Marc & Sheila's house, St. Charles, IL
We spent the morning and early afternoon in Paradise with Gary and Dru, then caravanned over to my nephew's, Marc's house in St. Charles. I was very much looking forward to seeing Marc and his wife, Sheila and super excited to see my great nephews Owen (8) and Brian (6). Hard to believe it was just a year ago when I last saw the boys.
The funny thing about kids is that they not only remember everything, but also ask a million questions. We weren't together more than 5 minutes than Owen was asking me all kinds of questions. "How many states have you been to, Aunt Debi?" "Where are you going next?" and of course, "can we see the van?" They couldn't wait for us to pop the top so they could examine all the nooks and crannies and poke around. They remembered our visit last year and wanted to see if the flashlight was still in the same compartment and did we still have blueberries in the fridge. Yes and yes.
They were like little miniature investigators looking under the hood with Uncle Ned and seeing what treasures were stowed here and there. Eventually they made their way up to the sleeping area. They weren't up there longer than a few minutes until they conned Uncle Ned into driving them around the neighborhood, with the top popped while they were perched above. Of course, Aunt Debi was right up there with them. Uncle Ned drove a racing speed of maybe 12mph at the most with both the boys squealing and giggling. It was a hoot hearing them calling out to other kids in the neighborhood, "Hi Spencer, Hi Sophia" as Uncle Ned was directed where to turn next.
After riding bikes with Brian and losing terribly at video games I finally had a little adult time sitting on the back deck. Marc is a beer aficionado, and knowing my love of stouts, began pouring some pretty tasty craft beers. Before you knew it there was also some comparison going on between George Dickel and Jack Daniels. After an awesome dinner of steel trout on the grill the boys wanted another drive about the neighborhood. One thing lead to another and the next thing you know we're doing a sleepover in the camper.
The plan was for Owen and Brian to sleep upstairs and I'd take the bottom sleeping quarters. There was an awful lot of commotion going on, talk of fireflies, planes and potential rain before they began to settle down. About a half hour in Brian bailed and wanted to sleep inside. Owen said he's definitely in for the duration. I'm currently trying to type this blog as quietly as I can. I already tried an attempt earlier to open my ipad and type something, but Owen wanted to know why I was allowed to have an ipad while we were supposed to be sleeping. I don't know if I'll get any sleep tonight, but I do know I'm having the time of my life.
