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Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Lazy Days of Summer? Part One

It's been crazy here since the end of July when we headed to Chicago to attend the wedding of our son-in-law's brother on July 29th.

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.)

10 comments:

Kathy A. said...

Summer goes much too fast doesn't it. But, like you, spending quality time with our grandchildren made it all worthwhile.

Kathy Raker said...

How exciting traveling to Il to look up family history. Your grandchildren sure are growing up fast. I'm glad you get to spend quite a bit of time with them.

Lynn said...

Looks like you've been having a busy summer too! I'm so glad that it has included lots of time with your grandchildren. They're adorable!

Micki said...

Sounds like a great trip Judy! I agree with you that summer seems to fly by. I used to hate that when I was teaching.
Micki

Linda said...

Sounds like a busy trip...whew...you wore me out! Have a great time with Jill and the kids!!

Linda Vincent said...

You always show such great photos Judy. Love that wedding pic ♥♥
And seeing Sophia in her sweet ballet shoes brought back many special memories for me!

Gerry said...

Hi Judy,
I'm so glad you stopped by to visit. Now that I look around your blog I realize just how LONG it's been! Goodness~~~

Your DGC are so darn cute. And BTW, I love the snake, too :-)

I'm glad you had such a wonderful time on your trip - well, in fact for the entire summer. LOL.

Take care. Gerry

Rosalyn Manesse said...

Such lovely photos and cute kids! wishing much happiness to the bridal couple

Susan Elliott said...

Phew! I'm tired just reading about all of that but the pics of the kids make it all worthwhile...

It always amazes me how quickly we lost information about our ancestry no one in the family keeps the records. Good for you for tracking it all down!

hakucho said...

You had quite the trip. Your kiddos are so cute. Glad you could spend some time with them, plus find out about your family (genealogy). I can't believe summer is gone and now were in fall. Happy Autumn :)