Millennium Park

Ben and I went for a walk at Millennium Park this morning and then played on the playground. I took some pictures of him chasing the ducks and playing on the playground. Then, he started playing with some kids so I stopped taking pictures because we didn't know them and I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures of kids we don't know. He had a lot of fun and wore himself out. He fell asleep in the car before we got home and it takes us five minutes at the most to drive to the park.

It was interesting because I only saw one other mom there with a child and the rest were all dads. I chatted with a couple of the dads because Ben was playing with their kids. Ben played with a 2 year old girl. Then, a father with three children came and Ben played with them too. There was a 4 year old girl, a two and a half year old boy and a girl Ben's age. He got to teeter totter with them and run and play!

Need to Update!

I have not updated the blog in a really, really long time! My apologies to anyone who actually checks our blog to see photos or get an update!!! I have worked a lot this summer and we have been busy and it takes awhile to upload photos to the blog, so I have neglected it!!! Anyway, I am going to try to update it more regularly from now on and slowly post photos and updates from this summer. Please check for backdated posts because I will date them when they happened rather than when I post them. Hopefully soon I will put pictures from our trip to Iowa and Ben's birthday party in July. There will also be photos from Ben's first trip to the zoo and Luke and Rachele's wedding in June. I need to transfer pictures from our camera to our computer so this may take a little while.

Quick update: Ben is talking more and more all the time, he is one of the busiest toddlers I have ever seen (he literally never stops moving), Ben is mean to Leo and his Mommy and Daddy, but well behaved at daycare, he is currently cutting his molars, and hopefully soon we will have a better idea of how much longer we will be living in Kentucky!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Come to Visit

Cary and Brenda (aka Papa and Nana, aka Grandma and Grandpa) came to visit us over Labor Day weekend. They drove in on September 1 and left today. We had so much fun while they were here! The time went by entirely too fast! Every time anyone comes to visit or we visit any of our friends and family, it makes us realize how much we want to move back to Peoria so we can be so much closer to everyone and see everyone more frequently!

Nathan had to work on Thursday and Friday and I had to work on Thursday until after lunch, so Grandma and Grandpa babysat Ben while we were at work. They had a lot of fun!



During the day on Friday, Brenda and Cary had an errand to run and stopped to looked at some antiques. They bought some really cool hand tools used for harvesting tobacco, which used to be a major cash crop in this area. There are still tobacco farms scattered about but they are much smaller and rarer than they used to be. On Friday evening, Nathan and I went to the Festival of Ales (a beer fest) in Lexington and Papa and Nana babysat again. We had a lot of fun and they had fun too! I am not sure who was more tired when we got home, Papa or Ben! I think they wore each other out!

On Saturday, we had lunch at a local diner in Burgin because we love their fried catfish. It is so yummy, even Ben loves it! Then, we went to a couple of different wineries in the area for wine tastings and to buy some wine. We finished up the day with ice cream from Dairy Queen, which Ben is always a huge fan of!


Nathan smoked pork loin on Sunday morning and we had that for lunch. It was delicious, as always! Then, we went to Boyd Orchard. When we got home, we took some pictures and played outside.

I had to work on Monday, so Nathan brewed beer and Nana and Papa chased after/entertained Ben. When I got home from work, we drove around to find a tobacco barn and field for Brenda to take photos of and we found a really cool barn and field next to each other that were just what she was looking for.

If you can't tell by the pictures, Ben had so much fun with his grandparents and we are pretty sure that his Papa is his favorite person in the world!

Boyd Orchard

While Cary and Brenda were visiting us in Kentucky, we visited Boyd Orchard. I have been wanting to get some apples. Last year we went with Melissa and Clayton and had the most amazing apple dumpling with ice cream and caramel sauce. We got them this time as well but I was a little disappointed. They weren't as good as last year and there was no caramel sauce. It turns out that we must have gone the weekend of the fall festival last year and the caramel sauce was a special thing just for that, so it looks like we will be making another trip to the orchard in October! We had fun and got some apples that I have never tried before. We tried a few of them and they were pretty good. The best one we have tried so far was the Jona Crisp. They are really good! Brenda took a few photos for us while we were there but Ben wasn't very cooperative so our photo session was very short lived! I got Ben a new blue ball at the orchard and so he was very preoccupied with his ball the whole time we were taking pictures. I should have waited and given it to him afterward!