First, we decided to do go to Ikea for breakfast followed by some shopping. Billy can only convince me to go to Ikea about once a year, so we had to make the most of it. After Ikea, we got some barbeque at Adam's smokehouse in South City. Then, we got a tour of the Billy Goat Chip Company. We'd won this during the silent auction at the Westchester trivia night. We also brought home a fabulous package full of delicious Billy Goat merchandise.
On Wednesday, we started our mini roadtrip through Illinois. First stop, Greenville. We started the morning with a visit to my grandparents, spent the afternoon at Papa and Nana's helping put a new engine in the kids stand up Jet Ski, and ended the day with dinner at my parents house. It was a lot of fun to visit with family and get to watch the kids learn about mechanics. They did find a snake skin in the hull of the old standup they were pulling the engine out of, so that made them give up on their endeavors pretty quickly.
Thursday, we went on to Springfield, IL. On the way, we stopped in Litchfield and had lunch with Billy's grandma and grandpa. After a nice visit with them, we finished the trek to Springfield and visited Abraham Lincoln's house. It was fun to watch the kids, especially Audrey, see all of the furnishings as they would have been 150 years ago. They had a lot of great questions and even learned what a chamber pot was for. We stayed at a hotel that night, so the kids got to spend some time swimming in the pool there. I can't say it was the best night of sleep we all had during spring break since there were 5 of us in one hotel room, but it was worth it to see them having fun splashing around in the water.
On Friday, we started the morning with the continental breakfast at the hotel, which the kids thought was the coolest thing. Then, we spent a couple of hours at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Fletcher fell asleep. Barrett was really into it for the first 30 minutes, and then started to get restless. Audrey, however, loved it. She also learned a lot. So, next time you see her, you'll probably get to hear all of her fun Lincoln facts. Oh, and she knows now that I am way to young to have ever met Abraham Lincoln.
After lunch, we headed to Bloomington to spend some time with Brian and Laurenn. On Saturday, they had a gender reveal party at their house so they could let all of us know whether we have a niece or nephew coming at the end of the summer. The kids got to pull the first string from the piñata, but it wasn't until Brian and Laurenn (with a little help from Audrey), pulled the last string that we found out...
...that they are having a GIRL! Audrey and Barrett were both determined it was a girl from the start, so they are both really excited.
All in all, it was a fantastic week together as a family. We didn't do anything too fancy, but that was part of the beauty of it. We spent some quality time with our family and with each other. We also learned a few fun things along the way. I think we've set a high bar for next year though!
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