A Spur of the Moment Summer Trip!

A couple of days ago I was showing my sweet hubby a friend's pictures from their recent trip to Starved Rock State Park, and he decided we needed to go ourselves...so we did! We had a great day, the sky was a little overcast which was a blessing. This spectacular park is only about an hour from our house but unfortunately we hadn't taken the time to visit for many, many years.


We hiked for miles, way up and way down...

This first pic is of Starved Rock taken from Lover's Leap

The next taken from Lover's Leap of Starved Rock. It looks like a LOOOONNNNGGG way between the two and it is. I decided I needed picture proof that I had made it to the top of each :o)

Apparently one of us was surprised the other made it all the way up the million stairs...

While the peaks had amazing "birds-eye" views of the river and the woods, the canyons were stunning as well.


We enjoyed a lovely brunch at the Starved Rock Inn and relaxed for a bit enjoying the pretty views. After lunch we walked and climbed until we couldn't go a step further.

We saw one particular waterfall from the bottom, from the middle and then from the origin of the fall...it was cool to see it from all angles.


The end of the day found us sweaty, tired, mosquito biten, muscles aching, but relaxed and happy...thinking perhaps we should be spontaneous more often!

Sprinklers and Popscicles

Olivia came to play today and we had lots of summer fun. She requested a picnic lunch on the patio. After that we played in the new palm tree sprinkler. It has little tubes on the top that wiggle and spray water everywhere. It was fun and in Olivia's words "a little crazy!"







After running around we had to cool off with a freezey pop (or two)!





Good summer fun for Grammy and her favorite 2 year old!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my sweet hubby...a wonderful father and husband! And to my dad--you're the best! Mom and dad came to celebrate the day with us and it has been a good one. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of mom and dad :o( but here are some from the rest of the day.

Olivia was very excited to have Grandpa Andy open his Father's Day gift


He was VERY excited to receive an Ernie Banks replica jersey


Grandpa's favorite little girls

Both dads :o)

Ella is getting so big...lots and lots of smiles and giggles


Of course Olivia had to take some pictures too. She handed me her book and puppy and directed Grandpa to get in the picture with me. We were told to say "cheese" but apparently that wasn't enough, as she kept telling us "laugh at me over here"...that was an easy command to follow :o)



We just finished having a nice conversation with Melissa on the phone and are getting ready to head to the park for the muni band concert. The perfect end to a special day! Hope yours was special too!

Family Fun!

I took today off work to spend a fun day with my family! Both my sisters came for a visit along with 3 handsome nephews, 1 niece, 1 super cute great niece, 2 great grandparents, my son and his wife and of course my adorable granddaughters. We had a WONDERFUL day. After lunch we went to the park for a little while. It was the perfect day for playing outside.

At the bottom of the twisty slide

Josh and Lanee

Olivia took this cute pic of Mommy and Ella

She took this one of Great Aunt Kimmy too

Grammy and Olivia on the slide

Oh, the things a grammy will do to make her sweetie smile. Olivia is "catching" Grandma Terry...yikes!

Caleb helping Olivia go up the wrong way

Olivia took this picture of Great Grandma...she's a better photographer than I am!

She also took this one of Josh and Lanee resting in the shade

Noah and Lanee having a chat

Josh and Lanee taking a breather

Cute pile up at the bottom

Watering the Garden

Olivia asks to help us water our flowers every time she is here. Actually she will think up any excuse to get to play in the water indoors or outdoors. Last weekend she was helping water the flowers and decided to help the "little lady" in the rose bed water her flowers.

I thought she looked pretty cute watering along side the fountain...

But I think she looks pretty cute all the time!

She refilled her watering can over and over. Every time she would leave to get a refill from the hose, she would say to the fountain girl: "It's ok little lady...I'll be right back."

I had to include this last shot. Not a great picture, but funny. When she saw I was taking pictures (surprise, surprise) she looked up with her most cheesy grin and said "Cheese gramma...that's a good one!"