Indiana Trip

We took a family vacation to Indiana to visit our friend Katherine who captured Kennedy’s first year with photography. The plan was to take some family photos so we could have our Christmas card complete and to portray Kennedy at age two.

Kennedy began running fever the night before we were to leave. Trey and I were hoping it was just a 24-hour bug, but this wasn’t the case. She ran fever the entire trip, which reached as high as 103. At one point, I was looking into her mouth and thought I saw a rotted tooth because there was some dark brown almost black looking stuff around one of her top teeth. After many a tears, some vomiting, and restless sleep, we took her into the minor emergency office where we found out she had a virus that causes blisters in the mouth.

To combat the fever Trey and I tried about everything. The best result we found was using a suppository. I just didn’t realize they shot out of the rear end like they did. Apparently, we thought one went in and stayed in until the next morning when I walked to the bathroom I had one stuck to my foot.

Weather…. when we left Texas we had just experienced the hottest summer in the history of Austin. When we arrived in South Bend, Indiana they were experiencing their second coldest August. Besides the cold weather, it rained the entire time in both South Bend and Chicago. The scenery was beautiful because of the wet weather. Lush green crops mostly soybeans and corn were seen most of the trip. We were able to see a lot of the country side because Trey was determined not to have to pay any tolls(dad this reminded me of our trip in New York when we tried to avoid tolls). He was successful and really didn’t take that much longer to get to any of our destinations.

We did do a little sight seeing, anything that we could do pushing Kennedy around in a stroller so she could rest. Our first stop was Navy Pier in Chicago. Here you see us at the end of the pier gazing out at the lighthouse…cold!!


Katherine offered to watch Kennedy so that Trey and I could go on a tour of the Notre Dame campus.The video you watch in the beginning caused both of us to tear up and made me want to attend school there. There are currently about 8000 students attending classes, with tuition, room/board, and books, which costs about 50K a year. Most students live on campus their entire four years. The campus is self sufficient an example is they produce electricity from a nuclear plant on campus. . The landscape is lush with flowers and has two lakes (although the priest that discovered the area thought it only had one and was to stubborn to change the name).

Here we are at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, lighting candles and saying a prayer.
We also went by the Golden Dome that serves as the symbolic center of campus with its statue of the Virgin Mary watching over the campus. This is a photo of what the students’ call “ Jump Mary” because it’s a statue of Jesus lined up perfectly with his raised up to Mary on top of the Dome.
We visited the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which is seen here, but were quickly asked to leave by one of the nuns because of a fire in one of the underground tunnels.
Trey and I stand are in front of Hesburgh Library.
Then we went onwards to Notre Dame Stadium.

On Saturday, we took Kennedy to the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend. We rode the train around and pushed her in the stroller so she could see some of the animals. Here we are…..


That same day we went by the South Bend Chocolate Factory. Trey went on the tour by himself because Kennedy didn’t want to put the required hair net on. So, Kennedy and I had hot chocolate and ice cream in the candy room awaiting his arrival.
The plane ride to Chicago was wonderful. Kennedy slept, as seen here, for most of the trip. She didn’t cry, just occasionally pulled at her ears. However, the trip home was a different story and we were expecting that because the dr. said her ears were red because of the virus. The first leg home she screamed about half the trip. When we arrived in Atlanta she was holding her baby Sue when all of a sudden she ended up hitting herself in the mouth, which busted one of the blisters. So, imagine a child with blood coming down her mouth and us running through the airport to catch the next plane. Once on the plane home she fell asleep and didn’t wake up until about 20 minutes before landing. She did great all the way home. It felt so good to be at our own home to help nurse her back to health. Currently she is not running any fever, just dealing with the popping of the blisters.

Katherine posted a nice note to us on her blog( http://katherinemariephotography.com/blog/)with some of her favorites from the photo sessions. Soon I'll be emailing with the passwords for the galleries so everyone can view all the photos.