Fun in Illinois

This past Thursday we headed out to Illinois to celebrate the 4th of July with family. On the first night we stopped at Brownsburg, Indiana and stayed the night. The hotel had an indoor pool, which is a must-have for burning off energy! Although the kids were so wired with excitement and the craziness of having everyone in the same room that they didn't get to sleep until after 10:30.

We took our time getting up the next morning, and then headed out to Bloomington, Illinois. Once there we met up with one of Josh's cousins, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed to a water park. It was so much fun, the kids had a blast! The area for the younger kids was perfect..... plenty of stuff for the 'big' kids to do, yet was also very safe for Casey. After the water park we went to our hotel to check in and then headed back over to his cousins house for a cookout. After lots of visiting, kickball with the kids, and catching fire-flies, we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest!

The next morning, the 4th, we woke up to lots of rain! We headed over to Josh's uncles house for a cookout and pool party. The weather was still pretty crappy.... rainy and chilly.... but that didn't stop the kids from wanting to put their suits on and swim! Josh suited up with them to supervise..... Casey was the first one back to me, he wasn't even wet except for the rain, and Clay soon followed. Carlie, of course, had to be bribed to come back in the house! After eating tons of food and hanging out, we headed over to another uncle's house (very large family!) for camping and fireworks. The 'camping' part didn't really work out very well as it was still raining, but we got to have more good food and the rain finally quit in time for us to watch the fireworks!

After the fireworks we decided to start heading east. We talked about driving the whole way home, but finally came to our senses when we got to Champaign and found another room. The kids were in their pajamas and we didn't even carry up the suitcases.... just wanted a place to rest for the night! We got home Sunday afternoon around 1, and even though we had a great time, it was good to get home and back into our own beds! Thanks Illinois Heap's for having us out.... we really enjoyed our visit!