indianapolis trip - day 1 & 2...

here we go, go, go, go...on an adventure.

the hicks family is on the road...

thursday we hit the road to head to indianapolis. max entertained himself by playing piano on my ipod.

we travelled to schaumburg, illinois, about half-way. i wanted to go to ikea and we thought it'd be a good idea to take max to the rainforest cafe. he likes animals...right? well, we learned that he does not like animatronic animals.

he loved the fish tanks and was squealing with excitement watching them swim around. then they sat us down by the gorillas. bad idea. the freaked him out. we needed to move. they put us by a calm, peaceful waterfall and rainbow.

but just over max's shoulder was a jaguar. he wouldn't take his eye off that thing and did not like when it growled.

see.

then the thunderstorms started and he was not a fan of the thunder.

we did comfort him and calm him down...about every 10-15 minutes as these things all happened on a rotating schedule.

he was happy to be ready to go.

we went to ikea. the one thing i wanted...they didn't have. go figure. i was going to buy some wooden spice racks to attach to max's bedroom wall to make bookshelves. i was super bummed and may have even thrown a mini-tantrum.

we walked around the store, found some cool lamps for our bedroom and a few other things. then we headed back to our hotel.

max did a little driving while we loaded up the car. then we were off to indianapolis!
we were meeting up with 3 other couples that i volunteered with in kentucky after college. it dawned on me that i have known these people for 11 years! we now all have kids and we were going to attempt to all stay in a hotel and keep the little ones entertained. i think we were pretty successful!

here's a shot of our room.
three of the four couples arrived in the afternoon. we suited up and headed to the pool.

i have never seen max have so much fun in the water...it was awesome!

here is ali and riley. riley is about 15 months old and is a happy little ball of energy! he's got a great smile and an amazing belly laugh. ali's husband chris couldn't come. he is a firefighter and couldn't get off of work.

here is charles and zoey. zoey's going to be a big sister in october...and kiara didn't feel like swimming...i don't blame her. zoey has the sweetest little voice. she'll be 2 in november. i think max had a little crush on her. she loves to swim and is also quite the fan on sesame street. she's such a smart little girl!

max and drew shared a moment...

...and a splash!

after the pool, we headed to dinner. at that point the theme of the weekend started...controlled chaos! it was awesome. after dinner we sat around and hung out and waiting for andy, kristen, and timmy to arrive. we put the kids down and discovered that our monitors worked in the lobby! yippee!