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.

Comments

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Have I ever told you that Eli loves sports? Ha! I look back at him with baseballs and basketballs at 18 months old ,and it blows my mind that he's still so interested. The thing is, he doesn't discriminate. Baseball, basketball, football, soccer...you name it, we play it! Not only do we play sports all day, we also have to watch certain videos on Youtube. We watch "Boys of Fall," while wearing a football helmet. We watch Alabama's "Cheap Seats," John Fogerty's"Centerfield," and Kenny Rogers, "The Greatest" while holding a bat, carrying a ball, and wearing a batting helmet. And now, thanks to Space Jam, we have to listen to the movie sound track while shooting hoops! That's a blast from the past! He hasn't found a song about soccer or golf...YET! And with all that playing, who has time to run inside for a potty break? Not this boy! I never thought

A New Decade

Happy 2020, everyone! I know I'm a month and a half behind, but ya'll, January was brutal! Not brutal in a tragic kind of way but in a "life will wear you out" kind of way. It started off with the flu...times three! Eric, Ellie and I had Flu B and missed the first week back to school and work. Then Eli was diagnosed with Flu A two weeks later. Thankfully, my in-laws stepped in to help so that we didn't have to miss any more time at work. On top of the sickness, we listed our house for sale. The work it takes getting ready for market is just crazy. But we also have people coming in and out of our home at all hours and it's just kinda overwhelming. Plus, we are finalizing everything with the builder. In full transparency, working with the builder has been the easiest part! Maybe I'll do a little update on the whole building process later this week. Now that the dust has settled on 2020, I'm going to try my very hardest to keep this litt

Running Through The Sprinkler

Playing in the sprinkler was on our summer bucket list. To me it seems weird just checking if off and moving on to the next activity because when I was younger, we ran through a sprinkler pretty much every day. Putting it under the trampoline and letting it keep all the "jumpers" cool, was a favorite pastime. I cringe now. What the heck were we doing with eight kids on a net-free trampoline anyway? Ha! Back to the present…Eric treated the pool yesterday, so we couldn't swim which made it the perfect night to drag out the water hose and sprinkler. Neither child loved it at first, so we turned down the pressure. They slowly but surely warmed up to it. Bless her little heart, Ellie stood right in the middle and took a direct hit. She would make the worst face you've ever seen then cry ridiculsouly if you tried to move her. Eli ran straight though the middle with his eyes closed. Thank goodness our yard is basically an o

Search This Blog