Indy Trip: the zoo and the children's museum

My friend Amie, from college, was a bridesmaid in my wedding. She lives in Vincennes, IN. We have tried to make a point of visiting one another every summer. The summer after our wedding, we went their way and visited and stayed at their house. The following summer, when Amie was pregnant with Brady, they came here to visit us. Last summer, when I was pregnant with Olivia, it should have been our turn to visit them, but we didn't end up making it out there. This summer, we decided we would meet in Indy - kind of a halfway point. It takes about two hours for both of us to get there. We thought it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo. Brady will be two in November and I can't believe I hadn't met him yet. Amie hadn't met Olivia either.  It was so good to see her and meet Brady. Unfortunately, her husband Matt wasn't able to make it due to having to work. Here are the pictures from our trip to the zoo.

I fed a giraffe, which made me a little more nervous than I expected.
They have big mouths and tongues!

Amie and Brady feeding the giraffe...she is much calmer :)

Olivia and Daddy checking out the monkeys

Olivia and I on the train

Amie and I and the babies

Yusaku and I had decided to make a weekend out of it and spent the night in Indy. Sunday morning we got up and decided to make a pitstop at the Indianapolis Children's Museum before heading home. I have many good memories of going there myself when I was little. Olivia is really a bit too young to enjoy most of the things at the museum right now, but she did enjoy a special section of the museum meant for preschool age children and younger. I look forward to taking her back again when she is a little older and can do more things. Here are some pictures of our trip to the museum.

Yusaku and Olivia in front of Bumblebee from Transformers 

All three of us on the carousel

Olivia enjoyed playing with the balls in the baby area

And, crawling around this little obstacle course

What a sweet face! :)

Look at that face! What a goofball!

Going through a tunnel for the first time!

Visit to Columbus and fun with Leslee and Quinn

We headed up to Columbus about 2 weeks ago for a surprise 30th birthday party for my friend Kelly's husband, Luke. It was great to see, Kelly, Luke, and Ella, and Olivia loved interacting with all the other kids there. Here are some pictures from our visit.

So much excitement between all the new people and toys

Olivia discovered lots of fun new toys at their house

All the big kids climbed up the slide, so Olivia
figured she could do it too! :)

Attempted to get a picture of the two of them both
looking at the camera.  Obviously, I failed. :)

Kelly and I

Olivia and I have had lots of fun little adventures with Leslee and Quinn this summer. Here are some pictures from our two most recent adventures - Carillon Park and Paw Paw Camp at Hills and Dales.

The Carillon

Leslee and Quinn checking out the Budweiser horses who were there for the German Fest.
Olivia prefers to keep her distance from large farm animals. :)

Not good of Olivia, but cute of Quinn. He was saying "cheese".

Leslee must have been saying or doing something interesting.

Getting ready to have a picnic lunch

"Hey, what are you doing down there?"

This is the only picture I have of them from our trip to Paw Paw Camp. I looove it! So cute! It looks like they're having a conversation!

The Latest Adventures of the Kawai Family

Another month has gone by since I last posted anything on the blog. I'll attribute it to a busy summer and not a whole lot of time to myself to accomplish this kind of thing. There's so much to catch up on...our trip to North Carolina, a visit with Kelly and Luke in Columbus, and a trip to Indianapolis to meet up with Amie and Brady at the zoo. Of course, there are some fun visits with Leslee and Quinn mixed in there, as well as Olivia doing lots of learning and growing too! So, let's start with the beach!

We broke up the drive down by stopping halfway in Wytheville, VA. Overall, Olivia did pretty well in the car. Here's a picture of her in the car, hugging her baby doll. :)

 And, here's Olivia flopping down on the hotel bed once we arrived in Wytheville.

When we finally got to our condo, we moved all our stuff in and then headed down to the beach for a quick visit. Here are pictures of Olivia's first time seeing the ocean.

We soon discovered that Olivia did not like the feeling of the sand on her feet or legs. After a few days, however, she got over it. Phew!  Here are some pictures of her enjoying the beach (and sand).  We had this perfect little "river" that developed every afternoon when the tide went out. It was shallow and had no waves - perfect for a baby! :)

She also enjoyed visiting with her Pop Pop, swimming in the pool at the condo and at Pop Pop's house, visiting with her cousins, Alex, Jack, and Charlie, and celebrating Pop Pop's birthday.

Chico likes to get in the pool too!
Olivia got a kick out of it! :)

Olivia with Alex

Olivia with Jack and Charlie

delicious cupcakes for Pop Pop's birthday

We ate at our favorite restaurant, Sear's Landing, checked out the intracoastal waterway, and visited the sea turtle hospital.

on the back porch of Sear's Landing,
overlooking the Intracoastal

Waiting in line at the sea turtle hospital.
It was so humid that my camera steamed up!

We can't forget to mention that Sarah was there and Olivia loved playing with her aunt.

Olivia really showed how much she loved her Grandpa on this trip. Here are some pics of her and her best bud.

Our last dinner with Pop Pop and Flo before we had to go home.

Olivia and Flo :)

I'll end this post with a few more of my favorite pictures from the trip. I can't wait to go back!