Southern Excursion!

Last week we had an unexpected trip to southern Illinois for four days.  It was a great "mini-vacation" for our family and we really enjoyed our visits!  We started off in Lincoln with Luke's family.  His grandma Iris was visiting from Texas, and Miriam's brother Bob was also visiting from Texas.  It was wonderful to spend time with them, as well as the rest of Luke's family who live in Lincoln.  We did a lot of relaxing, eating and were so glad we could spend a couple of days with our Texas family!

Our next stop was St. Louis for a Cardinal's game with my parents.  We were excited to take Whit to his first baseball game-even if it was the Cardinals;)  It was a HOT day, but my dad did a great job of finding tickets in the shade, so we survived the heat just fine!  Whit did a great job at the game, and made it through 11 innings...I thought it was a coincidence that he made it 11 innings and he is 11 months old.  We had a great time with my parents and I think they enjoyed getting to take Whittaker to his first game!

Our final stop was in Mascoutah, where we spent a couple of days with some great friends from college.  Tim, Liz and Hannah were wonderful hosts and it was so fun to catch up with them and all the awesome things God is doing in their life!  Hannah and Whit played great together, although I don't think Hannah was a big fan of Lucy:(  Hannah is about 8 months older than Whit, so it was fun to see all the things she is doing and think about Whit hitting those milestones in the coming months.  Tim has a great new job, so on Friday Liz, Hannah, Luke, Whit and I went to the St. Louis Zoo to check out the animals and have lunch.  Our favorite exhibit was probably the stingrays...we got to watch them swim and "pet" them as they went past us.  The kids seemed to enjoy the day even though it was pretty warm.  We got there early and I think we beat the worst heat.  We grilled that night and stayed up way too late, but it was well worth it!  We loved our visit and it means a lot to us that we are able to stay so connected with our friends from WIU.  Can't wait for our next visit!  I'm pretty sure it will involve a run:)