This past weekend Jennifer, the kids and I did something we've never done before... we went on vacation by ourselves.  Now don't get me wrong we've vacationed before, however typically it's down to either my parents in Florida or Jennifer's parents in Mississippi but we've never actually just gone away by ourselves with the kids.  Why Not?  I can't even answer that question, but based upon our experience this past weekend, I can guarantee that we will be doing this much more frequently as it was a GREAT TIME!.

So where did we go?  We traveled about 4 hours north of Nashville Indiana to a small Amish/Mennonite town of Shipshewana, MI.  Now you may be asking what it was that drew us to this location.  The answer, Splash Universe, a hotel with a young kid friendly indoor water park.  Now the kids didn't have a clue that we were even going on vacation let alone to an indoor water park.  Needless to say when we arrived and explained what we were doing, they were ecstatic. 

As you can see from the pictures below we really did have a great time, and we are recommending this hotel to every family we know.  So sit back and enjoy the pictures of our family enjoying our first family vacation




The above photo was taken soon after we arrived and just before we went to the water park.  (notice all of the ladies swimsuits – Jennifer sewed all of them)

The Pictures below, show the exciting room layout...That's right, the kids have bunk beds!!

The next 4 photos help to show the layout of the water park.

The next 4 photos show the kids sliding down the kiddie slides in the kiddie pool which by the way is kept at  very warm 85 degrees (Bath Water)

Check out the Balancing  Act Below

Check him out.. He was doing pull-ups all day on this water feature located in the Kiddie Pool

Obviously it wore him out as both days he took a nap on the lazy river.

Below are the photos of the kids enjoying the FREE popcorn served at 2:00 PM

I guess I have had some influence on the kids... Now if I could influence them in other areas....

Who's ready for some hopscotch?

What a GREAT looking Family...

All of our fun of the weekend is now over and we'll be heading back home, relaxed and loving each other even more than before.

 

Below is a video of our youngest son enjoying some bubbles after dinner. 

 

The below set of pictures and videos were taken at a birthday party that our kids were invited to.  The party was held at a horse farm in Franklin, Indiana.  There, the kids enjoyed walking the horses, brushing the horses and even had a chance to ride the horses around the arena.  Needless to say, the kids LOVED it!!...  Now all I hear is, Daddy... When are we going to get a horse? 

My response... Can't you just ride a goat?  LOL

 

The photo below was taken at our youngest son's dedication to Christ at Indian Creek Christian Church on Sunday, April 20, 2008. 

 

Family Photo


Easter 2008 has proven once again that our Lord and Savior is Alive and Blessing us. 

Jennifer and I had big plans for Easter this year as we had invited some of our friends down to the farm for a Resurrection Sunday celebration.  These plans were almost wiped out this past Wednesday, when Jennifer and our eldest daughter came down with strep-throat..  Being the good husband, I was planning to stay home from work on Thursday in order to help out with the rest of the kids, allowing my wife to rest, however, you guessed it... on Thursday I too came down with strep-throat.  Needless to say, by Friday night, Jennifer and our eldest daughter were feeling much better, however I felt horrible and our eldest son was also starting to not feel good.  Do you think this would keep God from His plans???  NO WAY!!!  He is Good! 

By Saturday morning we had all been on antibiotics for at least 24 hours, meaning that no one was contagious, and we were all feeling really good.  Because of this we knew that our plans for Sunday were aligned with God's plans and we were in-fact going to hold a Resurection Sunday Celebration on the farm.  In preparation for this, the Wagar family attended church service on Saturday night (Indian Creek Christian Church) in order to allow Jennifer and the kids to prepare for our guests on Sunday.

On Sunday morning, Jennifer and I awoke early in order to begin preparations for our celebration.  At 6:30 AM, I placed our 20lb ham (just part of the half of ham that we purchased from a local farmer - Rhodes Family Farm) into the oven (as seen in the Photo Section of this website), hid the kids eggs as well as their easter bags/gifts (this year we decided to purchase all of the kids their own bibles).  At this point I had to run off to help out at church and handed the final preparation over to my wife. 

Seven hours later, the husbands of the other two couples (their wives arrived with their kids around 11:00 AM) and I arrived home to the wonderful scent of a full Easter Dinner.  Needless to say, the food was excellent and we all ate way too much, so what better to do but take a hike, and that's exactly what we did.  Earlier in the day Jennifer went out back and hid 150+ plastic Easter eggs for an after-dinner egg hunt for the kids.  So after we ate, all of us went out back (temp was high 30's/low 40's) watched the kids run/fall/climb/crawl to get as many eggs as possible.  After the kids were done, we all (kids included) hiked down to the creek, which by the way was beautiful as always.

After our hike was over, and since we had worked off our meal, we decided it was time for....you guessed it, dessert!  In memory of Jennifer’s' Grandmother, and using her original cake pan, Jennifer made a three-dimensional lamb cake which happened to go perfect with a nice cup of coffee.  All in all, this is what I would call a Blessed Day!

As you can tell from this posting, we really enjoyed celebrating our Lord's Resurrection and were blessed to have just GREAT friends here to celebrate with us.  I pray that you too had the opportunity to celebrate with your family and/or friends.  Remember... HE IS RISIEN & HE LOVES YOU!

 

Although C doesn't turn three until tomorrow, we celebrated her birthday this afternoon with some close friends.  Here are some pictures of the party, I hope you enjoy them as much as she enjoyed her party.

 

Auggh!!  I just lost my whole post, and I'm not quite as inspired to rewrite it!  Suffice to say, the kids are having a blast!  We finally have enough snow (or is it the ice making the sledding go so well?!) to sled on and the kids are enjoying it thoroughly!  B. narrowly missed disaster as he slid from the house, skimmed past the laundry pole, headed for the swing set and spun out at the last moment to avoid the brier patch!  I've got a video of them too but K. is going to work on uploading that at work...check back because it is worth hearing B. yell all the way down and then shout out to D. "I'm going back up that hill!"