Trip to Indiana Recap

Hi Everyone!!

We recently got to spend several days in Indiana with family and it was a GREAT trip!

We spent the first couple of days in the South Bend / Mishawaka area with Eric, Lisa and Ian. It was such a blessing to be able to spend time with them in their house and get to spend some quality time getting to know Ian! While there we were able to tour the Bethel College campus and attend one of their chapel services, go to the College Football Hall of Fame and take Ian to Build-A-Bear to help make one of his Christmas presents! We also got to experience Lisa's amazing cooking! We read their blog often and hear about her recipes and love for cooking, but being able to experience it first hand was just awesome! They are a great family and we loved the time that we were able to spend with them!

We then spent the remainder of our trip in Fort Wayne with Sherri's parents. We packed a lot of activities into a short period but we had a blast! I got to experience my first taste of Indiana High School Basketball and what a game it was! Southside won with a last minute shot and the atmosphere was just electric! The stereotypes of Indiana and basketball are true!

On Saturday we had the big Amstutz Family Christmas and I think we had around 40 people come through the house that day. It was really great to get to see family and spend time with them, especially around the holidays! Both Sherri and I wish that we had more one-on-one time with everyone, but we feel like we got to connect with everyone pretty well! That evening we had a smaller Christmas with the immediate family and we finished the day up with a delicious dinner of Alaskan Crab and Shrimp Scampi! It was a great ending to a great day!

On Sunday we got up early and drove into Indianapolis for a Colts game! We got to see history made as the win gave them the most consecutive regular season wins, as well as becoming the winning-est team in any decade. Pretty Awesome! After the game we were able to go on the field and hear a few speakers, but honestly, I was more focused on being on the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium than I was with anything they were saying, it was just a great experience all around and a memory that we are super glad we got to share with family!

Monday was our last full day there so it was spent with some last minute shopping and packing.

We headed for Chicago on Tuesday, along the way we stopped in Warsaw and got to spend a few minutes with a friend who now works for Grace College, it was cool to connect with a fellow Alaskan in the heart of Hoosier country! We forgot about the time difference between Chicago and Indiana so we got to Chicago earlier than we expected, we filled the time with a trip to Wrigley Field and then we wrapped up our trip with a quick visit with my brother! He happened to be in Chicago for business that day and it worked out perfectly that we got to see him!

Our trip was not as long as we would have liked it to be, but we are so thankful that we got to see as many people as we did and we really did have a great time! On the trip back home we both agreed that this was probably our best trip yet to Indiana! Being able to spend time with Ian and finally meet Kaylyn were certainly highlights of our trip! We are certainly a proud Aunt & Uncle!