Our trip to Illinois

At long last, here are some photos from our recent trip to visit my family in Illinois! We had a great time and Riley managed the long drive really well, so we give it a double thumbs up.

Who's the King of the Hotel Lobby?
Riley!

A group family photo at my mom's house including all siblings and their respective families and significants.

The grandkids: Aaron, Riley, Abbey and Simon

My brother Scott and his girlfriend Dawn

My sister Reggie

I think you'll all recognize this person ;-)

Who knew how much entertainment value hand weights would hold for the youngsters. It's a wonder they could lift their arms at all the next day!

Abbey and Riley wearing bowler hats and playing a video game after dining with the family at a restaurant in Bloomington.

Robbie and Riley taking a rest while strolling around downtown Bloomington.

The Midwestern skyline is filled with hundreds of windmills. It's AMAZING. A point of reference regarding the scale of these things: The small, rectangular spot at the base of the closest windmill is a staircase leading up to a full sized door. Each individual blade is so long that it must be carried on an oversized tractor-trailer bed. Sadly we were not permitted to walk close enough to stand beneath a windmill, but even from the road it was super cool to see. Hooray for renewable energy!!

Power, power, power! All Free! With no pollution!
Windmills extend to the horizon.

Abbey riding in the car was a humongous hit.

A group photo including my dad, Ed, his wife Gale (top row, far right) my siblings and their families and my sister's husbands family.

After all the riding in the car and civilized visiting, a visit to the playground was in order.

While we visited with my dad and Gale Riley made fast friends with their sweet dog Guido.

Cuddling! Tooooo cute.
Riley misses Guido.



And finally, the Kay Banjo! I've been wanting to learn to play old-time style banjo and have been keeping my eyes open for an open-back banjo. (which has a plunky sound versus the plinky sound of a closed-back bluegrass style banjo) While we were in Bloomington we found a fabulous Kay banjo and Robbie got it for me as a birthday present. As you can see I'm not the only one interested in it. ;-) Are we the only ones who thought Kay was no longer producing instruments?