It's All About the Memories, Right??

 Matt was on call 2 of the 4 weeks this past month.  It has been a hard month to plan anything as both Katie & Alex also had church camp for a week each.  When we woke up this past Saturday, we ate our traditional donuts with Grandad and then decided that we needed to head out for the day.

We wanted to take the kids to Dyersville, IA, to visit the "Field of Dreams" ball diamond and house.  However, the kids haven't seen the movie.  We decided to wait until next month when they can watch the movie first.  Maybe head home and stop at the Drive-In Theater for another family summer tradition. 

So, another option was to head south to Lincoln's New Salem (IL) to find letterboxes.  We loaded up and headed south...without looking at the weather report!

We arrived in at New Salem around 2:30 and visited the welcome center to use restrooms and get a map.  Here are Katie & Will, sharing a moment with Lincoln.

We snapped another picture before heading into the historical village.  At this time, it was getting darker to the west, but it had been overcast all day so we really didn't think twice about it!

Here are the kids in front of the young Lincoln on Saturday...and one from 3 years ago!

 We started walking in the village (where Will found a small snake that Katie amptly named, Slither).  Yikes, not my favorite part of the day.  You can guarantee that I watched the ground the rest of the walk!

We explored a few of the houses and talked about the best plan of action to track down the letterboxes, when the thunder started to roll!  We decided to head back towards the visitor center to locate another letterbox on the other side of the park.  We walked towards the box (passing by our vehicle in the process).  About the time we arrived at the place where we needed to head into the woods, the skies opened up! 

 We were fortunate to find shelter under a tree, but that didn't matter to the 3 younger kids.  They opted to play on the playground - in the rain! They were soaked to the bone!

The rain ended a picnic that was close to the playground.  Matt was able to hitch a ride (on the back of an open bed truck) to our car.  This helped some of us stay a bit more dry!

We stopped on our way out to explore the mill area (and see if we could hunt down the letterboxes that were in that vicinity).  Unfortunately, the rain kicked up again so we called it quits. 

 Matt shared how disappointed he was with the day - 5 hour round trip with nothing to show for it.  I reminded him that the kids had a blast in the rain and that they would remember this trip for a long time!  We drove home in torrential rain for at least 1/2 the drive.  That is never a fun way to drive!  We made it to 5 Guys in Peoria for dinner then headed home. 

Fair Oaks Farm

When Matt's parents visited us in March, they also visited some friends in Indiana.  While in Indiana, their friends took them to Fair Oaks Farm.   They had such wonderful stories to share about their experience - they knew that we would love it too! 

We finally had a free week during the first week of July.  Cooler temps and no rain helped with our decision.

Aside from our usual pit stops, our first stop was at Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana to search for a letterbox.  They have a beautiful area set aside for the Stations of the Cross and Grotto.  The kids were in awe of the grotto! 

We looked for a few other letterboxes in the area with less luck, but ended our day finding a box at the Fair Oaks Farm.  We filled up with gas, explored the farm a bit, found the box and ate some yummy ice cream.

We had promised the kids lots of hours of swimming once we finished our day.  When we checked in to the hotel, the clerk (very matter of factly) told us that the (very small) pool was outside and that a parent needed to be IN the water with the kids at all times!  Okay, kinda odd since we have never had that said to us before.  The worse part was that it was overcast and cold!  It had been the low 70s all week with rain and clouds.  We finally decided to let the kids swim and Matt and I sat right beside the pool.  Luckily, no one said anything and the kids, with chattering teeth, had a lot of fun!

We woke up the next morning, excited to see the cows and pigs!  We headed back to Fair Oaks Farm to spend the day there.  We purchased both adventures and started our day.

Here we are, ready to roll!  Heading out to the Dairy Farm. 



After the Dairy Farm, we hopped on the bus for the Pig Farm...

After the tours, we headed back to the play area to play for hours!  We also got to witness a calf being born!

Maddie

Alex

Will - flipping over.

Will climbed his first rock wall in February at Grand Bear Lodge.  He climbed the whole wall on his first attempt.  He was pretty excited to try this "milk jug" rock wall.  He climbed the first wall with no problems.  He then moved to the next wall which was a bit harder.  It took him a bit longer, but he did it too!  The third wall was quite a bit harder - he only got a quarter the way up and came back down.  His arms were pretty well warn out at that point!  So proud of him!

We finished our day by signing our name on the chalk cow.  We had a wonderful day - watching lots of baby pigs and learning about dairy cows.  We were in awe of all that this farm does to help the environment while still producing so much for the area!

 

We had initially planned to stay 2 nights at the hotel, but decided after the first night (with the swimming pool and other issues with our room) to cancel our 2nd night.  We debated on heading south to Indy for a day or heading north to Chicago area.  After a full day at the farm, we decided to head for home.  We made a pit stop in Bolingbrook to grab a few things at IKEA and have ice cream at Andy's...as well as an extra treat that was hidden. : )   We were all pretty tired by the end of the drive, but we had a blast!