(Back Home Again In) Indiana (top page)- for Charleyhz2boys "Vacations" CJ

Cheers

What a cool song and the colors are perfect. Beautiful work Taryn.

July 21, 2008

I think this turned out perfect! I know it was a tough subject for you (and for me too!) but you did a beautiful job & family is what vacation should be all about :)

January 13, 2008

(Back Home Again In) Indiana (top page)- for Charleyhz2boys "Vacations" CJ

Journaling:

While I enjoy traveling, over the past several years, as we have begun and grown our married/family life, we just haven’t had the opportunity or financial fortune to take what most people would consider a “vacation.” But, we do make sure to “get away” frequently…Sometimes it is as a family, sometimes just my husband and I as a couple or with a group of friends, sometimes just the kids and me, sometimes just my husband or I with a friend. Sometimes we even vacation right here in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, where we live, and take advantage of local attractions we don’t get to regularly! We do feel it is important to build those times of purposeful relaxation and recreation into our lives, whether they are right near our home or just a few hours away.
As a result, what we call our “family vacations” are usually “back home in Indiana.” My husband and I grew up in a small town in northeast Indiana, and our parents and many other extended family members still live there or close by. So, we make it a priority to spend as much there with them as we can. During the summertime, we make several trips “back home” and spend about a week there each time. We are pleased our children have grown to love their grandparents and extended family, and appreciate the family homesteads as well.
So, what do we like to do there in the Churubusco/Columbia City/Fort Wayne, Indiana area? So many fun things! One set of grandparents lives at Tri-Lakes. There, we like to wade by the shore there, looking for clams, or take a ride on the pontoon boat with Cousin Kasie. We always make sure to visit the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, have tea and sandwiches and pie at the Quiet Corner Tea Room in the woods of rural Churubusco, and have ice cream at the Magic Wand Restaurant in town. There are always lots of bedtime stories with Gram, mani- and pedi-cures with Aunt Erin (“Beauty is pain!” she always tells the girls!), swimming several times each day win Krampa & Gram’s big pool, fishing in the ponds on the farm with Krampa, and sometimes Cousin Scott (an engineer on the Corvette project with GM) visits with a fancy car and takes any willing victim for a fast ride on all the curviest and hilliest roads around! One of the things the kids love the most is just playing outside and helping their grandparents water flowers and trees or plant and pick things in the garden.
While these things aren’t the same (in many peoples’ eyes) as a trip to an amusement park, they are so very meaningful for our family, and we treasure the moments and memories we create on these vacations! The Midwest USA is a beautiful, peaceful place to be!

Song Lyrics:

I have always been a wand'rer
Over land and sea
Yet a moonbeam on the water
Casts a spell o'er me
A vision fair I see
Again I seem to be

Back home again in Indiana,
And it seems that I can see
The gleaming candlelight, still shining bright,
Through the sycamores for me.
The new-mown hay sends off its fragrance
Through the fields I used to roam.
When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,
How I long for my Indiana home.

Fancy paints on mem'ry's canvas
Scenes that we hold dear
We recall them in days after
Clearly they appear
And often times I see
A scene that's dear to me

Back home again in Indiana,
And it seems that I can see
The gleaming candlelight, still shining bright,
Through the sycamores for me.
The new-mown hay sends off its fragrance
Through the fields I used to roam.
When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,
How I long for my Indiana home.

‘(Back Home Again in) Indiana’ is a song
composed by Ballard MacDonald and James Hanley in 1917.