We really enjoy visiting our extended family in Illinois and Indianapolis several times a year.

On the 21st of July, after everyone got home from work, we headed to Illinois.

We had almost everyone with us this time!

Grant stayed home to work and also take care of the house and the dogs.

We can only fit seven bodies in our van anyway, so it worked out good this way!

It was a late night, but we made it to our hotel in Morton by 11:30 p.m.

The next morning we met Blake’s Mom at our favorite coffee shop – Four30 Scones.

The coffee is SO good there, and they have gluten-free vegan scones too!

We had a wonderful couple hour visit on the patio – it was a beautiful day!

We back tracked to Peoria after that to have lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Nettell.

As always, lunch was delicious and it was a wonderful visit, complete with our traditional photo on the stairs.

I wonder how many of these photos I have taken over the years?

What a treasure to have!!

We were thankful to be able to head to our good friend Melody’s house next to cool off in their pool!

She has such a lovely back yard and we all enjoyed a couple hours of swimming before the long drive to Indianapolis yet that evening.

We got to our hotel in Indianapolis around 10:30 p.m. that night, but there had been a mix up, and we did not have rooms with enough beds!

We sat outside and tried to find another hotel, but they were all full.

So Blake went back inside to tell the guy we would take whatever they had.

Well, the guy had been so thankful for Blake’s kindness with the mix up, that he had found us some rooms and upgraded us to them with no extra charge.

Praise God!

We finally got inside and settled around 11:40 that night.

It was a quick night!

Especially with the time change!

But we were so excited to get to my Mom and brother’s place to spend the day with them Saturday.

My brother had his traditional summer water fight with the kids Saturday afternoon.

What a hoot!

It was a very hot day which made this a perfect acitivity!

It might have brought some neighbors out to their patios to watch the fun too.

We spent a lot of time on the deck just enjoying being together.

I LOVE that deck!

We took a long walk as well.

Another wonderful visit and so good to see my Mom and brother doing so well!

We headed home on Sunday around noon and had an 8 1/2 hour drive to get back to Twin Oaks.

These weekends are fast!!

But so very worth it!

We are so thankful that even though our extended family is not close by that they are not super duper far away either.

If I had my way, we would all live on the same street where we could share daily life together!

We already have plans to go back in October and I CAN’T WAIT!!

Counting the days!!