Mystery trip for Spring Break

Because we had a huge trip to Europe planned for the summer, we knew that we could only do a mini-spring break trip this year. A friend of mine from my days at Marian gave me the idea to do an annual mystery trip where just our little family would go somewhere together. We would plan the trip, and the girls were given clues to guess the location. Here were the clues:

1) It's somewhere within 2 hours driving distance.
2) There's a water park.
3) We'll be able to ride ponies!
4) We may even go for a boat ride!

What was the location? Brown County State Park. On our way down, we made a quick detour to Indiana University to show the girls where I went to university and where their dad proposed to their mom all those years ago.

Collins Living Learning Center

Verena's and my old house
(taken by the lovely girl living in the duplex currently) and where Alan proposed
After a brief stint at the local playground in Bloomington right by our old duplex, we checked into the Abe Martin Lodge at Brown County State Park. We also went to check out the scene in little Nashville, Indiana for dinner. The girls were intrigued by the random art on the quiet streets. They also loved the water park at the lodge, the random large stuffies in the lodge, and the games we could play there.  






The next morning we made our way to Lake Monroe for a chilly boat ride. It was still beautiful out on the water, and we were the only ones there (because everyone else chooses someplace warmer for spring break)!





We had a wonderful time walking a short trail from the lodge to watch the sunset, play with the bubbles, and have a couple of quiet moments together as a family.  




And we celebrated our last day with one more trip to the pool before heading to the stables. Now, it turns out that I am not the biggest fan of riding horses. They are enormous creatures. They deserve our respect. At any moment they could decide to buck their riders. They often seem to have minds of their own, and they can smell my fear from a mile away. I think you're getting the picture, right? Therefore, it is a great sign of love for my daughter, Moira, that I agreed to go on an hour-long trail ride with her. She was barely old enough to ride the horses rather than the ponies, and she was very excited at the prospect. It turns out that it was probably one of the best experiences I had on a horse, probably because I was trying to be brave for Moira! Truthfully, I was scared the entire time that Moira was going to fall off, but our trail guide was absolutely brilliant with her and kept saying,
"Come on, cowgirl--stay on the center of the horse and squeeze your legs tight to his body!" Somehow we survived going up some pretty big hills and then dropping back down to the stables, and I am sure it will be the first of many times that my children challenge me to set my worries aside in favor of their personal growth. We celebrated our success with a short run around the pony ring for both Moira and Hannah as well as a trip to the ice cream shop before heading back home to Indy. 






What a fantastic inaugural mystery trip for our family!

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