Artistic Endeavours

Here's a picture of an alien that Ben created at his Parks & Rec class today. The theme was Outer Space. Other crafts included making a moon rock (gluing colored tissue paper to rocks) and a multi-media outer space picture (drawing with a white crayon then painting with blue paint). This was all very fine, as far as Ben was concerned, but as soon as he spotted the toy vacuum – he knew what he wanted to do instead.

Rough start has a smooth finish

Ben with cousin, Meg.

Neil with Grandma.

Ben with Mandi, Grandma, Great-Grandma, and Sue.

So our trip to Michigan started with some unfortunate news. We got a call from our storage place early Thursday afternoon informing us that our RV had been broken into. After some scrambling on Brian's part we were able to fix the window and the screen so we could continue with our plans for the weekend. Friday morning we headed to Hillsdale, MI to enjoy family and BBQ. Donna & Dan really out did themselves with an abundance of great food. The boys also had a chance to show off their swimming skills with the help of a great new duck flotation device for Ben. Luckily, Busia brought Ben some new outfits since the one he was wearing got a little wet. The dogs even had a good time since they were lavished with attention from Kate, Meg & Paige. So I thought the boys would handle all of the driving better if they weren't forced to be in the RV two days in a row. The plan was to head to Norm & Joan's that evening after their bedtime so they could sleep peacefully as we drove. Our conclusion: It is best to drive in the morning and early afternoon. Saturday we were able to borrow Joan's car in order to visit Great-Grandma's new condo for the first time and to celebrate her 77th birthday. We had a great time visiting with Grandma, Aunt Mandi, Mr. T, Sue Basta, and of course Great-Grandma. Here new home is really lovely. It is so satisfying to see how much pride she has in her home. Her surrounding community and neighbors seem to suit her well. Sunday we made our way home and it was a very easy drive since the boys traveled well.

Hillsdale, IL this weekend... Hillsdale, MI next

So late Friday morning we decided on the spur of the moment to go on a trip this weekend. We checked our Woodall's directory to see what our state had to offer. Being new to the guide we wanted to see what their idea of a 5W campground was like. So we headed straight west on I-80 to the only 5W campground in Illinois. It proved to be very nice. We had a opportunity to camp directly on the pond, enjoy the paddle boats, relax in the swimming pool and check out some very big, fancy RVs that were there for a rally. Oh, and harass the ducks.

Also very exciting news – Neil is officially crawling now!

Bennet looks for employment

With the price of gas these days, everyone is going to have to pitch-in to support our new pastime.

Story in the park

Bennet got to enjoy his second Story in the Park of the summer courtesy of Plainfield Park District. Today's selection was "Harold and the Purple Crayon". For craft time Bennet made his own book by pasting purple cutouts of boats, balloons, and other items from the story. Mom helped him draw a picture of his bedroom on the last page which included his current bedtime friend, Sparky. There was also grape-scented, purple play-dough to play with. Bennet is becoming quite grown-up. He was able to resist the temptation of eating it (mostly due to mom's watchful eye). Neil of course also enjoys the sights and sounds of our outing.

Ahh – our first entry

Now that we're RV owners we thought it was time to start a blog of our travels and latest happenings. For our first trip we went to Indiana Beach and met our friends the Wassons. As we loaded up and headed out the first song that came on the radio was "Holiday Road". This may be have to be a new tradition for the start of each trip. Traveling was good and the boys were great. We did have a pretty good down pour on Saturday morning, but we managed to make lemonade. We had lots of fun at the water park with the boys, but didn't get any pics there. It's enough to try and keep track of the boys without keeping the camera dry too. We took our time on the way back and stopped to have lunch and hit a neighborhood park. We also went for ice cream. Bennet is trying to improve his milkshake devouring time. He really goes at it like it's his job. All for now.