A Quick Illinois Visit

After several days at Smith Lake, I headed up to Illinois with Bennett and Walker to visit Nene and Poppy.  We purposely planned our visit around my mom's birthday.  It was just a long weekend, but it was great!  Walker jumped right into his old routines....riding the scooter, helping Poppy walk the dogs and asking for treats because he knows his Nene and Poppy will spoil him.  After dinner, they granted his wish and treated us to soft serve ice cream...my favorite!

The next day Nene took Walker to the Caterpillar museum while Bennett and I went shopping for

some new sunglasses for me at Maui Jim!  I received some money for my birthday and wanted to treat myself.  Since the headquarters is right there and they have every pair on the market....it was the perfect place to go.  It ended up being a productive day for both of us...I got new sunglasses and Walker had a fun morning with his grandparents.

That night, we ate dinner on the terrace and then went to see a movie that was playing on the Peoria Heights water tower.  We brought lawn chairs, and just enjoyed the people watching, free snacks and movie!

Dinner on the CCP Terrace

Movie at Peoria Hgts Tower with icees and popcorn after dinner!

we cherished the shady spots

On our third day there, we decided to hit the Peoria Zoo.  Though it doesn't compare to Birmingham's, or many of the other zoos we have been to recently, it is free since we are Birmingham Zoo members.  Sadly, it ended up being a terribly hot day, so it was really quite miserable.  After making a quick loop, we were ready to leave.  Since we were all hungry, we went home to change into swimsuits, and then went to the country club to have lunch by he pool, and go swimming.  It ended up being even more fun than we planned because we ran into Katie and Melanie McCord and their children.  All of the kids had a blast together, swimming and trying to outdo each other on the diving boards.  Bennett learned how to do a back flip, and Walker got brave enough to go off the board and then even tried diving off of it.  We were there most of the afternoon, but what fun we had!

Walker mastered his belly flop!

Snuck in a quick dinner with Suzanne, Tiffany and Roni

For our final day in Peoria, Mom and I went to play golf.  Bennett babysat Walker back at the house,

and it was an absolutely wonderful morning on the golf course!  It was supposed to be a fun way to celebrate mom's birthday, but it was more a gift for me.  I haven't played golf in so long, and boy did I enjoy my round...and it wasn't a terrible one.  In fact, it came down to the last hole to determine who the winner was going to be.  Like always, Mom had kept her balls nice and straight down the middle of the fairway for every hole, while my balls were a little erratic.  However, my putting (which usually isn't my strong suit) was off the charts and I was able to make up some strokes.  Mom won in the end, but what a fantastic morning!  We celebrated Mom's birthday that night with dinner at The Fish House, where everyone enjoyed their food.  It was a busy few days in P-town thanks to Mom making plans each day for us.  It was a great visit, even though Steve and Preston couldn't make it.

Before dinner at The Fish House