Off to Play...

Our children's museum is undergoing some amazing renovations and should be open at the end of the year, in the meantime they have shuffled thing around a bit and are sharing the space in a neighboring museum, so we are still able to visit and play.

We met some friends this morning

and had a fabulous time playing and pretending.

I cannot WAIT until the new and improved museum opens! We had fun today dear friends, we can't wait to do it again!

Out on PK...

A couple of weeks ago my aunt and uncle returned home from Ohio with their boat and wave runners.

After waiting for schedules to cooperate we made it out to PK lake and had a great day, enjoying the beautiful scenery and


soaking up the sun.



This is Devil's Gate known for a battle in which the enemy was only able to enter and exit through this pass and ended up in defeat because of it, before it was a lake though.

Enjoying Summer...

Dripping Sugar on a Stick Popsicles,

with friends...

Today we enjoyed a day spent with great friends, some of which I missed on camera, because they left before I got it out, but we know they were there and that's what counts! We spent the day swimming and snacking and the kids absolutely loved the dripping, cold fruity popsicles. Perfect!

Going for a Ride...

What would a trip to the farm be without a ride on horseback?

We headed over to get the horses saddled and ready to go and wouldn't you, we had some impatient riders,

but not to worry they have one loving Nini, who knew just what to do!

Now on this particular day we had the odds working against with the humidity topping the charts, crabby horses, pesky dogs and Ginormous horseflies! Man they were bad, they were drawing some serious blood! All in all no one was hurt and the horses made it back in record time, though some of us ended up walking home, HA! Thanks for keeping Auntie company girls.

This also happened to be -A- first ride on a horse and he seemed to enjoy himself, even though a short trip for pictures, no more, no less.

With the Use of Water...

This handsome Baby boy was baptized in Christ today, as his Godparents it is our priveledge to help guide him to live a life filled with Christ, and what a priviledge it is!

And would you believe that this sweet little one slept through a portion of his own baptism?

Well in his defense, it was longer than any we've ever been too, the Deacon was so excited about this sacrament, and it showed.

The Farm...

Hubby's family lives in Illinois. When most hear that we are going to Illinois to visit family they immediately think of Chicago. Though that is where we used to live, and where his sister & co. and Grandmother currently reside it is not our main destination.

In 2004, his brother & co. relocated from Springfield, IL to be closer to "The FARM" and are now an hour north and his parents relocated in 2005 from Chicago, directly to "The Farm". So though we would be making a trip to Chicago this visit, our main stay would be in Southern Illinois at the "The Farm".

We started our vacation yesterday driving, followed by more driving and then some more.

In the big city of Dallas we were greeted with traffic, FUN! As I enjoyed beared the stop and go that goes with traffic, I saw things I would much rather be doing like this,

and soon after 2 hours of anxiety inducing traffic, we made it through the city and were on our way once again. The kids were great through our travels, and slept through most of it, since we drove all night, -N- was asleep by 6:15pm and woke up around 10pm and fell back under nod's spell some time around midnight, -A- took a while to give into sleeping and held out until 9pm.

We arrived at the farm bright and early at 6am this morning,

stopping to pick up Papa, so we could continue our journey to the Windy City for our nephew's baptism...

Before we could continue our journey however we needed to make sure the animals were fed. So we put on our boots and headed out in the truck...

Up first were the horses...-N- hasn't been around them in such a long time that he was frightened overjoyed to see them again and -A- was too little to remember the last time, so this was his first real experience and he was intrigued to say the least.

Introducing Lad, Sugar & Silver were there too. Lad was even kind enough to greet me by spitting up on my foot, thank goodness for BOOTS!

Once we fed the horses we ventured over to Uncle Bill's house to feed his horses,

the chickens & roosters...

and lastly we went over and fed the cows.

What an exciting morning!

We finished up, cleaned up and loaded back into the van to travel the last leg of the trip to Chicago.