Pictures of the girls

Jill bravely took the girls to get their pictures taken last Friday. Amelia was awake the entire time, but Madelyn wasn't much in the mood for saying cheese to the lady with the camera. You can click here to access our picture proofs. You will have to put Jill Carnes in for the customer name when asked to. We ordered several prints to send out, so if you want to order some, please be sure to check with us first about what we got for you. We will have them back on the 27th.

Brown County Beauties

Brown County Indiana. It's a beautiful place. Home to Brown County State Park, the Nashville art colony, the town of Beanblossom, a piece of Lake Monroe. Anyone who has been there can attest to it's beauty, but I'm not writing about the flora and fauna. I'm writing about our little beauties, of course. Amelia (sleeping) was in the mood for a road trip, so we asked Madelyn what she thought about heading down south. She was jazzed.

It was a perfect day for a family picnic at the State Park. We packed the coolers and hit the road.

Our route took us through Martinsville, one of the cities hardest hit by the recent flooding of the White River. The Chrysler dealership had a sign out front that read, "No Flood Cars Here". The Ford dealership next door wasn't so lucky. They had a group of what looked like 75 cars encircled with caution tape. There's nothing quite like that "wet car" smell.

We finally made it to the park, which luckily was above water. We had our picnic, and Maddie got to play on the playground. Amelia got to go on her first hike.

We hooked up the baby carrier (first time) and I toted her around the lake, while Jill and Madelyn followed.

The trip was a success, the girls had fun, and crying and whining was at a minimum. That's what I call a good Father's Day.

Just out for a Sunday drive....

Many of you have probably heard by now of the record flooding that occurred here in Central Indiana over the weekend. It began raining overnight Friday and by about 1 PM on Saturday, 7 inches of rain had fallen in Indianapolis and about 11 inches just south of us. Needless to say, it caused some problems with the roads.

Sunday we were planning to go to Terre Haute and visit. Mom was in town and we were going to go have a cookout at Randi and Joe's. The problem that was affecting us was that I-70 westboud to Terre Haute was closed because part of the road had collapsed. Luckily we knew about this ahead of time and were prepared for a detour.

We set out at 11:00 am. We stopped in Plainfield for gas and a soda. We traveled on 70 to exit 41 where traffic was being sent North on 231. The line of cars as we exited on 231 was stopped and Chuck decided we should go South and try taking 42 over. We needed to go 20 miles before we could get back on 70 or take US 40. We drove about 12 miles and decided we had made the right choice and would be outsmarting traffic. Just after that we came to a field that was flooded on both sides of the road and the water was rushing across. Chuck turned us around and we headed back towards the original detour.

On our way back Chuck wanted to see the Cagle Mill Dam. So, thinking it would be just off the road we were on, he turned off and we drove a few miles on a gravel road and found the dam. We will be interested to go back and see what it looks like when there hasn't been so much rain.

By this time, it was about 1:15. We set back on our way and made it up to 40. It looked surprisingly clear so we turned west bound and were headed for Terre Haute again. We drove for several miles and were confident it wouldn't take us too long. That is until we came to Brazil. Well, we never saw Brazil because the line of cars were at a dead stop and were not moving any time soon. At this point, we decided to call it a trip and head back.

Now, it doesn't sound too bad right? It gets better (and funnier). We then went back and ended up at that same exit off of 70 in Cloverdale for lunch. Both the girls were ready to eat by now, so we ate at Chicago's Pizza. Great pizza, so we were glad for that!

After a stop for lunch, we were ready to head home. When we got back onto I-70 we saw the traffic that was being diverted onto 231 had worsened. The line on 70 was backed up for 4 miles to take the detour. Glad we didn't have to sit in that!! We were about 1/2 mile from the entrance to our neighborhood and we, yet again, encountered high water. So, we had to turn around and take a different road home.

So after 4 hours and 15 minutes, a half a tank of gas and 135 miles of travel we had only full stomachs to show for it. We were sorry we didn't make it to Terre Haute, but it certainly wasn't because we didn't try!!

This picture is from the Indianapolis Star. People submitted their own pictures and this one happens to be in our neighborhood. The fence you see on the left is the fence along Wicker Road that edges the golf course. They had to shut down the exit to our neighborhood and Wicker Road because of high waters. They have all receded and are passable, but looks like it was pretty bad right after the storm!

After we returned home Sunday, Chuck mowed the lawn. Maddie wanted to go outside so badly and when he finished, we went out and turned the sprinkler on for Maddie. She isn't a big fan of water, but Chuck got her to get into it a little. These are just a couple of pictures of her playing.

Amelia is a month old!

Friday Amelia was officially a month old. She had her one month appointment with the doctor and is doing great! In just 2 weeks she put on 2 pounds. Now she is 10 lbs. 1 oz. She is doing better with sleeping at night. We still get up twice with her, but are almost getting used to it!