Just a Short Jaunt Down the Highway

We spent a little time in the great state of Illinois this past weekend.  The days absolutely flew by.

My kids spent a ton of time in our aunt and uncle's pool, and I just realized that I did not get even one picture of them swimming.  I will blame it on not wanting to get the camera wet.

I did, however, get several pictures of this crazy football game.  One of my favorite things about this family is that they are amazing about doing things with the kids. Just about everything can be made inter-generational.  Typically this is a great thing. It was not so great when my husband landed on the arm of our 8 year old cousin during a later volleyball game and thought he smashed it into pieces.

Thankfully, all was well. No ER visit needed.

 

Back to football....I am not sure these teams were really fair. What I am fairly sure of is that my little guy may not of understood what he was doing, but he still had a blast.

 

Part of the reason he had a blast may have been because he got to try to tackle his brother over and over and over...

We scheduled in a bit of "no kid" time as well.  The guys went golfing one morning, but my husband refused to take the camera.  He has been golfing all of maybe 3 times in his life.  When I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have any proof that he actually went, my uncle quickly replied, "Sure we have proof that he went.  We came back with three fewer golf balls than we took with us!"

Ha.  My husband loves all kinds of sports.  I am not sure that he really considers golf a sport.

After the guys went golfing, the girls went for pedicures.  Funny little golf parallel here...I have had all of maybe three pedicures in my life as well.  The last one was when this middle gal got married...three years ago.

 My husband asked what it is that they actually do when one gets a pedicure.  I tried to explain the science and the reason of it all.  He still did not think it was worth $30.00 when I could just polish my toenails for basically nothing at home.

He might be right.

But I still enjoyed every minute of it.


Every time I look at this picture I think of Field of Dreams. "If you raise the net, they will come."

  

This is what you call volleyball in the middle of nowhere.

This state is serious about their soybeans and corn. We thought Kansas corn was tall this year.  Not so much.  In Kansas you could easily lose a 10 year old in the corn.  In Illinois, you could easily lose full grown adults.  In stiletto heals.

I was waiting for the collision in this shot.  No such luck. Apparently there is a ball somewhere up there.

  

The kiddos lost their wiffle ball in the beans.  There is no way that all of those beans survived that plastic bat.

I sure hope their combine knows how to harvest sports equipment.

 

No weekend in Illinois is complete with a Rook game.....or 20. I have never seen 4 members of the family quite this serious.  We really did smile...and laugh...a lot.  Someone must have just lost really badly here.

Or it is really late at night.

Or both.

Now we are back home for at least another 6 months.

I miss my family already.

But the 10 hour drive? Not so much.