Fun at the Park

This week Jeremy is gone at camp. This means two things. 1. I have a whole new appreciation for the balance Jeremy brings to our family. (the girls are really challenging me in the area of patience) 2. We have been looking for fun things to do. One of those is visiting my family. Last night we took the girls to the local park. They had lots of fun. The park is one my grandpa used to take me to when I was little. It is located right across from his farm. My cousin and I thought he owned the park when we were little. Now Grace refers to it as Papa's park.  We also took the girls' favorite buddy, Roxy, Uncle Cody's dog. Grace recently asked if Roxy could come and spend the night at our house. She LOVES that dog. And has recently started carting around a stuffed dog she has. She tells me she needs to take it out to go potty & play "stick." 

Wildlife Prairie Park

 




Above Grace is pumping water outside the frontier home. Below is the friendly tree, Grace & Carter are shaking its hand. We watched Jeremy do both these on the tape.





On Friday we had a fun day with friends. Nana & I took the girls to Wildlife Prairie Park near Peoria, IL. It was a great day with perfect weather (no rain!!). On Thursday night Nana showed the girls a VHS of Jeremy at the park when he was eight. They got to see a preview of some of the fun things they would see the next day. They kept saying, "Who is that boy?"

The park has animals that are indigenous to Illinois. The kids were too little for us to see everything, but they loved everything we did. I think it will be fun to take them back when they are older.  While there we saw farm animals, an old house & school, a bobcat, a fox, a coyote, a black bear, snakes, and more. We also took a ride on the park's train. We ended our visit with a picnic lunch. It was such fun to introduce them to something Jeremy enjoyed when he was little! And I enjoyed seeing a place I had only heard about from Jeremy's childhood stories.

Family Photos

My mom took new family photos. I was really pleased with how they turned out! The girls were semi-cooperative &  I love their matching dresses. Know I won't be able to get away with that forever! If you live locally and need a photographer my mom (Jan Holst) does an awesome job.