The Rest Of Our Indy Visit...

Besides our many visits with Olivia, we also spent a lot of time with our family while in Indy. Both sets of parents live within a few miles of each other and a couple of my sisters don't live far from there either -- allowing for us to see everyone easily when we're in town! While it's rough at times to be around our nephews and niece -- due to missing our three so much -- I'm glad we were able to spend some quality time with each and every one of them during this trip...

After we visited Livy on our first night in town, we headed out to see one of my sisters and her family. By the time we got there, only one nephew was still awake. He had been kept home from school that day due to being sick, but he sure didn't look sick in this picture! Ha.

We stayed up way too late that night --considering the long drive we had just done -- but it was great catching up!

The next day was spent catching up with our parents (on both sides) -- half of which was spent watching Oba wrestle with his Opa. Not sure what he's saying here, but Oba was letting Opa know what he was thinking!

James' parents were kind enough to watch Oba while we ran around Indy visiting friends/family. This made for a much more relaxing visit knowing that Oba was in absolute Heaven -- Oma and Opa spoil him rotten and love on him lots! It's too bad I didn't take any pictures of his time there. (The picture above was taken by my mother-in-law.)

After a night with some close friends, we spent the rest of our time seeing those cute little nephews and our niece...

Below are some pictures from our time at Dunkin' Donuts with one set of nephews...

Not really sure what prompted these facial expressions, but cute nonetheless...

Uncle James was getting beat up!

Bones!

Sincere hug or strangling of his little brother...you decide.

Love these boys!

Uncle James and Zeke having fun before we left Dunkin' Donuts...

The next day, we made plans to see another set of nephews and our niece. Before doing so, we stopped by my parents' house. Much to our surprise, my sister, Sarah, and nephew, Jeremiah, were already there. As a result, he and Uncle James got to spend some quality one-on-one time together...

Notice the common theme...Uncle James teaching another nephew how to do "Bones"...

Later on, upon getting to my sister's house, the crazy picture taking began...

This particular nephew has a very special place in my heart. When I was pregnant with Jake, my sister was pregnant with this little guy -- due one month after me. I remember it being very hard when I met him for the first time and ever since, I always want to give him a big squeeze and not let go...

I love this picture of James with our niece -- it was the first time for them to meet...

And how can I ignore Oba?

One of our nephews is terrified of him to say the least, so we tried to keep him away. However, at one point, Oba snuck by and ran right to the boys. This led to all of us encouraging the fact that Oba is sweet and won't bite.

Here you can see Ben teaching Zeke (the scared one) how to properly pet a puppy, ha.

While that was going on, Judah sat and focused on Oba...

Ben laid the stuffed animal basset next to Oba and there they sat...twins. I don't think Oba was very amused by his mini-me...

Poor Oba...He was very patient while the boys took turns petting him...

After that, Judah very proudly showed me his new pet. I love how boys will happily find things outside and bring them in as pets!

While I was admiring Judah's new pet, I noticed that James was teaching Zeke and Jeremiah a new trick -- playing the piano with your head!

Ben admiring those long ears...

And Cait showed absolutely no fear of the pup! She went right up to him (with the assistance of Uncle James)...

Once the boys (and Oba) started to get rowdy, we headed outside. He may be almost 9 years old, but he still has that puppy energy -- sometimes...

So stoic...

At one point, some of the nephews gave Oba some dried roses. Someone was in HEAven!

Unfortunately, that enjoyment was cut short when James took them away, ha.

While Zeke was handling the idea of being around a pup fairly well by this point, he took full advantage of an open door. He told Oba to go inside, haha.

Love those boys...

More roses. You can tell how tense Zeke was while standing next to Oba...

Someone got a hold of Uncle James' sunglasses...

As we were saying our goodbyes, we noticed that Cait was getting ready for some baseball...

While I loved our visit with all of those kids, I could tell the toll that it took on me after we left. It's just hard at times. With missing our three, that empty feeling hits. I hate that! The end of our day was a good remedy to that though -- we headed across town to see another sister and Oba's cousin, Bo. Like many other stops during this trip, it was the first time James got to meet Bo, so he was really looking forward to it! (My sister adopted this pup while James was deployed.)

Let me start by first saying, this pup is a HORSE! He's huge! I often feel that Oba's a big boy, but that opinion changes when putting him next to Bo. My little shorty is a pipsqueak compared to Bo.

I think someone loved playing tug with James...Ok...I think they both enjoyed it!

On the other hand, a certain shorty did NOT like it. He needed some love after stressing out over watching his dad wrestle with the horse. Uncle Grant was there to save the day, ha.

After gaining confidence, Oba let Bo know what he thought of this nonsense...(via barking)

Ahhhh, much better...

After such a stressful experience, the prince stole Bo's bed. I mean, the senior citizen needs his rest! Ha.

Regardless of what the basset thought, James loved on Bo...

This may be one of those "you would've had to be there" type things, but we found it hilarious. James sat and inspected Bo's teeth while hanging out next to him. He just couldn't get over how HUGE he was!

Then when my sister and I pointed out that Bo has Great White-like teeth (two rows), James looked and got a bit grossed out and backed away, ha. Poor Bo!

I love that he had a huge smile on his face (Bo, I mean) and that Oba was knocked out cold, ha.

It was a fun night with my sister and her little family! We had a minor setback when we met her crazy neighbor -- a midwife by profession who felt the need to make several incredibly rude and insensitive comments regarding our losses -- but aside from that, it was great. I'm really glad it worked out to have that night together -- just as I'm glad we were able to see my other sisters earlier on!

We stayed at my sister's house that night -- ending our visit in Indianapolis. Once we got ready that next morning, we headed out again for the last leg of our road trip. On to PA to see one last sister and her family!