Happy weekend!

Happy (belated) July 4th! I hope you enjoyed your celebrations and day off of work! We are enjoying our four day weekend and trying to squeeze everything into it that we can. Luckily, today is our day of rest and relaxation before we have to re enter the real world tomorrow.

First, a little bit of patriotism. I am very proud to be an American and to have all of the freedom's we usually take for granted. I'm glad that we can speak our minds regarding politics and religion (among other things) with no persecution. I'm very proud of our military, especially my big brother and that they defend our nation's freedom while sacrificing so much. I love you Jim and I'm ready for you to come home.

Moving on....
On the fourth, we went to Alex's uncle's pool party to play some water volleyball and to soak up some ray's. Unfortunately,  we underestimated the power of the ray's and are a little lobster-y. But, we had fun and I'm always glad to be invited over. Later that evening we headed to our friend's, Kyle and Lori, house to barbecue. We had a lot of fun but were eaten by mosquito's (despite our bug spraying efforts), so on top of our sunburn, we're speckled with bug bites. Neat. We saw no fireworks, but heard them and then called it a night. Happy Birthday America.

On the fifth, which I dubbed Abby Day, we slept in, Moose got his hair cut and a bath and  we watched the newest Batman movie which, I highly suggest. After sitting in our bat cave basement for a few hours, we decided to stretch our legs with a walk around the neighborhood. On our walk, we discussed the need for an adventure so, Alex and I invited ourselves to my sister's house to spend the night as a pit stop on our way to Starved Rock State Park (she was thrilled to have us last minute...I think).  We packed up, got our pup and drove north. When we got there Becky and Jared made us a wonderful dinner and we played with Ethan and Nora until bedtime.

On the sixth, we woke up, played with some lego's, loaded our car and headed to Ottowa for some adventure- Jared, Becky, Ethan and Nora in tow! When we got there we ate lunch and then hiked, climbed and played. We had a lot of fun and I even remembered my camera so there is evidence of our adventure!

We had a lot of fun and are really glad that the Collier crew decided to join us! Check out their blog to see some of their pictures from the trip!

Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend!