Weekend Camping at Clinton Lake

This weekend we had yet another abrupt weekend vacation. Our boys were at Grandma and Grandpa's all of last week. Andrea's brother-in-law, who lives in the same town, decided on a whim to pack up his 3 boys and go camping at Clinton Lake. So, Grandma and Grandpa decided to pack up there camper and go also. This, of course, set off a chain reaction where I found that we too were going camping.

Despite the abrupt nature of the trip, we all had a pretty good time. Things were forgotten, but it was all turned out okay. The temperature was in the mid 90's the whole time, so we spent most of our time in the water.

Loren and her cousin Chris enjoying a ride on Uncle Brien's pontoon boat.

Joey, Josh and Andrea taking it easy.

Donna and Veronica right after taking their turn surfing behind the boat.

I even got a turn.

Josh gives his mom a ride on Uncle Brien's jet ski.

Andrew and Loren take turns giving me a ride.

Josh get's ready to ride the waves.

Andrew loves his jams!

Sucking down some watermelon before we head home.

Quick Trip to Chicago

Last weekend was the 4th of July weekend. I took the kids to see the parade on Lincoln street in Urbana. It was okay until it got political. As usual there were the obligatory politicians from each party going by, and the various causes that sometimes make the event non-kid friendly. But what really irked me was the imbecilic and ad hominen attacks being made behind me. It took the fun out of the whole thing.

Watching the parade

We went to Chicago (i.e. Arlington Heights) for my nephew's high school graduation party on Saturday, and stayed over at my sister's house on Saturday night.

My Sister and our niece, Meghan's son, Caleb

Heart and Soul ... ONE MORE TIME!!!

My niece Kristin and Veronica clowning around

On Sunday, we got up and went to Chicago, so that we could go to the Shedd Aquarium. We purchased a family membership pass because it turned out to be cheaper to buy the family membership, which is for 5 kids and 2 parents, and a single child membership than it was to buy individual tickets. We had a late lunch on the beach, and then the kids went for a swim for an hour. After walking back to the Shedd at 4:00 pm, Donna exclaimed "My glasses, I think I left them in the bathroom." So I made her run back with me to the beach bathroom. They were gone. We checked the car, but they were nowhere to be found. Needless to say, I was a little peeved with her carelessness. I made her job with me back to the Shedd, so we could see as much as we could in the now short time that we had before they closed at 6:00pm. When we were finished and went back to the parking lot, Andrea took Donna one last time to see if they could find the glasses. She asked the lifeguard if they had a lost and found, and sure enough they did, and the glasses were there. Suerte...


We wanted to dinner at a Peruvian restaurant, but couldn't find one in time. It was getting pretty late, and we needed to drive back because I had to go to work on Monday. We settled on Gino's Pizza. It ended up taking hour for our pizzas to come, and it was so not worth it. I was very disappointed. It was not like I remembered Gino's to be. We left Chicago after 10:00 pm, and got back home around 12:30. It was quite a busy weekend.