My sister-in-law recommended a weather app with to-the-minute predictions for rain and so far it seemed to be accurate within about 20 minutes. Once I was able to check the radar it looked as though it could have been exponentially worse with the heavy thunderstorms going directly north and south of us all night. So maybe we need to start a new bedtime ritual of crossing everything! ?
Packing up a campsite takes time even once you get a pattern down. There are things we do the same every time and there are usually things I tweak every time to make it all better. I can tell you from experience though that packing up while it's pouring rain is NOT FUN. And it's also quite messy. I was fine with messy as we did have showers so I was resolved to find a window with the least amount of rain and go for it. It looked as though 5-6am would work for us so I got started. One by one, the kids woke up and got started on their parts of packing up as well. Last, of course, was Brayden yawning and stretching the whole way. While we weren't racing to get everything in the car we were a little hurried, anticipating another wave of rain soon. We were packed and leaving the campground by 6:20! Might be a new record, but boy was I going to have sleepy children later!
Leaving so early actually put is perfectly on time for an early tour of the Lincoln home in Springfield. Those of you along with us for our first trip 3 years ago remember this stop, but the kids couldn't seem to. It was only 30 minutes out of the way so it was a perfect place to spend the morning. Once we got there Brayden vaguely remembered it because of the gabby gift shop guy! After buying a bunch of postcards, we headed to the home to enjoy learning a little more about Abe. While I'm sure the rangers have a script, each one always has a little bit more trivia to add so the tours are always a little bit different. The look on the kids' faces was priceless when the guide told us to make sure to hold the hand rail on the way up the stairs as it is the original handrail to the house and the one Abraham Lincoln also held on his way up. American History is going to be so fun to study this year!
There were several guides in period costumes ready to teach everyone games kids played at the time Lincoln's kids were younger.
This game actually taught kids how to gently milk a cow but the girls remembered it from a science kit at the Mess Hall!
My Bloomberg family reunion was scheduled for later this evening so we decided to get on the road to get settled into our next site so they would still have some time to play before we needed to go. The further north we get the parks seem to get more and more lush. Brayden also has determined they are more and more full of daddy long legs - his camping nemesis. So when we opened the tent and four of them scampered out of the middle after being cramped up for 8 hours he completely withdrew from tent set up today. He so creeped out that he's even got Ryan - the animal whisperer - nervous now.
After setting up and sharing some sandwiches we relaxed until reunion time. Armed with pecans from our stop at Priesters in Alabama, we headed to the town where my dad grew up. The drive was so very similar to all of Illinois for us so far with massive corn fields on both sides of the road. This drive added hundreds of graceful wind turbines to the mix and the kids were amazed. I had to stop to get a picture of this area just to be able to remember the beautiful landscape of our drive.
As I looked down at the GPS I was certain that I was lost as it showed we only had 2 minutes left and we were still in the middle of the farms! With 2 turns however, we were in the middle of a tiny village at their community center with 35 people who knew me but I had no idea who they were. My uncle and his family from Los Angeles was there so as we walked in, he escorted us back out for a grand tour of the houses of the family. I could picture my dad running around causing all kinds of trouble at each of them.
Everyone was so welcoming and patient with my exceptionally shy kids so we ended up having a great time. The oldest Bloomberg there was 89 and the youngest was 2. The food was delicious and the company was wonderful. It's funny how we don't get much interaction with anyone other than our little traveling family of four for so long how nice it is to talk and listen to my kids talk to others! It was especially interesting to hear about a cousin's trip to Sweden to research our family's history to learn that our family is actually in a line of Swedish royalty. Laney perked up when she heard when she gets married that she is welcome to request and wear the royal crown. Wow!
When all three of my kids get clingy they are definitely exhausted so we bid everyone farewell and headed back to our beds. Everyone wished us well on the rest of our trip and thanked us for coming all that way. It was a great experience for me especially but I think the kids as well. There were very excited to open presents from my uncle and his wife on the way home! We are a family that has a ton of games but they just happened to find the perfect ones we didn't already have! The girls were giggling as they were trying to draw on their "World's Tiniest Etch-A-Sketchs" too!
I promised I'd read a few chapters and the kids calmed down within seconds to listen so I knew they were going to be out quick. The book is getting good, but not enough to request "just one more chapter?" from these tired kids!
