Baccus Family Five City Tour, Part 1

In my last blog post I mentioned it was fall break for Avery and we were going to New Jersey. Two days before we were to leave we found out our friends we were staying with have mold in their new house. We were so sad, me especially. I had already packed, and was planning out new places to visit in NJ. We quickly recouped and decided to do a Midwest road trip. I quickly repacked, looked up some good stuff on Pinterest, and we hit the road early Saturday morning.

Colt's hair acting funny. Each kid had his own DVD player and a treat for Mommy and Daddy...headphones! 

As I'm sitting here writing I honestly can't remember what we did when we got to our first city, or where we ate. It was a long trip and I'm sure we were all tired.

We woke up on Sunday, and it was cold!! I forgot what it felt like to wear jeans and a sweater all day and not sweat! It was marvelous. We got dressed and headed to...

I had been wanting to visit South Bend for a while, and it did not disappoint!! The campus is absolutely beautiful, especially in the fall!!

I read about this mural online. It is right across from the stadium and it's called Touchdown Jesus.

Pretty pictures on campus.

This is a church on campus called Basilica of the Sacred Heart. It was Sunday and a service was going on, so I sneaked in the lobby and got this picture.

We went to the bookstore and saw some fun things on the way.

This is about as close as I could get going into the stadium. We swore we could hear chanting, "Rudy, Rudy." 

Next we headed downtown. I had planned for us to eat lunch at a place called CJ's. Supposedly they have the best burgers. When we got there, the sign said 21 and up. In my parenting years, I have never seen that during the day. 

After a lunch I could have eaten in Huntsville (I hate when that happens) I spotted this baby. I loved going to the South Bend Chocolate Company when we lived in Indy. They have the best hot chocolate!! And the weather even justified me having some.

I love these things!!

No clue what Colt was doing.

We found this cute bakery where the kids promptly took one bite of their donut and were finished. Good thing donuts are cheap.

Next we went to the zoo. Try saying that one 3 times real fast. 

This made me laugh a little too hard.

The shortest train ride in the history of zoo trains.

Riding the turtle. They had a real one that was almost that big! Soon after this Colt started acting three and we had to leave. The Colt whisperer (aka Daniel) got him to nap while Avery and I went out. We realized when we got back to the hotel that we had lost Colt's blanket at the zoo. I was more sad than he was. He's had it since he was born. Avery and I found him a new one at Kohl's but it's not the same.

Avery and I went back over to the zoo where there was a fun park.

After everyone was rested, we went to dinner at this restaurant right by the stadium. I even got to sit by Rudy. 

I guess we weren't tired enough after dinner. Luckily this hotel had a indoor pool. The kids loved it! Colt even learned how to put his head under. He would do it then run to me and smile and wipe his face on the towel.

South Bend was so much fun. We got up Monday morning and did Avery's favorite thing...free breakfast in the lobby. Then we headed east to location number 2 and a state where I've never been!