Small Town Snapshot Sunday in September

This weekend was the annual Lanesville Heritage Weekend. I'm not sure how long they have been doing it, but it's one of my favorite small town festivals. The people are nice and the scenery is beautiful.

Eden has always loved carousel horses. I don't know how long it will last, but I savor it. As long as she love riding it, I can still convince myself she's still a little girl, and will be forever. I can't believe she's going to be 9 in just a few short months.

Jacob is usually my wild child, we are constantly after him to behave or telling him no. He was so good yesterday. All three of them were so well behaved this weekend.

Here's Tyler riding one of his favorite things. A train! I love the expression on his face.

Jacob on the train. I love this black and white with the hints of red. Look at that precious face!

A tractor ride to take us back toward our car. To bad this one went around the other end of the festival parking lots and not the end we parked at.

But we did enjoy the ride through town.

At least until the mad man driving the tractor hit the open road and was scaring the crap out of me. Here's Eden being such a good big sister.


Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and when the guy slowed down to pick up another passenger I asked Michael to sit with them. He's the best daddy I know.


Hogs Tavern, aptly named seeing as there are always motorcycles parked in front of it.


Here's a picture of some of the engines that are always on display. I took this one while Michael was taking a picture of his own.

Here's his shot.

And the biggest part of this festival... the various stages of restored tractors. This one looked like it was at least 90% restored, if not completely and we both really liked this one. You could tell the owners put a lot of time and effort into restoring this wonderful old tractor. I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

STSS #3

I missed posting last weekend, we've been a little busy and I should be paying bills and getting to bed because 7 am comes early especially when the twins don't sleep through the night. Anyway. Here is a hodgepodge of pictures that we have taken from last weekends fair in Corydon, IN and our twins birthday/anniversary trip to French Lick again this weekend. Enjoy!

The boys driving the big rigs on the midway at the county fair.

Me and Eden waiting for the boys to finish their ride so we can see what's next. I actually like this picture of me.

Here's what was next. Only about 5 of the rides were worth getting on to. The field that they were in was nothing but a mud bog! It was awful!

And what kind of post would it be if I didn't have a light motion picture? These are some of my favorite pictures to take. Mike actually took this one. I love this one, because the fun house in the background and the man standing in the foreground are both in perfect focus. Sometimes you can click on the pictures and it will blow them up. I hope this is one of those pictures.

Here's Eden with her buddy, Taylor and the dog she won by throwing darts at a target on the midway. She actually hit two in a row to earn this prize. I'm pretty impressed. I don't think I could have done as well.

Now on to French Lick and West Baden, as well as Patoka Lake Beach.

Not the best picture of her, but kind of the norm when she knows you are taking her picture. She loves to ham it up! I'm still loving the cute haircut! Check out my other blog to see more about her haircut.

Here is the well that is fed by the sulphur springs in French Lick. If the picture is big enough, you might be able to read that it says "When nature won't Pluto will" They call it the Pluto Springs. The boys were so funny. Tyler's new favorite thing to say for about the last month has been "What's that smell?" and he says it with a twang so it comes out more like Schmmellll. This time, he didn't even ask, he just said "Man, that water stinks!" and crinkled his nose until we were clear of it.

Here is the replica of the Japanese garden. The original was prettier. The hotel has been renovated and so many things had to be recreated.

Here are the kids in the garden at West Baden. This hotel has been used for several different things and had almost gone to complete ruin and has now been completely restored. I don't know exactly how much it cost because it's getting late and I can't remember but I know it was hundreds of millions of dollars.
The floor and the dome were mostly destroyed and now have been restored to this beautiful hotel. The dome used to be the largest until the Astrodome was built in 1963. It was built in 1902. Michael and I hope to stay in this hotel some time, it's just really expensive and French Lick sends us offers to stay in their hotel for free because of the casino being connected to it.

I hope you enjoyed my small town snapshot sunday pics. Sorry it's such a long post. I had quite a bit of catching up to do.

Last but not least, a little whimsy. Michael wants to drive this truck. It is located in the small town of Palmyra, IN. It's so small, if you blink to long, you'll miss it!

Small Town Snapshot Sunday #2

Thanks to Wendy, I'm now trying to think of places to go to get some really good shots of small towns. We have a fairly small town approximately one hour and thirty minutes north of us. It's called French Lick. In it's hay day, French Lick and West Baden Springs was considered Indiana's adult playground. With Indiana passing the gaming law, French Lick and West Baden Springs has been rejuvenated. There is now a casino and both hotels have been restored. Here are a few pictures from the grounds of West Baden and the town of French Lick.

The building in the background was formerly a bowling alley. About a year ago Mike and I spent the night at French Lick and were on the grounds in this garden when a grounds keeper told us that in order to restore the bowling alley it would require raising the entire building six additional feet above the ground. Apparently it is in a flood plain. There is a small creek that runs along the side of the gardens here.

T'Berry's Cafe. A local joint. Maybe sometime when the kids aren't with us we can check out the fair.

Instead, we went to the local pizza place. It's called Chicago's Pizza and they have a great pan pizza. With trivia to play while you wait. Does anyone know the first place tomato juice was produced? French Lick, Indiana.

Tomato juice was first served at a French Lick, Indiana hotel in 1925. The first tomato juice factory was also in French Lick, IN. http://genealogytrails.com/ind/trivia.html

Another picture from Chicago's. The memorabilia in this glass case is from the Pluto water. "When nature won't Pluto will." Sulphur water to help move things along. There is also several pictures and assorted items that belong to the Celtic's great, Larry Bird. French Lick is Larry's home town.


I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.

Brand New to STSS

We went to the Clark County 4-H Fair located in the no mans land between Jeffersonville and Charlestown Friday night with the kids. They were so much fun to spend time with. They all kept asking if we were at the "carnival" yet and when we got there they wanted to see the pigs. Needless to say, but I'm going to anyway, they all complained about the smell. I had to explain to them, "It was your idea to see the pigs, and now you know, pig poo smells." ;o)

Here are a few shots we took while we where there.

Rides at the fair are far to expensive, so Jake got to ride the "flying elephant" because he was the only one small enough and because Tyler chickened out at the last minute and so Jake got to ride the carousel as well since he was being good and he clearly enjoyed the other ride so much. Hope this is what you are looking for Wendy. Thanks for letting me be a part of the group. :o)