what we did on our summer vacation (part 1)

It seems a bit silly to talk about a summer vacation when your your days are typically full of swimming lessons, picnic suppers, trips to the park, and other fun.  (Well, that's what the days looked like for 80% of the family.  The other 20% actually worked.  He earned a vacation.)  And yet, we took our circus on vacation anyway.

We're crazy like that.

Of course, you have to be a bit crazy to take three kids on a plane halfway across the country, especially when one of them is a very large, very loud, very energetic 15-month-old boy.

But, like I said, we're crazy like that.

The five of us arrived in Illinois none the worse for wear.  And while no one would describe John David as a a perfect passenger, he actually did fairly well on the flight.  (There was only one brief period when I thought I'd lose my mind.  And then, with a little coaxing from the the dvd player, he fell asleep.  Praise God.)  The girls, on the other hand, were model passengers, despite their overwhelming excitement about seeing cousins.  We were really proud of our girls.  (And it made us realize -- one day, God willing, flying won't be the nail-biting production it is now.  One day.  You know, four years from now.)

By the time we'd secured our rental car, the little ones were exhausted.  That was probably a mercy, too, since there wasn't a lot of room to spare in the back of our standard rental car.  Sleeping makes for a lot less squabbling on a long-ish drive.

We spent two weeks in Illinois and the time flew!   We spent the first week with Jim's sister Katherine and her family, and then then second week with Jim's sister Margaret and her family.  (And we managed to spend a good deal of time with Grandma and Grandpa Golby and even see Aunt Annie, too!)  If I'd blogged about this upon our return, like a responsible blogger, I'd probably have broken this into a number of posts and given you all the details.  As it is,  I'm six weeks late.  In the interest of getting around to telling you anything at all, I'll give you two lengthy, photo-heavy posts instead.  I apologize in advance for the assault on your eyeballs.

Some highlights from our week with Katherine and Eric, Sarah, Ethan, and Melissa in Dwight, Illinois:

Cousins.  That probably goes with out saying, though...  The girls loved spending time with their big cousins, and so did John David.

Sarah reading to the girls.  And, as you can probably tell, she let them accessorize her, too.  She's basically a saint.  We especially felt that way when she'd just disappear outside with the children and we could sit and carry on uninterrupted conversations with other adults.  Seriously, it was a vacation.  (And I had thought that was impossible with small children.)

John David hams it up for Melissa.  The girls were devastated to leave Melissa when we moved to Margaret's house after the first week.  Madeline cried for almost thirty minutes of the two hour drive to Kewanee.  (She was distracted from her grief by lunch.  Barely.)

A cookout!  We celebrated the grandparents' anniversary and Melissa's birthday with the whole family, lots of food, a game of cornhole, some basketball, and lots of other fun.  Good times.

What a great game!  But watch out -- Grandpa Golby is a serious competitor.

Madeline gets a ride from Ali.  Katherine and family went above and beyond as hosts -- they borrowed a whole host of toys (including this little car) for our little ones!  I'm telling you, we were so spoiled.  All of us.

Madeline and Jim joined the teens in some pick-up basketball.

Katherine and Indy cheer on the players.

The whole family.  These photos are hard to get...  (Can you tell my children are maybe a little tired?  Or possibly over-stimulated?  Nah.)

Lots of swimming.  These photos are from the day of the cookout, when the Dwight cousins and the Kewanee cousins took our girls to the local pool.  But we swam a lot of other days, too.  We were more than happy to go swimming just about whenever -- the adjustment to the heat and humidity of the midwest was a bit of a shock after our really mild Northern California summer.

This was the first time Madeline had seen her cousin Matt in just about a year.  She was still a little tentative in this photo, but by the time we left Kewanee, she and Matt were practically inseparable.

A trip to the waterpark.  Next to seeing cousins, this might have been the activity our girls were most anticipating.  John David didn't know enough to anticipate it, but he sure enjoyed it!  (We got a great day for it, too.  It was a little overcast that day, so it wasn't nearly so hot.  Whew!)

Madeline loved the little slide.  It was exactly her speed.

Ethan helped Kathleen figure out the waterworks.

And John David just loved the water.  (Don't say I don't love you, friends.  That's a photo of me in a maternity swimsuit.  Ugh.)

Delight.

This municipal waterpark has some fun waterslides.  Jim and Katherine tested them out.  Me, not so much.

And to my chagrin, my four-year-old insisted on trying out the waterslides, too.  I wasn't about to let her,  ("She's too small!" I thought.) but her dad was all for it.  I was terrified and she was thrilled.  She loved it!  Or, more accurately, them!  Kathleen tested out all of them.  The only one she didn't like was one that was covered and so "a little too dark."  I get such a kick out her holding her nose, though!

A date.  No photos for this one, but Katherine and company sweetly watched all three of our little people so that Jim and I could go on an actual date.  We ate dinner at a restaurant and went to a movie (Inception).  That's practically unheard of!  It was a delightful evening and such a treat for us.  (Thanks, guys.  You're amazing.)  We were all sad when we drove away from Dwight after the first week -- even though we'd see everyone again (in just a few days), and even though we had another week of fun waiting for us in Kewanee!