Illinois

Well, vacation would explain my recent hiatus from the blog world.  Husband and I made a quick trip out while his parents were in Elgin, Illinois to spend time with his dad's side of the family.  I must admit that I had prepared myself for the all to familiar 90-degree weather with 90% humidity that lingers over the heartland of America this time of year.  However, we were delightfully surprised by the weather ordered up for us this last weekend.  I am not sure that it got much over 80-degrees and the humidity, for the most part, was held at bay.  We experienced some crazy storms, but we loved every minute of it.  The funny thing was that we came back to Phoenix just after an intense storm that ripped a roof off a local school building.  We left a cool and not so humid place only to return to a fairly warm (80-degrees) and quite humid atmosphere.  We laughed at the irony.

Besides the weather, the trip was great, too.  Husband had not been back there since he was about seven.  My father-in-law was back a couple of years ago for a wedding that was just a couple of weeks before ours.  So, it was a good time for all to catch up and I think we may get some of them to come out and visit.  I am guessing that it would happen in the winter when they need a break from the snow and it will be to them like autumn -- or after the baby comes.  We went to a historical museum and had a private showing of some things that were from Husband's side of the family.  It was really quite fascinating as we learned where in Ireland they all originated from and the heritage that was revealed.  Husband's Great-great grandfather fought in the Spanish-American war and we were able to see his saddle from that war.  We also found others who fought in the Civil War as well.  It was a really neat time.

We just spent a lot of time hanging out and visiting one little place after another in Elgin (one of the MANY suburbs of Chicago) and the surrounding areas.  Elgin still has a small town feel, although when I think about it, it really is quite large.  We had to partake in the famous Burn's malt at Al's Cafe - which is made with six scoops of ice cream and no added milk.  Needless to say, I had a half malt because I needed real food for lunch, too.  Others, well, they just had the malt for lunch!

Surrounding the good food and fun family, we learned a new card game called Hand and Foot.  It is really fun and can get a little carried away when there are so many people.  It's similar to Canasta, I think.  We had a good time and played it almost every chance we got!  So, some of you out there may be learning a new card game from us sometime in the near future.  Although, we may need a little detox time from the game first.

I am sure that I am forgetting some other fun little adventure but I think that the highlights will do for now.  Additional photos are up on our Flickr site. If you need an invite to see them, let me know and I'll be happy to do that for you!