My barns

Back in May I visited Illinois for 5 days for my Uncles funeral. While we were there I took every chance I had to take pictures of the barns we passed, sometimes even stopping in the middle of the road, making a U-turn or turning down some dirt road to take the picture. I hadn't had a chance to proces these pictures yet and since I'm on a caffeine high, I finally had the time to look at them.
I absolutely love barns. I think there is something so beautiful about a barn set against a blue sky, with plowed fields and greenery in the foreground. I would love to live on a farm and have an old interesting barn, with fields as far as the eye could see...I know not very realistic considering neither James nor I know nothing about farming or agriculture, but I can dream right? Anyway, on my trip I took pictures of lots of barns across Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. 27 to be exact in 5 days. If you're not much on scenery then don't bother checking out the slide show, otherwise enjoy. I did!!! The ones in the beginning are IL, a few in the middle are IA and then the ones towards the end are in WI in the late evening, towards sunset. I would love to drive cross country in search of great barns...somehow I'm guessing this kind of trip isn't in my near future, but maybe once the kids are a bit older? If not when we are retired for sure!!!

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My Illinois Visit

I couldn't have been more sad about the reason for this trip, but I am so glad to have been able to go and grieve with family and be with family I hadn't seen in years. Our entire trip was spent with family. My mom, Wesley and I took the red-eye out Sunday and came back on what should have been Friday, but ended up being Saturday. We flew into Madison, WI and then drove down to Morrison IL and we stayed just outside of town at a hotel there, where my Mom's 2 other brothers and sister along with their spouses stayed.

We were able to visit with family the day we got in and then the viewing was the next day and the service the following day. We visited with family, ate a lot and talked about old times remembering my Uncle; it was bitter sweet. When there I also took pictures of tons of barns, but I'll devote an entire post to that, in the near future.

I hadn't been back to visit my Aunt & Uncle's since I was 10 and had never been to the house they live in now. I had simply forgotten the beauty of living with open space...

This is the view from the screened porch off the back of the house, so beautiful. There's an enormous garden and further down there's a beery patch and then horses in the field beyond. Makes me wish we lived somewhere with some open space...

My Aunt Bev & I

My cousin Diane, my Aunt Bev & I My cousin Diane and I
Sisters, my mom & my Aunt Avis
My Uncle Dave holding Wesley, letting him try to drink from his cup
I love this picture. I think this was after the service & luncheon. My second cousin, Matt is rubbing my Aunt Bev's(his grandma) feetAunt Darla & Faithy

These are pics from the luncheon after the memorial...

this one's a little blurry...front row l to r Sharon Suiter, Joyce Young, Doug Young 2nd row r to l Louis Young, Darla Young, Bev Young, Avis Barnes, Dave Barnes

My cousin Jeff, his wife Monica & her son My cousin Diane & her husband Gabriel

My cousin Gordon, his wife Karen & their kids Michele, Nicole & Austin
This is Doug Berg,a good family friend. The last time I saw him I was 10 and I thought he was the best thing since sliced bread...boy how things change :)

We spent one afternoon in and around town and went to see the new covered bridge in town. I thought it was so beautiful, hence the picture, well and you don't see too many of them here in Cali.We visited this little Dutch town, Fulton. The town has 2 CRC churches (our denomination) & 4 other reformed churches which I thought was funny considering the size of the town is only 3880. For a minute I thought I was back in the Netherlands, one their main street they have both the American flag and the Netherlands flag and there are tulips on most public corners :)

While we were there we visited the authentic Dutch windmill that the town had made in Holland and brought to the USA by ship. It was fun to see inside it, where there was a little store underground in the bottom of it.My Aunt Avis & Uncle Dave in front of the windmill in Fulton, IL

It's right on the Mississippi River and has a nice bike path along side the river that my kids would have loved to ride on. The tulips were amazing and we sat overlooking the river in the grass to let Wesley play. Wesley was great all the way around and loved his ride at the airports :)

While we were there Wesley had his first snack, he'd only had formula up 'til now, I know, I know I'm a mean Momma for not giving him real food, but he certainly hasn't starved and he's my last baby, so I wanted to wait on the whole food thing as long as I could. He had a graham cracker and he loved every bit of it. :)

We were scheduled to fly out of Madison on 1pm on Friday so we left Illinois on Thursday night so that we would be in Madison overnight and able to turn our car in and not have to drive 3 hours and then rush to get on the plane. This was our view on the way from Morrison to Madison, a great reminder of God's providence after what had been a wearing week.Delay after delay kept us over night and we didn't end up home til late Saturday afternoon. We did the park and ride at LAX to save James or my Papa the trip there and back and it was cheaper to park it, the it would have been in gas to take us and pick us up, but got delayed there as well. The shuttle took over 30 minutes to get us and then we had to wait at the parking lot for 1 1/2 hours because there were cars blocking my car in that was a stick and the lady couldn't drive a stick (kinda' funny, but not funny after so many delays) Anyway, we made it home safe and sound.