At Whitten's End

When we realized that Kayla would have a 3 day weekend from school this week, we decided this would be the ideal time to have a last hoorah before it gets snowy and miserably cold.  I looked into indoor water parks in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, but opted to head to Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort in Utica, Illinois, when I learned they had Thursday/Friday 2 for 1 special!  As a huge bonus, the hotel had an indoor water park and an indoor amusement park!  Triple bonus: it's located next to two beautiful state parks!   Upon checking in on Thursday evening, we headed over to the Enchanted Forest to ride some rides... here Emma and Kayla are riding the carousel!  Thursday is apparentlly not a busy night for riding rides at the Enchanted Forest, so there were no lines and we virtually had the place to ourselves.  Carmen, one of the ride operators, took to our children- especially Casey- and made sure that our kids had plenty of extra tok...

For the long Labor Day weekend, our family headed out to Central Illinois to visit with Brad's family.  We were blessed to get to visit with Uncle Larry, Aunt Jan, and McKenzie who live down in North Carolina where we used to live.  It has been just over a year since we saw them last, so it was great to visit with them and, consequently, got to visit with Uncle Dale and Aunt Cathy!  After Uncle Larry and Aunt Jan headed out on Sunday afternoon on their way to Indiana and home to NC, we (along with Stan, Sharon, Dave's family, & Jen's family) drove down to Lake Taylorville to spend the afternoon with Aunt Imogene and Uncle Charlie who graciously hosted us at their lakeside get-away!    Brad's Aunt Cathy, Uncle Dale, Mom, Uncle Larry, and Aunt Jan :) Liz (2) with mama Laura on the boat After we got the kids all suited up in their lifevests, some of us loaded up the boat to watch Austin and Brad go tubing on their ultrariffic "tube"!  It had raine...

 As Kayla's first piano lesson is rapidly approaching, we've been watching Craig's List for a piano.  Many are listed but none have really struck my fancy for some reason.  So when I received a call from mom last week and was told that her friend Sandy had one in Davenport that she just wanted gone, I was ecstatic, especially since it was FREE.  But as the saying goes, "There is no such thing as a free lunch" and this was no exception.  As pianos aren't easy to move and this one needs a bit of tuning.  None the less, I knew with a little sweat equity, a Uhaul, and a bit of help from family, we could get it here!  So yesterday, we coordinated a time that would work for everyone and got our work out getting her in our dining room (where she echoes quite loudly, if I do say so myself!)  The kids immediately started swarming and Emma and Casey fell in love with the piano that we brought home for their older sister!  We're hoping the novelty wea...

After a summer filled with some great moments with family, amazingly fun get-aways, and many moments of down time without friends to spend it with, Kayla was ready to return to school and a new routine.  It's incredible how much she has grown over the summer, not in height so much as maturing into more of an adolescent in her deep thoughts and responses.  She is excited for a challenging year of learning and is anxious for the school year ahead of her!  With school starting today, we took our traditional "front of the house" pics as well as our "pic with the family car".  Since the Honda Odyssey was in the garage, we just took it beside the Hyundai Sonata!  Kayla graciously sharing the spotlight with Casey and Emma! Our neighbors offered for Kayla to walk to school with them.  Not wanting to crowd Kayla, we let her walk to school with the other moms that were going with their kids.  She's excited about riding her bike to school ...

I'm not one who's overly excited about my kids getting wet (or dirty, for that matter) when it's not something that's "planned"... I know, I know, lighten up, Deb, but today was an exception.  As I finished watering my garden for the day, the kids were chomping at the bit to play in the water.  I went inside briefly, leaving them on the deck playing in their sand table and returned to see Emma and Casey playing in the sprinkler... I ran to get my camera!  I did let them play for a few minutes but as dinnertime approached and the garden and lawn were plenty saturated, I turned off the hose. Casey signing "more" as in, "more water, mom!" Emma trying to get a little bit of water to drink before all of it drains out of the hose Casey AND Emma trying to get some of the last drops of water from the sprinkler! Silly goofballs!

 Brad's brother, Dave, came for a brief Sunday/Monday visit and had never been out to the Field of Dreams.  Despite a VERY hot and humid day, we took the opportunity to head into the country roads of Iowa to share the magic that is the Field of Dreams.  Despite the weather, there were some people tossing the ball around, giving me and Kayla an opportunity to hit a few balls and run the bases (while no one had a camera rolling!) and then we took some time for some corn pics, house pics, and to toss the ball around for a few minutes. If you look closely, you'll notice that there is little to no corn on these huge stalks.  I remember watching documentaries that came with the special edition "Field of Dreams" DVD set that we own.  When they filmed the movie there was a severe drought and the corn wasn't growing, so they set up sprinklers and painted the grass green.  Despite the water, the corn stalks grew but no corn grew as the nitrogen that comes from ...