ALL the hot water the hotel had to offer when we continually steamed our little barking cougher!
3) NO desire to spend an entire day at a children's museum and then still drive home.
SO....we had a light bulb moment...
The children LOVE Build A Bear and the cost for 4 Build A Bears plus outfits would be almost the same price as the admission for 6 into the children's museum (our pass excluded Indianapolis' museum)....AND....(here's the best part)....we'd get home a full 6-8 hrs earlier!!!!
We then did a quick internet search, found active BAB coupons which made our day cheaper than the museum and used the hotel's "office" to print 4 coupons off. We snagged our coffee and diet coke and off we went...our destination was Merrillville, IN. Lunch would be (yum yum) Portillos and then we'd hit the BAB at the local mall.
What a great idea, let me tell you. The kids had a blast picking out bears and clothes and/or leashes...
and this is the last photo we took on our trip...just prior to jumping back into the car for another 4 hours. Shortly after this photo was taken, all 4 kids were sound asleep clutching their new "bear" friends. When we got home, it was 5pm and as we unloaded, Colin played in the forest of grass that had grown in our yard and the girls enjoyed running and jumping on the trampoline and just being H-O-M-E!
We had an amazing 8 days...doing activities that I never thought we'd do. Staying places that I didn't think we could make work, due to Ellie's allergies and the size of our family. I put up some resistance to Andy with this vacation idea and he rose to the occasion and did a fantastic job planning. We had spreadsheets for everything (HAHA!) and we had wonderful hotels etc. Everything we did met my level of "high maintenance"! Never ever would I have dreamed our family could make it work....with no naps...with food allergies...with a large number attending activites that people might view as costly. Where there is a will....and a big God....there is also a WAY!
I do leave you with one more photo though...the caption on it explains it all...
I do leave you with one more photo though...the caption on it explains it all...
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