4th of July Weekend in the Midwest

Last summer for the 4th of July, we headed up to the shore, also known as Cape May, NJ. This year, well, that would have been quite a trek so we opted to head west to Clinton, Iowa (my hometown).

It was so much fun to spend the weekend with my Grandparents. As many of you know, my Grandpa gave us quite a scare earlier this year and I'm happy to announce, he's bounced back. What a delight to walk into the kitchen when we arrived to a big, happy smile. Yep, Grandpa is back. He may short circuit at times but for the most part, he's the same. He's been blessed by God and is a true treasure to our family.

Friday morning the men hit the river for some fishing. One problem, they didn't get any bites. Bummer but it didn't ruin their good time. Friday afternoon brought a fun trip to the Niabi Zoo in Illinois. We were joined by both my Aunt and Uncle, and my cousin's daughter, Addison. What a cutie!!! Matthew likes being the "big brother" to the little people. I don't know who was more fun to watch, Addison or Grandpa. They were both especially fun to watch when we were feeding the japanese carp and ducks.

Walking through the zoo was fun. It's a little bit smaller than our zoo here in Fort Wayne, but overall, it was a great afternoon. Matthew and I had visited this zoo last summer on our trip to Iowa but it was still just as fun to see all the animals this time around.

At one point, Matthew went inside one of the bird cages to feed the birds. Evidently, one of the birds wasn't happy that he wasn't getting a sweet treat, so he decided to leave Matthew with a little present on his arm. YUCK!

And of course, no trip to the zoo is complete without Matthew feeding the goats. He loves it. Chris and I swear, if we wanted to run some errands, we could drop Matthew off at the goat area of the zoo, come back in a few hours, he'd still be there, feeding them.

The weekend ended with a old fashioned family picnic at Grandma's on Sunday, the 4th. It was great to have so much of the family there. Cousins, their children, their spouses. Just fun fun fun, and hot hot hot. It was so humid outside, the "ladies" were hanging out inside the house until we were alerted that the a/c had not been working properly. HOT HOT HOT is an understatement but we managed to survive! Matthew played several games of cornhole and beat Joel and John just about each game he played them. He also talked a lot of smack, so it was really good that he won!!!!

Sunday ended with a trip down towards the river for some fireworks. Again, it was so fun to watch Matthew and Grandpa OOOOooooo and AAAAAHHhhhhhhh over each explosion.

I'm glad we were able to take some family time and make the trip to Iowa. I think Chris, Matthew, and I all needed a little break together. None of us can wait to go back. Maybe this fall??? Only time will tell. Until then, we'll just continue to "monkey around" the Fort....ha ha ha