Elan had his treatment at 7 AM so that gave us an entire day of fun. It was conveniently the day I had to turn my laptop in for work so FREE! Mike and Cindy live in LA with their 3 absolutely charming and beautiful girls. We haven't seen each other for 18 years!!! Can you believe it??? The last time I saw them was at their wedding! they only make it back to the midwest every year or so just like us so never synced up. Mike's grandma (who I think he said is 95!) lives about 3 hrs from Bloomington so we met 1/2 way in Terre Haute at the mall - great location since it was 100 degrees out! Elan's treatment has left his skin a bit "sunburn" lets say so he needs to stay in the AC right now or shade - but at 100 degrees we all need to be out of the sun.
So unbelievably kind of them to reach out to us and organize this meet up. They are only here like I said once a year or so and have a TON of family to visit all over the place. They had their trials with their oldest having Down Syndrome so really some loving and caring words shared. So amazingly upbeat and some great advise too on handling Elan's present and future! Mike - we have Mozart playing right now :). Their oldest is Ailia (9) is now in "regular" school and doing fantastic! Brings so much joy to see her so happy and enjoying life! Emily (5)is sooo personable and Finn became BFFs right away. Little Ivy (2) - so sweet and kind and Elan hooked up to her right away. Ailia went between all of them and had a blast!
We had lunch at the foodcourt and then let the kids go wild on the coin operated machines one never says yes to - boy did they have a blast! See the loads of photos for proof! After leaving them we headed to the "crossroads of AMerica" - nothing to drive out of your way for :)
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| Notice it is a Pink Panther train - my boys love the old pink panther cartoons! |
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| This is Ivy's flamingo - a bit hit! |
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| I love this series of shots - a virtual roller coster |
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| Don't we look alike? Erik said we both look like grandma Neca - we do! Hadn't realized before. |
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| Love this one! |
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| Emily is such a model here :) |
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| And here :) |
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| Here is the crossroads of america- not much here but the plack and a statue of the Max Ehrmann a poet who mused here in the past. He wrote "Desiderata". The only thing we didn't do was drive by the Federal pen... save for next time:) |
