Christmas with Barb & Willy

We celebrated Christmas a week early with Aunt Barb & Uncle Willy. They were heading out of town to visit family. The kids had gifts for them from the Awana Christmas Store. They earn points all year long and get to shop with these points for Christmas presents. The kids asked if they could give Grammy & Grandad their presents from the Awana store at the same time.

Alex showing us her gift from Barb & Willy

Grammy, Katie, Barb & Willy

I couldn't resist! We had a good laugh when we saw this picture! First of all, it's funny...Second of all, Dad is an IOWA fan!! Alex found this hat at the Awana store...brand new with tags on!!...and got it for Dad. She was so excited for him to open it and wear it. I hate to burst her bubble - some day she will learn that Orange/blue doesn't mix with Black/Gold!!!

Peoria - Letterboxing and Christmas Lights!

I was so excited to read an ad in Midwest Living about the Festival of Lights in Peoria, IL. We love light displays and don't mind having to drive to see them. We drive to Clinton every year, as well as Dubuque to look at their lights, so Peoria didn't seem much different!

We looked up the Festival info online and found out that the parade was that day! We decided that we had time to make it, but looked at the forecast (it was raining at the time) and found that it was going to rain all day/night! So, we opted to skip the parade this year and see the lights sometime in December.

Between holiday parties, Matt's on-call schedule and church committments, we had ONE weekend that allowed us to spend a day in Peoria. So, we put it on the calendar and we prayed that we wouldn't get hit with snow!! The day turned out to be a great one! It had rained quite a bit the week before, so one of our letterboxing hikes was scratched. We got to Robinson Park to look for Shorty's "Egyptian" series but found the trail extremely muddy & steep - not a good combination with kids (or us for that matter)! Matt was able to grab one box before deciding against the others. I took the kids to the playground where we played for a while.

We then headed to dinner at Tyroni's! We wanted to find something good - local to Peoria. A collegue had suggested Tyroni's and it was just what we were looking for! We look forward to going there again next year, as we continue our "Festival of Lights" tradition.

We left Tyroni's around 5:15 and headed to see the lights. We quickly realized that the bumper-to-bumper traffic that we were in was the line to the lights! Here we are towards the top of the hill - almost to the entrance. Reminds me of "Field of Dreams"! An hour and 15 minutes later, we drove into the park to see the lights. While the wait was long, it helped to build our anticipation...and our bladders! By the time we drove in to the park, both Will & Maddie had announced that they had to go to the bathroom "really bad"! We all used the restrooms at Tyroni's...but that had been a long time before! Luckily, they were able to "hold it" and there were no accidents!! Half way through the light display, Maddie announced that she was ready to go home!! I think she was tired of sitting! The lights were fun & we enjoyed them. Next year, we're hoping to see the parade too.

Homework Time

I found Katie working her homework...all the while, Pollyanna was reading a book!

Grandma Barman's 90th Birthday

The kids & I went out to Woodhull, IL to celebrate Grandma Barman's 90th birthday! She looked wonderful - it was great to see her out of the house!

After service, the church celebrated her birthday with coffee & cake.
After this, we headed to Homestead restaurant.

Teri, Deb & Becki with their dad (Ron) and Grandma Bev
Becki's parents Ron & Rose with Grandma Bev
Grandma with her 4 boys - Denny, Ron, Randy & Doug

Our Picture Won!

One of our vacation photos was chosen for the AtlasQuest calendar! What a nice honor! Check out the calendar - we are the month of October!