The Quaking Bog

What sounds cooler than a quaking bog? Who wouldn't want to spend a Saturday hunting for the Illinois (Volo) quaking bog? We couldn't pass up this spot on the map and we finally took up the adventure yesterday. I packed a few things the night before and we left the house just before 8am. The drive to the Volo bog is just an hour north of us. Sounds quick, but it was plenty of time for Jack to practice counting to ten in Spanish and plenty of time for Griffin to throw a huge, stinkin fit about who knows what.

We all loved the boardwalk through and around the bog. It's about a half mile and thanks to the cool day and lack of bugs, it was absolutely awesome. We also dragged and pushed the kids 2.5 miles around the entire bog. There were plenty of sticks for sword fighting, beautiful flowers and green everywhere. I'm constantly grateful for the variety and beauty of God's creations. We still miss our mountains, but the bog was a good find.

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner

Griffin is now two and even with the bumpy mood changes, I would still request this year be lengthened into two years. I really love the 18months-ish stage with my children. I love all the talking! It seems they go from two word labeling to just pure enlightenment and mostly Steve and I "ooh" and "ah" over them.

Griffin's birthday was perfect. Daddy got home a little early, we loaded up a HUGE store bought bag of lava rocks into the Radio Flyer. We put Griffin in along side of them and Jack rode his matching trike (when will this kid get excited for a bike?). We got to the neighborhood pond and discovered baby ducks and baby goslings and then we dumped out a tremendous mound of rock and we began plucking them off the pile and into the pond. The sky was full of purple, dark grays and blues and before too long and in a split second, huge raindrops exploded from the sky

and soaked us. Griffy hated it...Jack went illogical and Steve and I laughed and trucked kids, toys and noise home with us.

The thunderstorm was not only beautiful, it was helpful. It was easy to do business bathes, scriptures and a story and then quickly come down for cake, ice cream and a mountain of presents.

Griffy had a viking cake. The cake looked delicious, but looks, in this case, were deceiving and it tasted like dry box cake. :) After we all got a piece, Steve and I demolished the cake (hands and faces) and that was shortly entertaining. Griffy and Jack were thrilled with the birthday gifts. Legos were a highlight and Griffin's first (and perhaps last) Zhu Zhu pet. I sure had a hard time dropping ten bucks on that happy meal-ish toy, but he loves it. It was the perfect, simple birthday.