Vacation Part 1 - Visiting friends in Mechanicsburg IL

Here is the first of our 4-Part Vacation Extravaganza. Hold on to the seat of your pants! =)

We began our journey Sun, April 20 about noon. Doug had a meeting at church and I was able to finish loading and packing our snacks for the drive. We drove for about an hour before we stopped at a rest area to picnic and let the kids run. They did more running than eating, but that was fine. It meant a longer nap in the car. We made OK time and the kids did great in the car. We are so truly blessed to have good little travelers. (It helped that we had some NEW activities and a bag of toys packed for each of them.) We made it to my friend's house in Central IL about 10:15p. Which was pretty good considering we stopped for both lunch and a then a quick supper.

Monday we played outside at Christi's house in the morning. We were so excited to meet Isabella for the first time. Isn't she just so cute?? The kids had a blast flying kites. Luke did a great job and was giggling the entire time. He did have a slight mishap when he let go, but we were able to catch it - twice. Unfortunately, the third time Doug couldn't get to it in time and it ended up in the trees.

After lunch Christi and I took the kids to a play date with Christi's mom's group. It was so fun! They had a huge slide, an obstacle course type thing and a bounce house. All three kids had a blast and Christi even got in on the fun. That night at bath time, Doug discovered a tick on Gabe. Glad it was him and not me!! He was able to get it out and we could all stop freaking out!!

Tuesday we did a few errands - got a copy of Gabriel's birth certificate since I didn't have an official one and I need that for Kindergarten. Then we went to the grocery store so I could stock up on this great salad dressing that is made near there. I first found it at the IL State Fair a couple years back and obviously, can't buy it in MN. For lunch we took the kids to McDonalds to play in the play area.

Wednesday we were able to leave the kids at home with the dads and hit the outlet mall in Arcola. I found a few items that I needed yet for the kids and found a few good deals for next winter. While the kids were napping at home, my wonderful husband started laundry so we had some clean clothes to put back in the suitcase for our next stop on the trip.

It was so nice to visit was Christi, Jim, Luke and Bella. It was nice to have time each night to have adult conversation. We thank them so much for putting us up for a few days. Even if we did leave a couple stray socks and took one stray sock home.