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Day 1 and Day 2 of Illinois Trip

By Melissa Markham on July 22, 2009 11:00 AM | Permalink

Monday, July 20th, we were up at 5:30 a.m. We got ready to go and left Virginia around 6:30. Before we left, Daniel told me to drive safely...and what did I do, when backing out of the drive way, I backed into his car and knocked out his parking light (good thing I wasn't going fast)...geez!!!! I almost decided to stay at home at that point as it didn't seem like a good start to me.

As we headed towards Roanoke, I was dismayed to see ominous skies up ahead. By the time we reached Roanoke, we were in the midst of a good old-fashioned gullywasher during rush hour traffic. The rain was pouring down and up (the roads were flooded in places and when we drove through the enormous puddles, the rain came up as well as down). Had the windshield wipers on full blast and everyone was going 10-20 mph under the normal speed limit. Boy, was I glad when we drove out of that...and I was still debating the wisdom of this trip.

The rest of the drive was beautiful. We drove across West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and into Illinois without incident. We stopped every couple of hours either to eat or get gasoline or just to stretch our legs. We arrived in Bloomington at 9:30 EST. We got unloaded and of course Jack was busy trying to get his piece of home here...computer on, XBox working....you know the important things!

Yesterday, we got up between 6 and 9. I was up at 6, Katrina was up at 9. There wasn't anything for us to eat in the apartment, so we headed to McDonald's for breakfast. Katrina loves their pancakes, plus this McDonald's has a really cool playplace. Unfortunately, as we sat down to eat breakfast, Jack had a mishap. He opened his syrup and it poured down his shirt and all over his pants and seat. Now, I have to tell you, it couldn't have been more than a tablespoon of syrup, because the container was mostly full even after some slopped out, but to look at him, it looked like the whole container had dumped out.

This made for a very uncomfortable and sticky Jack. We finished our breakfast and instead of heading to the grocery store, came back to the apartment so he could shower. While he was showering, I looked up information on the McLean County Fair that starts next Wednesday. It is the largest 4-H Fair in the country. We are thrilled that we will be here and get to go one day.

Before we left, he realized his computer was no longer working. His power supply had been acting up, and now it decided was a good time to stop working completely. We left and headed first to Best Buy where we picked up a universal power supply and a couple of things for entertainment. Then we raided some cardboard dumpsters in our quest to find boxes to pack up Daniel's stuff in for the trip back home. Then we went to Meijer's. Man, that store is huge!!!!!!

Katrina had wanted to bring her kite with her since we don't really have a place to fly it at home, but it was left behind in VA, so first we went to see if we could find one. Meijer's was completely out...bummer! We got our groceries and checked out. Then we made a quick stop by Toys 'r Us and they still had about 20 lovely kites, so I picked up 2 and we headed home. We got groceries put away and had lunch. Then we headed out to the McGraw Park. They have big fields and a splash park and playground and it was a windy day.

We got the kites put together. Jack really didn't want to fly kites and it showed. His kept crashing. Plus he had never really flown a kite, so once Katrina's got up in the air, I took his and played around with it. Once I got it up in the air, he took over. We caught him smiling! They played with the kites for awhile. It is a treat for those of us who live in the middle of the woods to be able to run across an open flat field with our kite soaring in the wind.

"Hey, I think I am getting the hang of this now!"

"I am not having fun, really!" Jack proclaims, but he is unable to hide a smile.

"Hey, look, Mom! No hands!"

Jack and his kite buddy.

Katrina relaxes while...

her kite flies overhead.

Katrina helps her butterfly to swoop about.

After we pulled in and put away the kites, we moved over to the splash park. I had told Jack, we might stop over there and to bring his towel, but he didn't. Katrina did and she was having a blast. I told her she could play for five more minutes in the water (she had already been over there for awhile) and then she could have 10 minutes on the playground before we left. Jack lasted about 3 1/2 minutes... before he ran into the water. Water and kids...they just go together!