Weekend In Marion

With all the birthdays and the return to our normal routine, I'm a little behind on the updates. So without further delay, here is a recap of our wonderful weekend in Marion visiting Eric's family.

On Friday morning, Eli and Grandad went to Cave In Rock, IL with most of the cousins while Nan and I ran to the store I for PJs since I forgot to pack Eli some. We had a fish fry for dinner and spent a lot of time letting the kids play.

On Saturday we woke up ready to celebrate July 4th! We went back to the "home place" for the kids to play some more with their cousins. After a quick swim, it was time for a late lunch / early dinner.

I love that the kids are blessed to grow up knowing and playing with their second cousins. I have such wonderful memories of summers with my cousins, so I'm glad Eli and Ellie have the same opportunity.

So I have a confession, the pictures below were a battle to take. The kids were wired, and I was just done. Ellie had pooped in the pool just prior to this (don't worry, I bathed her), and Eli was bouncing off the walls. I may or may not have lost my temper with them, but I'm still glad I endured the chaos because I love how fun the "country" photoshoot turned out.

My little firecracker in her first ponytail.

We went to Tulu to see the fireworks and got there early enough that we spent quite a bit of time waiting for the sky to light up. Luckily, Eric and are becoming pros at entertaining the kids while we wait for fireworks (thank you Disney), so we had plenty of glow sticks and lightup goodies.

Eli and Sam were fans of the light up swords and spent a lot of time playing Star Wars. The fireworks were entertaining, but long. For such a small town, they really do a great job!

You would think given all the outdoors playing, swimming, and late night fireworks that the kids would fall right asleep...and you would be wrong. My head was pounding and Ellie WOULD NOT go to sleep. I wasn't thrilled, but when she finally went down, I did too and slept so, so sound.

Sunday morning we went back to the home place and let the kids play for a little while before we said all of our goodbyes. That's always the hardest part for the kids.

We went back to Nan and Grandad's house for lunch, then we packed up and made a quick trip to the store before hitting the road.

It was a wonderful weekend with lots of precious memories. We spent time with family, ate way too much amazing food, and recharged our batteries. I can't think of a better way to spent a holiday weekend.

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