The Saturday 7

1. First up: the Ark recap. I had been dreading the drive, but we ended up taking 3 vehicles and spread my kids out among all 3, so that helped immensely. Haha. Justin and I just had Lena, who is one of the easiest. Wonderful, gracious Uncle Jesse rode with Levi for 7 hours. But they all do better apart from each other, so it was much more bearable than usual.

The drive from Michigan to Northern Kentucky is not very exciting. Indiana is pretty much one big long cornfield - and the GPS took us winding through all kinds of back roads and small towns. But at least it's pretty this time of year!

We made it to the hotel right around 6, so after a quick dip in the pool, we set up our redneck buffet table in the hall between our hotel rooms for pizza night.

Those are ironing boards. 😂

The kids figured out how to call room to room using the "old fashioned" phone, and thought it was hilarious.

And it wouldn't be a trip with the VanderKoddes without a Wizard game:

We played down in the lobby where there was another group of people we saw all weekend playing games. They had this ginormous dog . . .

2. On Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel along with half of Kentucky. We stayed 5 minutes from the ark, and obviously most of the other residents of our hotel had the same idea. I was glad we had reserved rooms months ago because all weekend we watched people get turned away at the check-in counter because there was no room in the inn. Breakfast was good, and Levi was happy they had Lucky Charms.

Unfortunately, we didn't pre-buy our ark tickets, so we had to stand in line for a while. I was surprised by how cold it was. We drove 7 hours South. Shouldn't it have been warm down there?

Waiting for Grandpa to get the tickets.

We had to take a bus from the parking lot to the ark. It felt very Disney World-esque.

Our first glimpse of the boat. It is unbelievably huge.

The fam.

It was pretty busy, so we had to stand in line even to get inside the ark. The line went underneath the boat which gave us another perspective of how big it is!

I didn't take a ton of pictures on the inside because my phone didn't like the lighting, but here are a few:

Some kind of now-extinct lizard/dinosaur thing.

Really, Noah? You had to bring bears?

Bats. *Shudder*

From the bottom deck looking up the middle to the upper decks

There are so many cool exhibits about various parts of the creation story/ancient history/etc. Levi really liked this depiction of the seven days of creation, and studied each panel thoroughly.

The whole thing was an amazing experience. I told Justin I'd like to go again on a Tuesday afternoon with no kids so I can really read all the signs and take everything in. Haha. It was very busy and the kids got bored very quickly. But what I did manage to absorb is incredible. Seeing the magnitude of the size of the ship and the intricacies of housing and caring for so many animals in a confined space for a solid year was eye opening. There's obviously a great deal of conjecture about what Noah might have done, but it was fascinating to see what was depicted. Before we actually got on the ark, we watched a video about how it (the one in Kentucky) was made. It was mind-boggling to see how much work it was in the 21st century with modern technology. I can't wrap my mind around how Noah could possibly have constructed such a mammoth structure with pre-historic technology. Granted, it took him 75ish years. That's something else I can't fathom - living for 500+ years and spending 75 of them building something. Haha. I could wax poetic forever about how cool it was, but I'll wrap it up.

The kids' favorite part was probably the epic playground:

There were two of these really cool ziplines that the kids loved.

We got to see some live animals outside the ark . . .

Wallaby

Snake show

We had a delicious buffet dinner at Emzara's Cafe overlooking the bow of the ark:

Our last stop was the carousel:

Oh look, Lucy was there too!

We left with one final reminder of God's promise:

3. It was seriously such a memorable experience and we're so thankful to Justin's parents for making it possible. We stayed one more night in the hotel . . .

Then it was on the road again. We tried taking the Ohio route instead of Indiana on the way home. It was a little more direct, but no more interesting. #morecornfields

Levi and Jesse found ways to entertain themselves . . .

4. Levi apparently licked one too many handrails at the ark, because he woke up Monday morning with a fever that persisted for two days.

Thank goodness for my parents, who watched him at the last minute on Monday so I could stay at work. His fever broke Tuesday afternoon, and other than a lingering cough, he's been fine ever since!

5. On Thursday, I became a great-aunt again! My first great-nephew (on my side of the family) was born:

Rieley had some complications with her pregnancy, so we've been praying for this little guy for a long time. So glad he's here and healthy! We can't wait to meet him and get all those baby snuggles!!

6. Oh yeah, seeing the date on that letter board reminded me that Monday was my birthday. It was pretty lame as far as birthdays go (but still better than last year when I was dieting and had Covid), but I care less and less about making it a big deal the older I get. I worked on Monday, and Justin had a game, so we didn't do anything very exciting. Niki brought me breadsticks and alfredo, and Justin made sure I had my caramel Doves. Later in the week my cousin Esther brought me coffee, and today my brother and sister-in-law brought me coffee. Levi said, "So this is what birthdays are like for adults? Your friends and sisters bring you stuff and then leave?" Haha. That about sums it up! I specifically told Justin not to buy me presents because money is tight and I don't need anything. I just wanted to go out for dinner. Last night, Luke and Esther took our kids to a trunk or treat event so Justin and I finally made it to Olive Garden. It was everything I hoped it would be. 😁😋 Of course, I have been procrastinating on buying Halloween costumes, so we had to whip up some DIY versions for trunk or treat last night. Lucy is officially too old and too cool for costumes, but Lena and Levi were good sports:

Black Cat

Hunter

When Levi saw me wearing make-up, he said "What's the black stuff on your eyes?" When I told him it was make-up, he said, "Oh, you're wearing spooky make-up for Halloween?" 🤔🤦

7. Today was Levi's last soccer game - and the only one of the season that was uncomfortably cold. That's pretty good for a fall sport! Of course it has rained a ton recently, so the field was a squishy mess:

Levi didn't mind. He loves mud. Haha.

Luke and Esther and fam came to the game.

Levi's team played against his friend from school so they needed a picture too.

Justin didn't make it to Levi's last game because he was with his team at the district final game. They were playing against a team that beat them earlier in the year and Justin reallllly wanted to win.

They won 1-0! District champs!

They still have one more non-conference game next week, and then another tournament the following week, but then soccer will be done and I'll have my husband back again! Haha. Seriously though, he loves it so much, and I'm so proud of him and his team.

8. Just a couple more pictures: