Despite how often I visit Indiana, I still feel like I’ve missed so much: weddings, home-buying, job changes, and newborns. Though I watch the updates from a distance via Facebook, I was craving the company of old friends more than ever, so once I heard that Amy & Alex would be hosting a dual 30th birthday party, I jumped at the excuse to fly back. Not only would I get to meet 6-month-old Fiona & Emma, but my other friend Carrie had her baby a few weeks early, so I’d get to meet her, too! Plus, I was counting on seeing my Indy circle at the birthday party. I only told Adam & Tyler, deciding I wanted to make it a surprise appearance. It was the hardest secret to keep!

From the airport, I met up with Adam at Mediasauce and had some unplanned reunions in the office. My favorite was Nate G. He just said, “Hey” and then I saw the light go off in his brain which reminded him I don’t work or live there anymore. It was funny. Nice to be gone from somewhere for so long and still feel as if you could walk back in as if you’d never left. I got dinner with Adam & Gary at Bub’s. I was famished. We devoured some sloppy waffles (chili, sour cream, jalapenos, & cheese on waffle fries) and then each took down an elk burger and another order of waffle fries. In retrospect, I could have skipped all that and just taken down a Big Ugly (1 lb burger, after cooking) and gotten my photo on the wall. If ever there were a time I could have done it, it was that night. It was a bit chilly but we sat out on the heated patio. Main Street Carmel is so charming at night. It’s a fabricated charm, but I acknowledge that much and enjoy it regardless.

And, of course, I got to hang with Lily & Laurel. They’re such a pair.

The suspense was killing me once I’d been in Indy for a day and Amy still didn’t know. I stopped at Clay Terrace for Jimmy John’s and texted her a photo of the common’s area. Within minutes, my phone was ringing. She asked, “Mindy, where are you?!?” Surprises are awesome. It was her birthday but she was home with a sick baby. The plan was that I’d join her early tomorrow before the party. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some shopping around Clay Terrace.

For dinner, I dragged Tyler down to Texas Roadhouse in Avon for Kyle’s 21st birthday dinner (a few days early). My dad didn’t make it which sort of irritated me, but it ended up being a good time with Jenna & Kyle and their significant others. Jenna brought birthday cupcakes which we hid in the kitchen. They started to carry them out while my brother was in the bathroom, so we had to make the waitresses leave fast or the surprise would be ruined. We knew Kyle well enough to know if he caught sight of this happening, he would have just left.

(Yes, I still forget that turning my camera vertical during video doesn’t work. Also, as a disclaimer, I love FFA and always wanted to be a member, but the FFA convention was in town so it was a running joke with our waitress.)

So, Saturday I headed to Lebanon after lunch to help with the birthday party preparations. It was spectacular! I was so happy to see Amy and meet little Fiona. There was already a bouncy house setup in the backyard, and soon, Scott & Steph arrived with straw bales to surround the fire where we would cook the evening’s entree’s: hot dogs dressed in 3 different city styles & gourmet s’mores. They also brought Alex’s spiderman cake. They’d had an interesting encounter with the cake decorator when they asked her to write, “Happy 30th Alex” on it. It was a similar conversation Amy & Alex had with the bouncy house rental, once they clarified they were renting it for themselves, not a child.

It was a great afternoon. Ash, Steph, & I came up with s’mores recipes and setup the food table. Ashley broke out some fancy lettering to create our menus. It was all sort of perfect to be totally honest.

We dipped in to Steph’s Candy Corn-tini, which was essentially candy corn infused vodka with a variety of other things dumped in throughout the night. It was only more hilarious since Steph was pregnant and couldn’t even taste it. It was kind of amazing. Had I not been driving, I would have gotten a candy corn tini buzz, no question.

The bizarre part about this whole scene was the living room floor was full of babies. Even Amy said, “I knew my baby would be here but I was a little freaked out to see so many of them together.” Like I said, a lot had happened in the 10 short months since last I’d been there. The babies were cool, though. The psychologist in me enjoyed analyzing their forming personalities. Little Emma was content and pretty much at ease in any scenario you left her, while Fiona was only content if she was on the move. We took them to the bouncy house. Fiona wouldn’t crawl toward you, she would only crawl after you if you turned away and it became a chase. Even babies like the thrill of the chase.

We were all comparing the different hot dog styles and s’mores recipes, critiquing them like food snobs, which made it even better. I personally fell in love with the Seattle dog. Cream cheese & brown mustard. Who knew??

(In the silence, Alex’s Spiderman cake speaks, “Happy birthday from your friendly neighborhood Spiderman!” Yes.)

One of my favorite moments of the night came when Amy walked up and tapped on my shoulder to ask, “Will you jump in the bouncy house with me?”. It’s hard to imagine many things better for repairing the soul than a round in a bouncy house with one of your favorite people in the world. Soon we were joined by Eric & Emma and the bouncy house became a private social lounge. The fans were so loud that whatever was said in the bouncy house, stayed in the bouncy house. Much later in the night, all the boys would take over the bouncy house, weighting it down as far as they could on one side so they could propel the single person on the other side. Boys will be boys.

