Illinois Uncovered...

Alright loyal followers of my blog.  We have already determined that there is a cave in Illinois.  But as if that wasn't surprising enough, this weekend we discovered that there are still many more surprises that the great plains have to offer.  Like This:

This is in Matthiesen State Park.

Walking along the river bottom of a canyon (yes, we are still talking about Illinois)...

we found a system of caves

that opened up to the lagoon with the waterfall!

People were swimming, and climbing, and sliding down the rocks.  (When I say people, I do mean folks without 3 kids in tow).

And with three little kids in tow, we realized something big that helped us have a wonderful time:

Adults go hiking for the views and fresh air...
Kids go hiking to throw rocks in the river and squish in the mud...

As soon as we grasped that reality, "be careful and keep your clothes clean" surrendered to "sure, let's climb up that mountain side and slide down in the mud!"

And it became all about the experience. Steve paused to teach them how to skip rocks.

We let their shoes get muddy so that they could have moments like this to help each other out, support each other, and encourage each other to try, even though it was scary.

We had planned to camp at these state parks overnight, but as we were driving down on Friday night, Steve got a call from work and had to turn around.  Disappointed as they were, we bribed the kids with ice cream sandwiches and s'mores to camp out in the backyard.  We have not as yet camped in a campground (can you believe it)!

I really do LOVE these adventures with our family.  We've reached this really happy point in our lives where all the kids are potty trained and independent walkers...imagine that!   We feel like we finally get to go and enjoy things together, not just have a scene change for our babysitting.  We're able to say "Yes" more and "No" less.  We're going out; doing; living in a new way than we have in the past.  And it feels great.