So recently, upon planning another trip, Joey and I began discussing how much we’ve traveled over the course of our relationship- one of the very first things we ever did together (and he hadn’t even officially asked me out yet), was drive cross country, from Los Angeles to New York City for New Years. Literally my favorite trip we’ve done together thus far.

So I thought maybe I should write about some of these past adventures and expand the scope of my blog. So with that, I’m going to officially start a new series here, which I will call Why Not Wednesdays, where once a week I will write about past travels and experiences.

With that, today I will write about a trip this past June I made to Indiana. My mom was born and raised in Indiana so growing up my sister and I always spent a couple weeks every summer with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Sadly, once my sister and I started college, we weren’t able to visit because our summers were spent training for and starting double days with our college soccer team.

Luckily, with the cross country trip I was able to spend a day with my grandpa on the way to New York and then on the way back to California, but before that- up until this past summer, my sister and I hadn’t been back to visit for 7 years! So this summer was a really great time to spend together catching up on all that’s changed over the years; graduating college, starting new jobs, etc. Also all my little cousins, aren’t so little anymore! Crazy how much older you feel when you’re surrounded by younger generations of family.

After uploading this, I just realized I haven’t had an opportunity to share a picture with my sister (she’s visiting soon though, I hope).  My little sister is my absolute best friend and the one person I would honestly do anything for without even a moments pause. We share one of the most amazing bonds that I will forever be thankful for and in awe of. That girls’ my world. One of the hardest parts about moving across the country was leaving her behind, it’s safe to say we make up for it though. She FaceTimes me (on average) 7 times a day, no joke. Even if its just to say good morning or have a 2 minute conversation about her dream that night. I’ll never get sick of it either.

Being in Indiana together was so much fun for two reasons, 1. we were together and 2. our family members kind of have an obsession with the two of us and we love soaking it up and then laughing about it later. This trip was extra fun for that reason because we weren’t the little 6 year old girls they’d seen in the past.

We always spend majority of our time out in the boondocks of Indiana 🙂 which I love. Spending all day driving down old dirt roads, losing service on our cell phones. Basically our days are the personification of a country song. And that’s just the way we like it. When we were little we would spend all night out catching fireflies in mason jars. Tell me that’s not as country as it gets.

Indiana is always beautiful in the summer, we’ve actually never been in the winter for that reason. They usually have the worst winters with tons and tons of snow. One of our favorite places to go for a day is down to Nashville, IN. It’s a cute little artsy area filled with old fashion boutiques, candy shops, boot barns, and tons of mom & pop type places where you can get roasted almonds and some sweet iced tea. We also love to stop by the restaurant my mom waited at as a teenager and joke around with her about it. She doesn’t think it’s as funny as we do though 🙂

My mom, sister, niece, and I spent every morning sitting on the porch with my grandpa drinking coffee and talking. I never realized how much of a rarity it is to do that. In California, I’ve actually never seen anyone sitting out on the porch doing anything, most homes don’t even have a porch big enough anymore. And perhaps it is something more common in Southern states, that home-y feeling where you also happen to know the names of every single neighbor. I couldn’t tell you the name of a single neighbor I currently have, or had back home. That’s kinda a crazy thing though, isn’t it? I mean you live 10 feet from the person and know absolutely nothing about them? I guess I’ll always love that kind of novelty about Indiana.

I even had the opportunity to meet some of my mom’s cousins and family that my sister and I hadn’t ever met before, or met, but I had to be less than 4 years old and my sister 2. Now that I’m older, I realize how big my mom’s side of the family is! It was amazing to meet some new family members and to reconnect with some that had only known me as a baby. Now we are all doing a much better job at keeping in touch and my sister and I plan on picking up the yearly trips out to Indiana again with my mom.

Later that same day, my cousin (who was like 2 the last time I saw her) taught us how to shoot arrows, which was so much harder than Jennifer Lawrence makes it looks! It was a blast though. She shoots competitively as sport, so is clearly so so much better than we were.

It was a lovely week back in good ol’ Indiana and I will forever cherish all the time we got to spend with my grandpa, not to mention the ride in the hot rod car he got- that he only lets my uncle drive :p

The car goes soo fast that my hat flew off my head in like a .5 second span. It was NUTS!

Thanks for reading guys!

xoxo,

Amanda