More Summer Fun

Our summer is fast coming to a close. The kids start school in 2 short weeks! We have been to the zoo a lot, as well as sprinkler fun at Grammy & Grandad's! Both Katie & Alex participated in swimming lessons. We decided (after a long week of 2 Vacation Bible Schools) that we would hold off on lessons for the twins until next summer.

Our New Deck!

A few months ago we decided to bite the bullet and look into expanding our deck and finishing our garage (new siding, roof, etc). The existing deck is small and our backyard is not user friendly. We really wanted to start using a firepit, eating outside and have an open space to use with family & friends. The new deck is BIG and takes up most of the back yard. We are super excited about it though!! Here are some before & after pictures...

Freeport, IL

We finally found a weekend to make our annual trip up to Freeport, IL. When Matt & I first married, he was working at Bonnett's Wholesale Florist and make deliveries to Freeport. We fell in love with this city and have made a promise to visit once a year...once we started having kids, we knew that this would be a place of (hopefully!) great memories!

Our first stop was the Historical Society Museum in Freeport to grab a new letterbox. It was a quick box and the kids enjoyed the flower/butterfly garden, rural schoolhouse & log cabin. Notice the picture of the butterfly garden...The kids are admiring the neighbor's swimming pool...not the flowers!! Katie told me, "Mom, I would sure love to live in that house! Look at that pool!! And just think, we'd have a letterbox in our back yard too!"...I think that last comment was to help Matt with the moving decision!!

Next stop is always THE favorite every year!! Union Dairy!! Now, we live in the land of Whitey's, but it is safe to say that Union Dairy ranks up with Whitey's! After enjoying our ice cream, we headed outside to the Lincoln/Douglas debate square which is next door. We hunted for the letterbox, with no luck. There was also a new box across the street at the library, so we looked & found that one.
Make a note of Maddie's ice cream dish compared to the other kids (her spoon is more than 1/2 way down...while the others are still at the top)! She REALLY liked her ice cream and didn't really stop to breath while eating it!!
After locating, "Three's company: Winter Time" at a park, we headed to our other Freeport favorite...Krape Park. This park is one of the coolest parks in Illinois! It is a beautiful park and includes a carousel, wooden playground, putt putt golf, waterfall, flower garden, tennis, baseball, paddlewheel boats, canoes, and many more things! We hunted for a letterbox within the park with no success...so we headed over to play on the playground. After that, the kids wanted to ride the carousel so we started towards it. It was a VERY hot day - high 90s with very high humidity. We hadn't eaten lunch yet, since we had just eaten ice cream....all of this explains a very upset stomach for Katie. She decided that she didn't want to ride the carousel...but the 3 other kids did.

We left the park early due to Katie not feeling well and to get something to eat. Katie didn't eat much, but did get lots of water in her system and seemed to be more like herself within a few minutes of stopping for lunch. Matt asked her if she would like to go back to the park to ride on the carousel and she agreed that that would be nice.

Our original plans were to stay at the park a bit longer and then head to Lena to find an older series at Lake Le-Aqua-Na, as well as a new box "Winds of Change". Due to Katie not feeling well, we decided to wait until next year to try out more things in the park and to find the Lena series. We did attempt the Winds of Change with no luck. We were blessed with an amazing sight though...

One the way home, we told the kids no movies (they watched one the whole drive up) and they needed to entertain themselves. I guess Will got bored...that is, until Maddie started to poke at him to wake up!!

The trip would have been better without the heat and illness...and better luck with the letterboxes...but we did have fun and enjoyed our time together...until next year!!

Schwebert Park

One of the Quad Cities (Rock Island) has a new park! It is right on the Mississippi and it is beautiful! It opened last weekend (just in time for fireworks on the River!). I heard from a friend that the park included a playground and fountain with ground sprayers. We decided to give it a try last night - are we glad that we did! It is a wonderful park and the evening couldn't have been any better!! As usual, I'll let the pictures speak.