Our celebration of the beginning of Summer was a huge success. We camped, we hiked, we biked, we shopped, we roasted things on a fire, & best of all, we stayed dry!
Our trip officially started after a stop to my favorite Rheumatologist. I love my dr. He does the quickest appointments ever & since my Lupus isn’t an issue, my appointments last 5 minutes. I’m not exaggerating. It can be irritating to drive 90 minutes for a 5 minute appointment, but hey, it gets me near a mall & a Target. We made a quick lunch stop & then headed to the IL State Capitol. Gavin gave us our first funny as we were walking towards the Capitol. He pointed at a font-like structure & said
“I know where Abraham Lincon was baptized – right there!”
Turns out, it was just a sundial with a bunch of water in it.
We spent about an hour walking around the capitol. We saw both chambers & even sat in a session of the State Senate. Unfortunately, the session was more about chatting & searching for cars (ps Legislators, we can see what’s on your laptop’s. Cute kids, but I wouldn’t go with the Tahoe. Have you seen the gas mileage!?) We left when Tova got too antsy & headed out to do a little shopping. The boys had been promised flip flops & they were not to be denied.
Turns out, they don’t make many cheap flip flops for boys. We tried the Children’s Place, lots of styles, not so great selection of sizes. Target was only selling Transformers FF’s for $8. HA! Like I’m going to pay that much for cheap-looking FF’s covered with Transformers. My kids suffer, I know. We eventually found our way to Camp CILCA & set up our new tent & got a fire going. We were adventurous & grilled our chicken on an open fire. It took awhile, but it was pretty good (& done). We were all in bed pretty early that night. Good thing since the kiddo’s were all up by 6:30am.
Saturday we went for a hike, had an early lunch, stared at the family that was setting up camp next to us (kids only) & then we all loaded up in the van for our bike ride. We rode the Lost Bridge Trail. It was great. It’s an old railroad grade so it was pretty flat & had a nice canopy of trees. The trail is 5 miles one way but we stopped at mile 4 & spent some time at a park & then biked back to the van. I was so proud that Ethan biked 8 miles all on his own. That’s quite an accomplishment for a 7yr old.
The kids were beat Saturday night. We put them to bed around 9pm & all of them were asleep within 5 minutes. Jason & I had a nice time chatting around the fire, roasting the last of the marshmallows. On Sunday morning the most amazing thing happened.
The kids slept until 8!
If you’ve ever camped with kids, you know how amazing that is. Jason & I were pretty proud of our ability to wear the kids out enough to need 11 hours of sleep.
We had planned on packing up & heading home on Sunday afternoon but the coming thunderstorm changed our plans a little. It started thundering a little after 8 & we had our campsite torn down & stowed in the van in less than an hour. Also an impressive feat. We capped off our trip with church in the Camp Chapel & the CILCA Hog Roast. It was a great trip & I’m actually looking forward to camping again soon.
I’m sure Ethan will be disappointed that tomorrow’s schedule includes a trip to the Y & the grocery store. Poor kid’s going to have to learn how to do errands again.
K~
