The wedding festivities pretty much took up the whole weekend and was an opportunity to reconnect with some of the folks that attended Jill and Michael's wedding in August of 2003. David did a great job as ringbearer.
That same weekend, before the wedding brunch, we attended Sophia's last ballet lesson of the summer. It was fun to watch the little girls attempt their pre-ballet steps. Then on Sunday we went to our friends from our years in San Diego, the Libits, for dinner. It was fun to catch up.
During the week Dick and I took off for a couple of days for a short genealogy expedition. We went to Morrison, Illinois, to see if we could find the old Scotchbrook homestead and some family graves in the local cemetery. We were not successful in locating the house although we did see some interesting structures. And thanks to a caretaker at the cemetery did did find the graves.
My cousin Bambi has been transcribing a Civil War diary, kept by this gentleman, our great-great grandfather. The caretaker suggested we visit the County Clerk offices which we did. She very helpfully looked up and copied information for us!
We also visited Galena, Illinois, just for fun and learned that it had weathered some fairly serious flooding a few days earlier. On the way back to our motel, we drove through Lyndon, Illinois, where the Scotchbrooks first settled when they arrived in America from England.
The following weekend we all went to the Museum of Science and industry, and if you're ever in the Chicago area I recommend it highly. It has exhibits for all ages.
On Sunday Jill and Michael's good friends came to visit as they were in town from California to see relatives and check on their house which hasn't sold. Their children had great fun playing with Sophia and David. (I think Daniel was napping during their visit.)
On Monday we drove up to Wisconsin to visit my aunt and uncle, and on Tuesday we packed to return home with Jill and the kids. More on that later.
(As you can see the blue top did fit Sophia! And David LOVED the snake.)
