back to Illinois

We just got back from a quick trip to Illinois. We left Friday morning (I did not get called in to work :-) ) and got back to out house with plenty of time to spare before watching the fireworks (from our front yard-I love Cicero!). As we (I) was driving back, I was thinking about how long we had been making the trips to Illinois from Indiana and how I could probably do the trip in my sleep-I will not be testing that theory. I can't believe we've been driving this for 11 years, more if you count the trips I took to visit Andy while he was in college. Anyway, it was nice to get to Decatur before lunch and have most of the day to spend with family. Our first stop, as always, was Chris and Kim's house where the cousins played together and gave Andy a new hair-do.


We watched some tv at Grammy Linda's. Ewan loves, loves, loves his cousins and especially likes to climb all over Marie. Thank goodness they are all still young and don't mind it.


Relaxing on the front porch Friday night in excellent weather!


On Saturday, Jerry and Linda hosted a Shaffer get-together for about 50 Shaffers and Spielmans. It was fun to see relatives that I had not seen in 3 years. The kids had fun running around and jumping on the trampoline. Aunt Dian brought Silly Bandz (those rubber bands in the shaped of animals and things) and was a big hit. We also had a cake for Marcus's upcoming birthday and he got to open a couple gifts in a crazy, disorganized moment. The cake had Star Wars people and symbols on it-thank you Grammy Pammy for bringing it!

Aunt Sharlyn cooridinated some games for the kids.

Chris, Kim, Jeff, Andy and I got together that evening for some exciting games of Hearts and "BS". Rolled back in to Jerry and Linda's at about 1:30 AM!

I got the brothers together at church for a quick photo.

We had to make some extra room in our car after church to take home some more Shaffers! (it's a mini-van full!)

Cassie and Cale played with zhu zhu pets-they are doing tricks!

And I made the Shaffer cousins pose for a photo. I missed my chance to get the Spielman cousins together on Saturday, but it was so busy and kind of hot and some of the kids (mine) were tired and hot and disagreeable. It would not have been a good pic.

In order: Cale, Marcus, Savannah, Liam, Marie, Cale and Cassie. Poor kids, I make them take a group photo every time we visit each other. I could probably do a scrapbook with all of the picutes-maybe someday!

We drove back Sunday (without stopping!), ate dinner, unpacked and had time to enjoy the fireworks that night (except for Liam who we put to bed early and Ewan who fell asleep on the couch). A great trip!