And the Rain Held Back!

Again, we were anxious to get out of the house this past weekend - head somewhere with parks & new letterboxes. We decided to try Peoria again since the Locksmiths, Pitties & Shorty have been busy putting new boxes there! We hit the road at 8 - stopping at Becki's parents to pick up Katie and then headed to Peoria.

Did I mention that it was supposed to rain all day? There was an 80% chance of scattered throughout the day. We were praying that it would be scattered - in the places we were not in! It did start raining on our way from Lacon into Peoria...but it was minimal. The rain held off the rest of the day, although it did look impending MANY times! On the drive home, the skies opened up! Thank you Lord for your grace over our day!

Our first box was found in Kewanee, IL - "Hog Days" by Pitties. The kids loved the pig image! We continued east to find "Morel" by Shorty. It was so windy, I feared the kids would lose their balance and fall right into the canal!

Now we headed south to find "Sorrow" by Pitties. As Pitties said in her clues, it is a unique cemetary, with lots of old stones.

We crossed over the Illinois River (very flooded!) into Lacone to nab an indoor box "Defying Gravity" by Fungus Woman. Matt was very tempted to purchase some fudge...but we decided it would be best for both of us if he didn't!

We decided...rather, the kids informed us through their crabby attitudes...that it was time for lunch. We literally passed up a letterbox to get some lunch! Oh well, if the kids aren't happy...you know how that goes!

Once in Peoria, we were successful with every box but one...the Elusive "Falling Leaf". It was just found last week and shouldn't be this hard to find! However, we have looked every time down there and still can't find it! Maybe next time because we WILL try it again!

Here are some pictures from the different boxes we got:

"Spring: Easter Basket" by The Locksmiths

"Chicago Bears" by Shorty

This hike was a longer one and we knew that beforehand. Matt had decided to not do it since we had all of the kids, but I figured we should try it. If you notice the overview picture, you can see the trail. It is straight down into the valley. The second picture is of us walking straight down and the third is us stamping in. It takes a while with 5 books to stamp...and little hands that want to help!

"Spring: Flowers" by The Locksmiths

We did end up with "Spring: Baseball" by The Locksmiths, "The Flintstones: Fred & Wilma" by Shorty, "One World" by The Locksmiths. All said, we grabbed 11 boxes for the day. We ended our day at Laura Bradley Park (for the second time) to let the kids play. We also got some neat pictures of the family/kids at the park...