Summer '13 Roadtrip (pt 7)

We decided to take a less direct route back home and go straight south to Louisiana to visit a friend of ours. The Perry's were in small group with us a few years ago, but moved to Saudi 2 or 3 years ago. Lindsey and the kids were visiting her family in Lake Charles, so we took the opportunity to spend the afternoon visiting before the last leg of our trip home. It was so nice to have the chance to catch up and let our kids play together! Wish they lived closer so they could play more often! After we got home, one of the first things Caleb asked was for Gavin to come over and play! 

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About an hour from home... The weary travelers were tuckered out! 

Our 13 day trip brought us 3,397.4 miles through Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana and gave us many, many happy memories! What a fantastic roadtrip! 

Summer '13 Roadtrip (pt 6)

The day we drove back into Illinois, we met up with Jonathan's cousin's family at McDonald's for a quick dinner before we called it a day. We were pretty ready to have some down time and relax after so many eventful days. The next day we visited Grandma Hart in the nursing home in the morning and spent the rest of the day with Lauren and the girls. We met at the park for some play time and a picnic lunch and then played at Lauren and Mike's house until dinner that evening. The kids had a great time playing together as the two youngest are close to our boy's ages. We even walked to their community garden to try to find some veggies to add into dinner. On our walk back from the garden, a nice gentleman gave us some corn to enjoy with dinner. (He was on the side of the road selling it. We had past him on the way to the garden and said hello, on our way back he already had a bag ready for us!) 

The next day we went over to the Children's Museum in Rockford and enjoyed playing there before having a big family dinner with Jonathan's Aunt and Uncle and some of his cousins. We enjoyed our two days in Belvidere before we began the trek back south. 

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McDonald's dinner

Visiting Grandma Hart

Belvidere Park

Walking to the community garden

Playing at Mike and Lauren's

The Rockford Children's Museum

Family dinner!

Summer '13 Roadtrip (pt 5)

On our last full day in Iowa we packed in a full day! Jill, Juliana and Emily joined us at our hotel that morning to swim for a while and then we cleaned up to head back to their house for lunch. We ate quickly and then drove over to go on the Boone Scenic Valley railroad! The kids had fun riding on the train and the adults enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful scenery through Iowa! If you're ever in that area, I highly recommend going on the hour or so tour! You hear a little history of the area and see some gorgeous sites! After the train ride, we had dinner at Pizza Ranch before we said our goodbyes and headed back to Illinois the next morning. We only got two full days in Iowa, but had fun visiting with cousins. Hopefully on our next trip we can spend a little more time in Iowa! 

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Swimming at the hotel

Happy Meals from McDonald's!

The Boone Scenic Valley Railroad

Dinner at Pizza Ranch (with balloon animals!)

Road trip Pros on the way back to Illinois!

Summer '13 Roadtrip (pt 4)

After three fun-filled days in Illinois, we drove over to Iowa to visit Aunt Jill, Uncle Roger and cousins Juliana and Emily. We spent our first half day letting the cousins play together and hang out. In total coincidence, Caleb's best friend, Samir, also happened to be visiting family in Iowa about 15 minutes from where we were, so we set up a surprise play day at the bowling alley for us the next morning. It was hilarious to watch the boys when Samir walked in! It was as if they had never met before! I guess they weren't expecting to see each other there, it took us a few minutes to help them realize the other was there! We spent the rest of the morning bowling and playing games before we went back to the hotel for naps. That evening Jonathan and I watched all four of the kids while Jill and Roger went out. It was fun to spend so much time together! 

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Hanging out on the day we got to Iowa

Bowling on our second day in Iowa (our boys first time to bowl!)

Babysitting that evening and watching Mr. Popper's Penguins!