Family, Fourth of July and Photos

I am so glad that so much of our family was able to meet us in Indianapolis for the Pokemon National Championships.  It had been a while since we were able to be all together, so it was wonderful to spend time with the family.

Of course there are photos as evidence of the great times we had.

To wit:

Pokemon as a Spectator Sport

Daddy and Grandpa as Spectators.

Uncle Kevin and Nana watching too.

Swimming



The hotel pool was well stocked with awesome pool toys, which I appreciated so so much.  (The last time we went on a trip, I had to run to Toys 'R Us and buy a bunch of pool toys, which we ended up leaving at that pool.  Fortunately that time, Toys 'R Us had been right across the street.  But still.  This was way better.)

Fireworks on the 4th of July



Indianapolis shoots their fireworks display off the top of one of those skyscrapers, so we walked about two blocks from our hotel to this city circle area to get a good view.  We ended up eating dinner at Au Bon Pain on their patio, and then we sat there for the rest of the night.



Yes, we kept up a steady stream of business to keep our seats, but it wasn't hard to justify so many snacks with so many of us to share them.



Lex took a nap for a couple of hours while we waited.

Papa Kirk bought lightsabers for the kids.

Connor is posing just like the Ninja on his shirt.  

Blue is Lex's favorite color.

The fireworks were awesome.  It was the biggest finale I have ever seen.  Seriously even bigger than Red, White and Boom.  Usually Columbus puts on a huge show for the entire time, but in Indianapolis, their main focus is the finale.  They let off an entire show's worth of fireworks there at the end.  And it was awesome to watch.  The crowd was not suffocating, either, which was nice.

Playing

Our family took over part of the hotel lobby for an afternoon of playing games and hanging out.

Grandma Ella and Lex playing Appletters

Papa Kirk's favorite game to play with the kids is Stratego.





Can Papa Kirk capture Connor's flag?

Lex and his lightsaber.

Nana and I both colored a page in our Star Wars coloring book.

I colored Yoda.

Nana colored General Grievous, and then had the audacity to say her picture was better than mine!  But it's just not true.  Yoda is awesome.



And we played my favorite game, Settlers of Catan.



About halfway through the game, I let Connor take my place because he wanted to play, too.

Eating



Here we all are, at Claddagh's Irish Pub.  Because it's delicious.