Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! Has it been an enjoyable day for you? It always interests me to see how others spend this day. I understand the thought behind moms being celebrated and get that one would want to be pampered for the day...I love a good pampering. :)



I can even appreciate the thought of taking mom out to eat on this special day, but that isn't really a treat for me. Adam & I don't appreciate waiting in crowded restaurants for hours on end when really, we tend to eat out pretty regularly as it just makes life simpler with our schedule. But to each his own, right? So what do we do? We go to Jimmy Johns.






We get my favorite brand of sandwiches to-go and then head to the park for a leisurely picnic, where we fly our kites, relax, play, talk, and today, we even hit a few baseballs.








This year, we invited our friends to join us. This little cutie is Audrey. She thinks Kabe is pretty neat. Kabe is pretty good about playing with her & watching out for her.





Kabe always enjoys flying kites, but really, nothing beats baseball and hanging out with his friends. Kites, baseball AND being with his best bud, Ben made today 'AWESOME'.





This slugger is Ben. We're sorry Ben's dad is out of the country on a business trip right now, but we're thankful we got to spend the day with all of you.






I hope that whatever it is you chose to do today, whether you're a mom or not, your day was enjoyable and spent with those you love!

Beautiful Fall

This has been such a gorgeous fall weekend we spent as much of it as possible outside.






Today we went to a nearby state park.








Despite living in the area 11+ years now, this is the first time we've been there. The area we visited used to house coal mines.







Kabe was very interested in this and read all the listed facts and really wanted to go down the shaft. I'm Obviously not an option. (note the coal cars in the front of the picture).








The colors of fall are my favorite...as you can tell when looking at the color scheme of my house. There were several trees like this that are just turning -- so beautiful!







When we first drove in to the park, this area was full of kayak-ers, people floating in tubes and paddle boats see remnants on left. Of couse, Kabe thought that would be great. Although this weekend was beautiful, I'm not sure it was water-beautiful. Ummm, frigid!




On our way back to the car, we came upon some berries on a tree ... not a bush ... and decided to pick them to make a pie. I could hardly wait to eat them.





Just Kidding! I mean, we did see a berry tree and I did take some pictures, but I didn't touch them, let alone pick them. I just thought they were pretty and unusual among the rest of the fall colors.

Lazy Day

All three of us have been battling some allergy and/or cold stuff. We're not exactly sure what the problem is, but we know we're all congested. Kabe is coughing, my ears are plugged and Adam is losing his voice. We're fun to be around. Therefore, we decided it would be best to be outside on Sunday, so as not to expose people if we are contageous.

Sunday was a lazy day, but it was so beautiful we needed to be outside doing nothing. Adam wanted to work on his Bible study and I wanted to do some reading, Kabe just needed to be out & play so we headed to the park with a blanket.

Kabe's favorite thing at the park is the swings.


This isn't an ordinary swing. It's built to look like a tire, but can spin round and round.


And of course, he needs assistance on this swing for it to be any fun.


It can also swing and spin which is even more fun.


He could swing & spin, spin & swing endlessly.


He also likes regular swings. He can swing normally on them. Only he was being a little daring today.


Even though he knows how to swing on his own, he enjoyed some quality dad-time while Adam pushed him on the swings. Of course, Adam had fun tickling Kabe in the process.


We ran to Curtis Orchard yesterday to get some of our favorite Honeycrisp apples. We took a little extra time to run through the maze and of course, Kabe needed a picture on the train.



Here's Kabe in October '07 (left) and September '08 at the Curtis Orchard Apple. He likes the Illini too! =)

National Park

On our way to the hotel we took a wrong turn and came upon the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, (we saw the cabin at the top of this link...although I didn't take a picture) a National Park on one side of the road and a state park on the other. It's set sort of deep in a forested, hilly area and it was dark already so we turned around and got on the right track and headed to our hotel, but the next night after we got done at the amusement park, we headed over to the National Park.
Wanting to capture the trip on film, I asked my guys to stand next to the sign...of course, they loved the idea.


So I tried again.


The area was beautiful and lush. There was this cool wooden fence made of logs. It sort of reminded me of something like the logs from Kabe's Lincoln Log set.

There were even crops growing. This is corn, but Adam says there was also sorghum growing in another spot.


There was a whole section of sunflowers and lots of wildflowers.


We saw a whole group of wild turkeys in the distance. Adam took these pictures and even got a rise out of them when they noticed him coming near.


Then we decided to take a one-mile trail that looped around through the forest.


This is Kabe, thinking we are lost after we've looped around and are heading back to the car. He was initially resistant to this process, but then got into it and eventually enjoyed it. National Parks aren't usually something we 'do', but overall, it was a good experience and we're glad we stopped. I think I can say we'll probably be stopping at a few more in the future.

Fun at the Park!!

Saturday morning we were on target to head out and get Grandma Gene (her name is actually Connie -- story for another time) so Kabe would be missing all the Easter Egg hunt action that morning. Turns out, the local park district actually has a night time egg hunt on Friday night so we decided to give it a try ... rearranged all scheduled plans, okay - dinner, and headed to the park to play while waiting for the 7pm scheduled start time.
Kabe had fun playing and we realized what a master he's become at hanging by his hands...something that's been very difficult for him in the past.



He had a lot of fun doing it and was pretty happy about it.



There were a few moments of panic, when he wasn't sure he was going to make it and fear overtook him.



But then he would gather himself and get back on track, successfully to completion.



We never made it to the Easter Egg hunt, but as you can see, we had a great time at the park and headed off to dinner afterwards....we were starving from all the exertion!