The seminary has a reading break in October so this was the perfect time for us to take a vacation since Chris didn't have to be around to record classes. Plus, there was an awesome coupon for homeschooling families at the Creation Museum which got us in for less than half price.
We left at about 6 AM on a Thursday. I was thinking we'd drive for a couple hours and stop for breakfast around 8.
First stop: 6:20 AM. Joel had to go to the bathroom and the driver was hungry already. So McDonalds in Zeeland it was! Luke's pretty happy about it.
Unfortunately, about 2 1/2 hours later, our carefree vacation bliss was dashed when our van started making a horrible thumping noise around Indianapolis.
Is this a waiting area at a Ford dealership? Why, yes, it is! We spent the afternoon here getting the spark plug replaced on our van. Davey Crockett to the rescue!
Luke (and all the boys) was a trooper.
After about 2 hours, the dealership took pity on us and drove us to the local mall. We ate the food court, which we actually love to do since everyone can get what they like, and the boys got to run around a bit. Actually, this was probably one of the best parts of their trip.
Luke liked it too!
So after about 4 hours at the dealership, they informed us that our van was all fixed up and we were good to go! We didn't think too much about the slightly rough way the van was running.
We stayed in Cincinnati and went right over the border to the Creation Museum in Kentucky the next day. The museum is a beautiful building and the exhibits are very well done, but we quickly discovered that our children were a bit too young to really appreciate it. They enjoyed looking at the dinosaurs, but there is a lot of reading to do with the exhibits. We were constantly calling them back to come and see something or just wait so we could read some things.
I think this is the only pic I took inside the museum and this was at the very end on the way out.
We did find a really nice science curriculum in the gift shop for the boys. But FYI, it's a little cheaper on cbd.com.
They have beautiful trails and gardens outside. We spent just as much time walking around outside as we did inside.
Here's Chris attempting to get the boys to slow down and observe.
Really gorgeous landscaping. And we had great weather.
I'm not sure if the lights were for Christmas coming up or for outdoor lighting.
Our 4 dinosaurs!
Joel meeting a zorse (zebra + horse).
Aaron feeding the zedonk (zebra + donkey).
Noah with some strange looking fowl.
Andrew's turn.
That evening Chris decided to take us to Waffle House, his favorite restaurant in the south. On the way there, we noticed blue smoke coming out of the exhaust and the van was running pretty rough. After consulting with a few mechanics in the family, we decided to light out for home the next day and head towards Lafayette, IN, where my aunt lives where we would bail if we didn't think the red beast would make it home. But even though it was running rough, it seemed to keep on going and we made it all the way home. On Monday, we took it to the local Ford dealership (and forked out another 100 bucks for them to just look at it), only to be told that we needed a new engine which would cost $6400! Um, no thanks! Turns out the first Ford dealership knew that our engine was on life support, but somehow that wasn't communicated to us and it wasn't in the paperwork. So we sold our red beast on craigslist for a song and bought a new-to-us minivan (which I'm pretty pleased with), and our trip to KY will forever be remembered as "that" trip!
We left at about 6 AM on a Thursday. I was thinking we'd drive for a couple hours and stop for breakfast around 8.
First stop: 6:20 AM. Joel had to go to the bathroom and the driver was hungry already. So McDonalds in Zeeland it was! Luke's pretty happy about it.
Unfortunately, about 2 1/2 hours later, our carefree vacation bliss was dashed when our van started making a horrible thumping noise around Indianapolis.
Is this a waiting area at a Ford dealership? Why, yes, it is! We spent the afternoon here getting the spark plug replaced on our van. Davey Crockett to the rescue!
Luke (and all the boys) was a trooper.
After about 2 hours, the dealership took pity on us and drove us to the local mall. We ate the food court, which we actually love to do since everyone can get what they like, and the boys got to run around a bit. Actually, this was probably one of the best parts of their trip.
Luke liked it too!
So after about 4 hours at the dealership, they informed us that our van was all fixed up and we were good to go! We didn't think too much about the slightly rough way the van was running.
We stayed in Cincinnati and went right over the border to the Creation Museum in Kentucky the next day. The museum is a beautiful building and the exhibits are very well done, but we quickly discovered that our children were a bit too young to really appreciate it. They enjoyed looking at the dinosaurs, but there is a lot of reading to do with the exhibits. We were constantly calling them back to come and see something or just wait so we could read some things.
I think this is the only pic I took inside the museum and this was at the very end on the way out.
We did find a really nice science curriculum in the gift shop for the boys. But FYI, it's a little cheaper on cbd.com.
They have beautiful trails and gardens outside. We spent just as much time walking around outside as we did inside.
Here's Chris attempting to get the boys to slow down and observe.
Really gorgeous landscaping. And we had great weather.
I'm not sure if the lights were for Christmas coming up or for outdoor lighting.
Our 4 dinosaurs!
Joel meeting a zorse (zebra + horse).
Aaron feeding the zedonk (zebra + donkey).
Noah with some strange looking fowl.
Andrew's turn.
That evening Chris decided to take us to Waffle House, his favorite restaurant in the south. On the way there, we noticed blue smoke coming out of the exhaust and the van was running pretty rough. After consulting with a few mechanics in the family, we decided to light out for home the next day and head towards Lafayette, IN, where my aunt lives where we would bail if we didn't think the red beast would make it home. But even though it was running rough, it seemed to keep on going and we made it all the way home. On Monday, we took it to the local Ford dealership (and forked out another 100 bucks for them to just look at it), only to be told that we needed a new engine which would cost $6400! Um, no thanks! Turns out the first Ford dealership knew that our engine was on life support, but somehow that wasn't communicated to us and it wasn't in the paperwork. So we sold our red beast on craigslist for a song and bought a new-to-us minivan (which I'm pretty pleased with), and our trip to KY will forever be remembered as "that" trip!
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