A Little Trip Down Memory Lane

So last Sunday, Tami and I took a drive that we know all too well.........well I know all too well. Apparently Tami couldn't get us there if her life depended on it! ;-) We went to Monon, IN. Where I grew up until I was 5 and where our grandparents lived and our aunt and uncle still do. This drive brings back a lot of good and bad memories. Bad memories included, being hungry and not getting to stop on the way out because we would be eating as soon as we got to Monon, being cramped in the car with my sisters and wanting to sleep and having no room to lay down, getting into many fights, being freezing because we forgot blankets and my dad would be too hot if we turned up the heat any higher. Ahhh, those were good times! :-) Then the good. Meeting grandma and grandpa in Gilman(the halfway point) to spend the week with them for VBS, stopping at McDonald's in Kentland for some "breakfast" on the way out, getting treats at the gas station, hearing my dad tell stories from his childhood and show us places he used to work, getting DQ in Watseka, and getting to sleep when we got a bigger vehicle that was large enough for us all to lay down!

We were feeling a little silly and decided to take some pictures to remember Grandma's house one last time. Keep in mind again, we were being silly!

So Grandpa used to stop along side the road at the Welcome to Indiana sign and being totally serious would roll down the window and tell us to sniff the air! He always said the air in Indiana smelled so much better than Illinois. I tried to act cool and act like I knew what he was talking about, but to me the air smelled no different than a second ago when we had been in Illinois!
This is where I grew up until I was 5. However back then the garage was not green, there were no cars on the lawn and there were not horses and chickens in the sideyard(horses and chickens not pictured)

Grandma's House, next time we see it, it will be Philip and Stephanie's house

Rachel and Jason, Jason is very funny. He is going to try and get Rachel to start liking country music! Good luck with that!

We would be the last two "older" cousins yet to get married. It pretty much has gone in order based on age. Sorry Tam that would mean I'm next! However my luck in that department well pretty much sucks, so you'll probably be first! :-)

Tami, are you rubbing your nose?! :-)

Aunt Jacki and Uncle Brian, they took us out to eat and then Uncle Brian was nice enough to last at Grandma's house for at least a couple hours while Tami and I just wandered around. He gave up on us after that and we spent the last hour or two by ourselves! :-)

Um Tam.......why do you have a dish towel on your lap?

Timed photos, you got to love them! You never quite know what the people around you will come up with in those 10 seconds that you're waiting with baited breath for the camera to go off!

Trying to get into Juno with the instructions, but having no keyboard made it difficult!

I love my president!

I used to be such a superfan of these guys! I thought I was the coolest kid in 4th grade when I wore my sweatshirt to school with all of their autographs! I was shocked when my classmates didn't know or care who The Cathedrals were! :-)

Feeling patriotic and paying our respects to President Reagan

Tami just chillin with some china dolls. No biggie!

Tami was a little behind on her silver linings, so she caught up quick while we packed the car.

One last look at grandma's house before we left. However her house would have never looked this messy. We kind of helped with that going through all the pictures!

So how many tries does it take to get this picture so me and the sign show up? Apparently 6! :-)

Something about this place makes me crave a dipped cone everytime I drive past! This was grandpa's favorite spots. It was the first time I ever had a butterscotch dipped cone!

Grandpa always told me this was the nicest gas station between IN and IL. I must have talked about it a lot because Tami asked me to point it out. It was unfortunately closed so I couldn't how Tami how cool it actually was, but we got a picture for memory's sake anyway!

Overall it was a fun day to be able to catch up with Rachel and Jason, remember some of our childhood and see Grandma's place one more time!