Vacation 2010

Probably 6 months ago, my family began planning to go back to the beach together after 10 years. It doesn't seem that long, but I guess time flies. So it was my entire immediate family plus significant others (no, not Danica), my aunt and my two cousins, and the entire Hendricks family. We had three houses on the same street which was very nice. Chris's company had a company outing at King's Island in Cincinnati and if he attended, he would get the day off paid. So we got up early on Friday morning, dropped Hank off at the pet ranch and drove to Cincy. We spent a couple hours there going on rides and getting our free lunch. We were going to stay longer, but we were too excited to get to the beach. Off we went, embarking on the longest leg of our vacation - 12 hours.

The plan was to drive as far as we could and to get a dumpy hotel room and then drive the rest of the way in the morning to be on the beach by 9am. You can sleep when you're dead, right? Well, knowing myself, I warned my sister that we might try to do the trip in one night and could she please stay awake to let us in. Sure enough, we got two hours out and I was feeling good so we went for it. We arrived around midnight and had been texting my sister with no response. To make a long story short, we ended up sleeping for a couple hours in the garage of the house until my dad was awake to let us in.

Courtney and Christen came down for the first weekend of our trip. It was so good to see them as I hadn't seen them in so long. On Saturday night, we invited all the adults to come over for some grown up beverages. Here's a picture of most of the ladies.


One of the deals of the trip was that my mom didn't want to be cooking and cleaning the entire time. This was her vacation too. So each couple had a night to cook. On my dad's night, he made his famous ceasar salad and lobster. Here's a picture of the amazing feast we had.

On Facebook, I always see the Dadi girls posting about Duck Donuts. This must be something relatively new b/c I had never heard of them in all my years at Duck. However, I was willing to be swayed and take a visit. So Chris and I preordered donuts for the whole gang and got up early to go pick them up. They make them fresh and put the toppings on right in front of you! Delicious! Thanks for the recommendation!

For Chris' and my night of cooking, we decided to bring a little bit of Chris' hometown recipes to the beach. We made Chicago style hot dogs with tomato salads (one of Chris' personal recipes). I was a little worried that my family wouldn't even try these concoctions since we are a ketchup kind of family. However, they surprised me by being very adventurous and trying them and even going back for seconds. With the exception of Jeff, who I found out, hates tomotoes. Whoops!

We left the beach mid afternoon on Thursday and made our way up to Nova to spend some needed time at the Hole with Heather, Kristen, and Amanda. In the morning, we got up super early to go pick up the Rallys and head back to Indy. Although Kim offered to help with the driving, I am too much of a control freak to actually let that happen and I drove the whole way. Sorry Kim! We basically spent the weekend dining at all the best restaurants in Indy (Perugini's, Flapjacks, Steak N Shake, and Jersey Mikes), playing board games, playing with Hank, and of course, going to the Brickyard. The race was good, not continuously hot, Jimmie Johnson didn't win. It was pretty empty. I hate to say it, but I'm losing interesting NASCAR pretty quickly. Boo. But here is a super cute picture of me and Chris. I know ya'll can't get enough of those!

So after 10 days and over 2,000 miles, I'm ready for a vacation from my vacation. My throat has been sore this week and I'm exhausted. I hope this trip didn't make me sick. Next year, I hope we just go to the beach and that's it!

Snow Globes

Many people are unaware of the dangers of snow globs. Thank god Laguardia airport has brought awareness to this issue. There are people sneaking snow globes on to the planes and it is a disgrace!

PS I did not see any signs in the security checkout line telling me that I can't bring guns or fireworks or knives.

Dreams

Last night I dreamed that I was helping a co-worker walk her mom's five labradoodles and I lost one. The eerie part of the dream was her mom's house was actually my grandma's townhouse in McLean. It was weird being back in there and when I woke up this morning, I was overwhelmed with memories. After she passed away, the townhouse was left to my mom and my two aunts. At the time, I was the only grandchild living on my own locally. My mom offered to let me live in the townhouse rent free.

It was a very tempting offer and I have always thought back to my choice. Obviously, I choose to move to Indy and not to take the townhouse. The townhouse was sold and now its someone else's home. Sometimes I wonder what direction my life would have taken if I had opted to live there. I would have had a really long commute to a job that wasn't worth commuting that far. I would have been away from all my friends. The neighborhood was a little older and I would have had to respect those neighbors. My grandma lived there for 25 years! The other stipulation was that any cousin that moved back to the area could move in there. I love my cousins, but I'm not sure I would want to live with them. Also, all of the aunts would have had a key and been able to come over whenver they wanted to. But I would have had a beautiful home in a great location rent free. Would I have gone back to school? Would I have attempted to get an office job?

