Illinois Trip

The day after Greg's birthday, Cecily and I headed north to Illinois to celebrate my little brother's graduation and to have a nice long visit with family and friends.  At the time, my parents were in the process of moving to Texas (because Texas is awesome!), so Cecily and I stayed with my grandfather.  We had such a nice time getting in quality time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

The day we got to town, we went straight to a friend's house and spent several hours  together with our little ones.  Two of my bestest friends live around the corner from one another and their neighborhood is right across the street from a huge park (FDR era public works project = huge, nice park in  a little town).

My sweet, awesome friend, Stephanie came to hang out with us also.  She must love us, because she let Cecily eat out of her lap.

We spend an afternoon at the huge park with my cousin, Jon (Jonny, as I called him when we were kids), and his two sweet children.

This is the tree that I planted at my parents house 20 years ago.  It was an Earth Day freebie.  Since its start as a twig-like sapling, it has done pretty well.  I'll always be proud of that tree.

The last time I stayed at my childhood home was the year prior, just after Cecily was born.  By this time, my parents had already moved out and the house was closed.  It is probably better that way, since I think I would have been sad to see it empty.  We moved there when I was 5 and I have a million good memories of playing in the yard, woods, fields, ponds, and creeks near it. In addition to the natural elements, we had a treehouse, a trampoline, a tetherball poll, seesaw, basketball hoops, a go-cart, and four wheelers.  The tree that I planted was right beside the garden which I spent many summers helping in (i.e. weeding, picking, snapping, cleaning).  I remember finding and bottle-feeding abandoned bunnies, collecting buckets of frogs and soft-shelled turtles, hunting for mushrooms, picking blackberries, swinging from vines, sleeping on the trampoline under the stars with friends, and playing tag and "manhunt" with my friends in middle school.  I have good memories from inside too, but my favorite are from being outside for countless hours and days on end each summer. 

 One night, we went for dinner at my grandparents' and Cecily spent over an hour continuously eating watermelon and black beans.  She was at mess and we all enjoyed watching her chow down.

We had such a great time visiting with my grandparents.  I loved Cecily snuggling and playing with them.