A Few More Pics of the "Taste of Clay County"

My friend Faye also had a booth at "A Taste of Clay County" She won the award for Best Dessert and it was well deserved. Her daughter is a breast cancer survivor, so she had a Breast Cancer Awareness Theme. She is so talented. She can make any craft or food that you can imagine.

This is Gene getting all set up for serving.

One for the Memory Book

When we were visiting in Crystal Lake we went out to eat at a really good local eatery called "Andy's". The food was really good and the place had a 1950's atmosphere. When we were finished eating I noticed the table next to ours ordered ice cream and it came in those old time metal dishes and looked really good. I asked Paige if I could order Aaron some chocolate ice cream and she said "ok". So I had the waitress bring him a bowl and he took a couple of bits and looked up at me and said "Mimi, I wuv you". Too cute.

It is amazing how some memories are embedded in our brains. I have another memory of Aaron that always makes me smile when I think about it. We were having a bridal shower for Drew and Lindsay in the cafeteria of the middle school. I was all the way across the cafeteria from the entrance. Paige and Aaron came in the door. Aaron saw me across the room and started running, as good as an almost 2 year old can run, shouting "Mimi, Mimi" the whole way across the room and he was running and looking down at his little feet and pumping his little arms until he ran and jumped into my arms. It brought tears to my eyes then and does to this day
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Guess Who

Guess who won the top award at the "Taste of Clay County" Out of 30 plus chefs, Gene won the master chef Award for his Apple Dumplings and Ice Cream! It was too funny.

Dust in the Wind!

We decided to take the road less traveled on our way home from Crystal Lake. We took a wonderful two lane road down through central Illinois and then another two lane road east and we got on the interstate just north of Indianapolis. It was a very interesting drive. The land is "flat as a flitter" and is one corn field after another and then you come upon the huge, huge, wind turbines. It was really neat to see all of them, but very few were actually turning. Anyway, this little road did not add much time to our trip and was so much more enjoyable. I think that interstate travel is so boring and within 5 minutes of getting on the interstate, I started gettting sleepy.

When they start to harvest the crop the dirt flying through the air is unreal. I can see where it could get to be a traffic hazard. The houses in this area are so far from each other and from any town. Since I grew up in a coal mining camp, with one house right beside another and hundreds of kids to play with all the time, I can't imagine living this isolated, but I imagine that they would never consider living in a subdivision.....each to his own, thank Goodness.

Commando Sarah

Sarah is so cute when she crawls she doesn't get up on her knees, but just pulls her body forward with her arms. She reminds me of a soldier crawling under the wires in training. She will drag along the floor and then prop up on her left arm and look around.

"Hm, I think this radio needs a little tuning"

She has such a sweet smile!

and even a sweet frown.

Happy to be with the babies again. I sure miss them.

Choo Choo

We visited the Railroad Museum that is close to Crystal Lake. Aaron loves trains and wants to ride on all of them. Here we are riding on the trolley that goes around the "Buzeum" as Aaron calls it.

Here is Aaron standing on the front of a train that we were told was driven by Casey Jones. I'm not sure that I believe that is true.

Sarah wasn't too thrilled about the whole thing, mostly because she hates to wear a hat, but it was rainy and cold so the hat was a necessity.

Here Paige and Aaron were touring one of the train cars. It was really neat to see all of the old train cars.

We Made It to Crystal Lake

We had planned on leaving Manchester about 3:00 or 4:00 pm at the latest on Wednesday. But, as usual, anytime we have a plan it doesn't work out. We didn't get to leave until about 7:00 pm. We drove to Highland Heights and got to spend a little time with Drew, Lindsay and Maddie and then we were up and gone at 6:00 am. It was dark and foggy as we drove thru Cincinnati so not much sightseeing was going on. We got to Indianapolis at the dreaded "rush hour" and finally made it thru and on Northward we went. Getting thru Chicago was easy enough, but there is lots of traffic, construction and Toll Roads! We are one of the very few who still rely on maps instead of GPS. I don't know why, but I just like to be able to look at a map and see where I am going. We had to go to half a dozen stores to even find an atlas....sign of the times I guess. Anyway, we got to Crystal Lake before lunch and checked into our hotel, unpacked and headed out for Paige's house. Of course, as luck would have it, it is very cold and rainy here, so that has put a damper on our sightseeing and picture taking. Hopefully I will have more pictures of the area when the rain stops.

Some things never change. Aaron still likes to watch Curious George on "Mimi's little Puter"

Sarah enjoyed visiting at the Hotel

Aaron in their front yard

I bought Aaron this new Thomas Bed Tent and he loves it. We had to take his mattress off his bed and put it on the floor because (1) the entrance/exit into the tent was at the end where his headboard was making it impossible to board this train and (2) he was so excited and jumping around in it I was afraid he was going to take a nose dive onto the floor (grandmothers worry about stuff like that)

Mimi had to play in his new tent/bed with him!

Sarah just watched all the "new bed/tent" activity...she never takes her eyes off her brother.

She just wasn't real sure if she likes the new bed or not.

All smiles in her own bed. "She says this is more like it"

That's all for now, Aaron appears to be waking up, so hopefully I will get some more pics on here later.

I already dread leaving them!

Oh, one last picture (I don't know how this ended up on the bottom). This is their apartment in Chrystal Lake.