Chicago

I finally got an external card reader for the laptop so I've been able to upload all of my pictures! Whew! I was having a heck of a time. Last week, Cathi and I loaded up the kids for a rather spur of the moment 2 day trip to Chicago. We try to go every summer and hit American Girl, Shedd Aquarium, Hershey's, etc. We didn't get to go last year so we made up for it and spend the night, too. We stayed in Bolingbrook because it was going to be so expensive to stay downtown. We had a great time. Here are a few pictures!
The kids standing downtown in front of the Chicago River. I hate that bridge by the way!

Standing in front of Lake Michigan. You can't see them in the picture, but there are people swimming in the Lake

The Budweiser Clydesdales were on Navy Pier when we were there. They were supposed to parade down Dock Street, but it started raining so they couldn't. They were so pretty.... and HUGE!

Blake and the Lego Man at Legoland on Michigan Avenue.

Hershey's Chocolate Store downtown Chicago.

At American Girl Store in Water Tower Place. We actually got out of there without spending too much money! Brooke's "hunger pains" were outweighing her "wants"! Lucky me!

Blake.

Blake played hardball this year for the Alexis D-Ball team in the Tri-County Hardball League. He played 2nd base and catcher. He absolutely LOVES baseball and wants to start pitching next year. We'll see about that!

Brooke.

Just a few shots of Brooke playing softball. She played for the United-North Henderson Minors team and played right field and left field. She enjoyed the season.

Where have I been?

I didn't realize that I hadn't updated my blog since June 11th! That was clear back at the beginning of the summer and now we are near the end. Where does the time go? I was looking forward to a relaxing summer filled with days by the pool, but that isn't how things have gone at all. And I don't really think I will have a summer like that for many, many years. The kids' activities have filled this summer with nights at the ball diamonds, in the barn, and running to and from different things. Brooke played something like 18 softball games and Blake played about 15 so the idea of "bleacher butt" really came true for us. Once you add in all of the chores with their show calves and the washing and rinsing and drying and walking...... then you know why I haven't updated very often. But we have had some fun and good times!

We made it through Mercer Co. Fair last week. I have lots of pictures but I've had trouble uploading them to this laptop. I got a new camera in June, and while I really like it, I can't get the pictures off of the SD card because the files are too big so I'm trying to figure out what to do. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. The kids did really well and I will post more about that later. Our next fair is the Knox County in August so I've still got another week to prepare for that. Going to a fair is like going on a business trip. Lots of work.

So I'll keep trying to get pictures on here, especially ones of our recent trip to Chicago. I took them with a different camera so it shouldn't be too hard to get them on here. Just bear with me!