July 4th Weekend

When traveling by car with young children it seems like you have two options: 1)Go as far as you can as fast as you can and pray you can avoid making countless stops or 2)Travel a bit more leisurely and assume multiple stops will need to be made. It seems like more often than not we find ourselves in the first category, but for our extended weekend in Southern Illinois for the 4th of July weekend we actually had the opportunity to take it slow going to and fro and enjoyed it!

On the way down we pulled off in Pontiac and ate our packed lunch in the town square. We explored the downtown a bit and even did our dorky architecture thing and drove around looking at houses and the menacing Pontiac Correctional Center.

Bob, Cora, and Reed with a statue of a young Abe.

Reed driving the "Lincoln Towncar"

Ah the joys of living in the Land of Lincoln!

Our little firecracker, Cora, spent her first 4th of July in Greenville. We grilled out, enjoyed time with the family, and watched the fireworks show. Last year we didn't take Reed to see fireworks so this was his first experience and he loved them. We staked out a spot at a family friend's house a safe distance from the Park with a gorgeous view. We avoided the scary noises of the loud bangs and also the crowds. The weather had cool off by evening and it was a perfect July evening.

Our little Firecracker

Look at this cool frog at Granny and P-pa's house

Building the tallest tower ever with Uncle Nathan and Casey

Notice Reed's overall, a.k.a. his "farmer clothes." On this trip, he went to a dairy farm, a farmer's market, and saw a blueberry patch, lots of "corns" in the fields, cows, goats, chickens, a turkey, and a llama. With such farm excitement, he asked for proper apparel to fit in. He even asked P-pa for a farmer's hat, which P-pa graciously provided.

We also spent some time in Edwardsville visiting the Stotts family. We got to see their beautiful new home. It has so much character and the neighborhood is great. Reed had a wonderful time playing with his cousins and they all got to meet Cora for the first time.

Willa, Reed, and Owen

Playing with Uncle Bobby/Daddy in the front yard

.

Cousinly love

On the way home we stopped in La Salle. After attending to all the needs of the little ones, we checked out the "architectures" as Reed likes to say. As we drove around, we asked Reed if he liked looking at architecture. His response was, "No! DADDY likes looking at architecture!" Although after I told him that I liked looking at architecture too, he decided that he liked it too (Daddy AND Mommy can't both be wrong.)

When you are a kid there's nothing like running through a big space that echos

We had a fun and relaxing trip! We were just sorry that the time went so quickly.