I don't know. I think that's what bothers to me to this day. I think I made the right choice. I love my life in Indy. I never would have met Chris (awwwwwww!). I never would have found the job that I have now. I would have never "settled down." I believe the pros outweigh the cons in my decision. However, that dream last night really rattled me up. It would have been nice to keep the house in the family. It would have been nice to somewhat OWN a place and not throw money away renting some dumpy apartment. Oh well, I don't believe in living life with regrets. I just sometimes wonder...

Father's Day Weekend

About a week ago, my dad found out that the family was throwing a 90th birthday party for my great-aunt Mary Grace. Mary Grace did a lot for my grandma when we weren't living out here in Indy and my dad felt it was only right that he come out here for the occasion. I was happy to go because I'm pretty sure that the majority of my dad's side of the family has no clue that I've been living in Indy for 4 years. (Can you believe it will be 4 years in August?) Anyway, so I went in hopes of meeting cousins and honoring my wonderful Aunt Mary Grace.

Well, in true Schroeder/Lauck tradition, there was booze there. My dad and I brought our own bottles of booze and began making drinks. So probably for the first hour, I tagged along with my dad and introduced myself to some members of the family. After that, I had liquid courage and I was all around the room giving out numbers and e-mail addresses. I found out that I have a bunch of cousins around my age living in Chicago, Detriot, St Louis, Cincinnati. All places that I want to go visit and sight see at. I found out that I have a cousin who is looking for an apartment right near me so I gave her mom Chris' business card. I guess that's what happen when your grandma has 8 brothers and sisters. You have too many family members to count. It was a good feeling. And I was pretty smashed by the end. Yay family!

On Sunday, I went to brunch with my dad and his cousin, Tom at Rick's Boatyard. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it. We sat out on the patio overlooking the lake and Eagle Creek Park. It was gorgeous. Our food was delicious and I was happy to be able to treat my dad to a nice meal. That night, Chris made pork tenderloin and his yummy potatoes. So I really think I gave my dad a pretty awesome Father's Day weekend. And I was able to check a few things off my list. :-)

Spice Girls!

Normally I have a love/hate relationship with my favorite radio station here in Indy. I love their morning show so its always on in my car so I can enjoy my drive into work. However, in the afternoon, its Ryan Seacreast who annoys the crap out of me. He's like a chick! Anyway, so a lot of times I just drive home in silence. Work can be loud and sometimes its nice just to have the windows down and listen to the sounds of the highway. Well yesterday, I decided to try some other stations to see if maybe there was one that I could deal with in the afternoons. The fourth station I found was playing none other than Spice Girls. What was even more disturbing was that I remembered every single word to the song and almost remembered some of the dance moves to the routines we had as teenagers for this song.




Then I found out that a girl I work with LOVED the Spice Girls and even still has her copy of the movie. I never saw the movie so she is, thankfully, bringing it in so I can borrow it. Now should I make Chris watch it with me or leave him alone??

Fishy Fishy Fishy!

This weekend, Chris and his friend, Sormalis, decided to go check out Eagle Creek Park and see what they had for fishing. It was supposed to rain, but isn't that the best time to go fishing. They ended up having a beautiful day and fished for about 6 hours! Here is the catfish that Chris caught. He thinks it was about 3lbs. Pretty cool! I'm just happy that everyone else seems to be on the same page about being outside this summer!

My Pal, Walter

So this morning, I get up as usual to get ready for work and I take Hank out on my usual walk. Hank is a very private potty guy. Our building is sort of nestled in this woods area and he likes to go into the woods to the bathroom. I have no problem with this b/c it means I don't have to pick up his crap. However, there are a lot of distractions in the woods; birds, squirrels, raccoons, bums, beers botttles, trash, bugs, etc.

This morning, Hank peed and then I could hear this purring kind of sound. Whatever it was kept purring and then squeaking. At first I thought it was a squirrel. You would be surprised to learn how much they will tease a dog once they are safely up in a tree. But it didn't really sound like a squirrel. So I looked around and that is when I spotted my new friend.

Its a baby raccoon, if you can't see! I tried to get as close as I could, but raccoons are vicious animals so I didn't want to risk it especially with Hank right there. I know that in the tree right outside our patio, there is a family of raccoons. Four babies and the momma. Chris and I like to sit out on the patio a lot at night and just enough the weather. We've witnessed this family coming out for the evening. Its pretty cute watching the babies. But I did see them earlier this week out in front of our complex so I thought maybe they had moved. I hope the baby wasn't lost from his momma. That would make me pretty sad even though he will just grow up to be a pain in my butt.

PS Go Blackhawks!