No longer STUCK in Illinois!! After 30 years of living in Northern Illinois we are officially nomads. Our motto....Let's go on an adventure! You'll likely find us hanging out by a river, or lake, or ocean.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Perfect Summer Weekend

Saturday morning Finn took to the skies and went flying in a little aircraft over our town.

If you have kids 8-17 years old check into this program. They sure do make the kids feel special and you can't beat the price(it's FREE).

Then I headed South with a friend to go trail riding. It was her first time ever riding a horse and she even thought our speed was incredibly SLOW. But it was still nice to be outside. We even went on a short hike to the nearby gorges after our trail ride.


Sunday I viewed my first cowboy mounted shooting competition. They ended up having 31 competitors which was good(lots of variety in skill level) and bad(it took a long time to set up between riders). The two riders we went to support ended up taking first and third place so that was awesome!


It was a perfect summer weekend.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Weekend Road Trip

Last weekend we headed out on a road trip to visit my family in southern Ohio. I love road trips because they are affordable in our little hybrid car but there are a few things I realized I hate about road trips too. The 1000 miles(round-trip) of bumper to bumper traffic, trying to stay awake while driving at 3am, and the very uncomfortable seats in the fuel efficient car.
We managed to pack our four day weekend with tons of activities.
Saturday we headed to a little town for their festival's "Grand Finale" concert with Kenny Rogers and fireworks. "You've got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away and know when to run." Yep, The Gambler was stuck in my head for a good 3 days.
On Sunday we headed south to Lake Hope which was the perfect spot for my youngest child to finally try out fishing.

Later in the day we headed over to a State Forest to trail ride. It was so beautiful despite being in the midst of horse fly season. Seriously these things were the size of hummingbirds!!

Then on Monday we headed to the capital for the Ohio State Fair. It was HOT but we managed to take as much of the fair in as we could manage. The lumberjack show, the pig races, the animal buildings, and the cow made of butter.

Eldest child was determined to try one of the deep fried options(cheese burgers, pizza, PB & J sandwiches, Snickers, Milky way, Oreos, Twinkies). He ended up with a deep fried strawberry Pop Tart.

And we had a great time hanging out with family we don't get to see very often. My niece was inseparable from her cousin the entire weekend. Sometimes my child can be so sweet and patient with little kids!