Don’t watch this if you get motion sickness :)

Alex’s sister had given him a nerf gun set for his birthday, and I was lucky enough to capture some of the action from inside fort bouncy. I don’t think there was a single person who didn’t find their inner child that night. It was exactly what a 30th birthday should be.

Eventually, word traveled about our incredible birthday celebration and some neighbors showed up to crash it. It was a middle-aged woman, holding a half-empty bottle of Jack, and two barely twenty-something boys. It was weird and we didn’t know how to get them to leave. Eventually, Amy just walked inside and they left without her to talk to them, but they would return later in the night, forcing us to shutdown all outdoor activities to get them away. Their version of ping-pong involved getting the ball in the woman’s cleavage. Awkward.

Before they crashed, we witnessed some intense rounds of couples ping pong in the garage.

Somehow, a box of costumes came out and we ended up taking some ridiculous photos. I have yet to see the ones of the ladies. Ahem, *cough* Alex. The guys were pretty proud of their wizard staffs, though.

I can’t remember how what happened next started but we made it back outside where another contest ensued. The rules were to throw a marshmallow as far up as possible and catch it in your mouth. The challenge was it was 11PM and pitch dark. It was one of the most ridiculous spectacles ever…a bunch of 30-something’s and some of their parents standing around individuals, trying to watch for their marshmallow in the sky and keep them from falling off the deck. *insert jokes about Midwesterners having nothing more entertaining to do on a Saturday night* But, I promise, this was a choice, not desperation. Ashley’s brother had caught it three times before all the rest of us came out and this happened…

I was a little surprised to see how many other videos with “Marshmallow Catch” as the title showed up under similar titles. None of them were in the dark. We win.

It was an incredible evening. In the history of birthday parties, it will be a hard one to ever be topped.

Sunday was Bender family day. I hung out with Tyler & Ernie for a bit before heading over to his parent’s house. They adopted our family dog, Briece, so I needed to check in on him. He was one happy camper and I enjoyed hearing all the stories of his antics. He really is a special one. I was so glad to see him fitting in. That afternoon, I departed for Greensburg to visit Jenna. I hadn’t seen her new place yet. We had lasagna and watched Grey’s Anatomy. I introduced her to the world of Hulu.

The next morning, I finally got on the road to Louisville to visit Carrie and her new arrival, Adelina. She’d be the fourth baby I’d met on the trip. It was a gorgeous autumn day for the 4-hour round trip. I love the way the freeway seems to glide you through top of buildings in downtown Louisville. All the orange and red trees made the whole scene quite picturesque. It was a short visit and Adelina ate through most of it hehe but it was great to see Carrie. She’s my oldest friend, and it seems like just yesterday we were doing homework in front of our lockers in HS. Ten years goes by so quickly.

I lost track of time at Carrie’s and had to do some slight speeding to get back to Indy for dinner with the Bancroft’s, Kingman’s, Adam, & Gary. The Bancroft’s had been out of town for a Purdue game, so I’d missed them at the birthday party. It was a fun time as always. Since I waited so long to post this story, I’ve forgotten any particularly great banter. Afterward, we all bonded over the awkward English/Spanish instructional audio in the bathrooms. I went back home to Adam & Gary’s where I’d been staying for the week. I didn’t get to see much of Adam outside of that dinner, though, since his work schedule was so crazy. It was a bummer, but it is the nature of advertising.

Tuesday morning started off with a crazy thunderstorm. I was in the shower through the most intense part according to Adam, but it still had some intensity by the time I shot this video. I was sad I missed the thunder/lightning. There were tornado watches and all. Crazy flash flooding.

Once the storm passed, I ran some more errands and met up with Tyler to figure out his halloween costume. It was sort of funny looking for khaki shorts and a terrible sweater at Goodwill so he could dress as his best friend of the same age. The costume was a big hit from what I heard.

I took the scenic route to Lebanon that afternoon, as Amy had invited me for a sleepover. Since I never made it “home”, I needed my fix of back roads. I meandered off the highway and made random turns in the direction of Lebanon. It was grand. Even with my aimless driving, I still arrived a bit too early, so when Amy pulled in the drive, I was down the street taking pictures of a tree in her neighbor’s yard. Actually, I was taking video. She totally caught me. It was such a pretty tree, though. The leaves were golden.

We had a great night, and I was thankful to get some one-on-one time with her & Fi. I also got to hear some of Alex’s musical compositions, which were great (but I cannot find his site link). I bid farewell to the Kingman household, after a little morning playtime with Fi, and headed for the airport.

I had time to kill so I finally took some photos of the new airport. I love that it’s so bright. I grabbed lunch at O’Hare with plenty more time to pass. There would be more time to kill after I boarded the plane. As we walked down the causeway, it was shaking around us and I could see the parked plane being swayed back & forth as well by the intense wind. We taxied forever, and our pilot explained that all traffic had to be redirected to the runway facing away from the wind. I’d never experienced anything like it. I was being bounced around in my seat while we were safely on the ground. I could see a line of about 15 other planes across the way. We apparently lucked into the shorter line somehow. It was a gorgeous flight home, though, over the mountains. I even saw a rainbow. Never seen more than a sun dog from a plane.

I’m so glad I waited 3 months to post these stories, as reliving them has made for the perfect Sunday morning. What great memories!