The day after we arrived in IL, this sweet girl turned 10 months old! She is crawling everywhere and pulling up and cruising around on furniture, loves to wave hi and bye, makes her hands go open and close, and is smily and lovable.
Eliza is getting her top two front teeth, making a total of 4, eats about 5 times a day and is still a great nurser. She loves fruits and veggies and tried several new foods that she is enjoying, to include yogurt, cheese, melon, and eggs. Eliza wears size 3 diapers, 9 to 12 month clothes, and size 4 shoes. She is growing fast! Her brothers adore her and the feeling is mutual. We are so thankful for how the boys love their little sister. Happy 10 months, baby girl. We love you!
Next, we started our road trip to IL. The boys were so excited to get there and they wanted to do the 10 hour drive in one day. Eliza was not quite as excited, but thankfully she had plenty of built entertainment with her two older brothers.
The twins arrived at Mark and Betty's shortly after we got there, and the bigger cousins were coming later that day. They were all so excited to see each other, and the twins were really happy to meet 'Baby Eliza.'
This was the first time that all the cousins were together at Grandpa and Grandma's house!
Abigail was such a good helper with Eliza. She wanted to help feed, diaper, and bath her, and she did a nice job! Abram liked to get in on the action too.
She is such a sweet little girl.
Water fight!
Grandma Betty with her grand daughters.
Aunt Elizabeth got off work early one day and came for a visit. She is finishing a Masters of Midwifery program and their family was in the US for an extended visit so she could deliver 40 babies for her clinicals, graduate in September, and take her board exams. She has been working very hard on school remotely the past couple of years, and we are proud of her hard work and dedication.
Oldest and youngest cousins.
The big boys enjoyed catching up with Uncle Nathan.
Benjamin had fun playing lots of frisbee and baseball with Uncle Hap.
They enjoyed each others company very much :).
Grandpa Mark building roads on the boys backs. They have loved doing this with him since they were little boys. Lots of roads were made on this trip.
We enjoyed as much pool time as we could! The boys loved jumping off the diving boards, swimming all over the pool, and this was the first summer they were tall enough to go on the mean green scream water slide. They measured themselves almost every day for weeks before we left Jordan, to see if they grew to 48'' so they could ride the slide at the pool and at Holiday World. They were just barely tall enough!
Our little daredevil Benjamin doing flips off the high dive!
Caleb cracked us up with his funny jumps!
We ate plenty of good Dairy Mart and Iuka ice cream on this trip.
The first weekend in town, we went to Casey, IL to see Hap speak at a church. Afterwards, we went into the town, which famous for having 'the biggest x'...we saw the biggest pencil, rocking chair, wind chime, mailbox, book worm, and a number of other things. What I loved most about this town was that each attraction had a Bible verse inscribed on the large object, which was very nice to see!
Sweet girl with grandpa and grandma :).
Another day, Nathan's childhood friend, John Morgan, who now lives in Arizona, was visiting town and came by for a surprise visit.
And another day, the Minton's were in town and we met at Dairy Mart for ice cream and a quick meet up on their way through town.
We met up with the Hahs crew in the park one morning, and the kids quickly picked up where they left off last summer.
The cousins enjoyed lots of time playing outside together. Even Eliza got her own swing this year :).
Do you see the monkey in the tree?
I see three monkeys!
These two love to play hard and create hard.
We got to meet up with the boys' teachers from last year. Caleb and Mrs. Richardson at his favorite place, Hawthorn Elementary Library :). It was really nice for the boys to see their teachers from the start of the school year.
And we met Mrs. Marcum at our other favorite place, Iuka ice cream corner.
Mrs. Marcum and I had our babies about 7 weeks apart. Baby Emery and Baby Eliza meet :)
We were lucky to be in Salem for the 4th of July. This year, we watched the fireworks with Don and Suzanne at the school, and had a great view...and no crowds.
Grandma and the Purcell crew.
One of my favorite views in Salem are the beautiful sunsets from the back yard each night.
Lots of great times and memories made at grandpa and grandma's house!
We stayed at the Mountain Pond House in Rockbridge Baths, VA in 2013, before moving to Kuwait, and loved it so much we wanted to come back again. It's a beautiful cabin that sits on about 20 acres of land, and there is a pond with a canoe, and numerous mowed trails. It was remote and out of touch, which was great for a few days!
There was a trail leading to the top of a hill, you can see the house down below in the distance, and we would walk up there a couple times a day to hang out and play. The boys even got brave enough to go up by themselves at night to try to catch fireflies. There was a lot up there!
They also enjoyed canoeing with daddy and swimming in the pond!
In the evenings, we would cook food, play games inside, and hang out on the back porch. It was so peaceful and fun.
One day, we went to Goshen Pass, which was a forest area nearby that we visited last time we were here.
It was a beautiful day to hike along the stream.
First stop was the hanging bridge.
We stayed there for a while catching tadpoles, while Eliza napped in the car.
They caught 18 tadpoles and had names for all of them! We all (tadpoles included) set off for a hike.
A little ways down the stream, we found a nice place to go swimming, I think it was called Indian Flat Rock, and was a famous place people in the area have been swimming for decades.
Caleb and Nathan ventured all the way out and found a comfy rock to relax on in the small rapids.
Eliza was happy to get her feet in the water too!
Guess who went with us back to the house...all 18 tadpoles! The boys were sad when we told them they could not come with us to IL, so they let them go a few at a time in the pond, and caught a couple small frogs along the way.
One more time canoeing and swimming in the pond.
Eliza looks mad here, but she wasn't. We were enjoying the hiking trails on the last day.
Fun at the top.
Last evening at the house, boys were journaling about the trip.
We had a great time re-exploring the area as a family and being out of touch for a few days. Next stop on our trip....Southern Illinois!
