Illinois!

One of the best memories of the summer was our vacation down to Illinois! Since the trip is a pretty long drive we decided to spend the night in Champaign on the way down and show the kids where we lived and where daddy went to school. Madi, of course, was so excited to check out the U of I. You can tell by her grin! She especially loved our stop at Walmart to get her an Illini shirt with sparkles!

Here we are on campus under the new bell tower.

We found this really old tree the kids were fascinated with

By the quad

Then we had to check out the football field. We could peek through the training room all the way to the end zone....very nice!

We had a great time that night at the pool! The kids loved being able to stay up really late with mom and dad! Then we headed out early the next day to the Southern tip of Illinois to see family! All the kids did great the entire trip in the car. Here is Elliot taking a nap...so cute!

Our first stop was Aunt Ermadell's!

After that we headed out to Tim & Tammy's! Here all the Family had gathered to eat & swim! It was so good to see everyone again!

Jadyn (Jon's cousin's daughter)

Alexa (Jon's cousin's daughter)

The crew!

Aunt Shirley (Tim took this shot...it's beautiful!)

trying to get his mask back on! :)

Uncle Paul

Mom & Aunt Ollie

Swimming at the hotel!

Checking out Aunt Vivian's farm & garden. The kids loved pickin veges!

Next stop...Aunt Shirley's!

Checking out her phone.

The kids loved all the trains!

Later that night we headed out to Tyler & Rebecca's house.

On the way home we took a detour to the St. Louis zoo to break the day up. That was really hot...but really cool!

Checkin out the Rhino!

the elephant

The penguins splashed Isaac! :)

Overall it was a great trip...the kids stayed up very late and took very few naps but did awesome! It was hard to come back to reality....we had a great time just hangin out as a family with our family! :)