Galena

The second part of this past week (see the previous post for the first part) we drove 4 hours to Galena, IL and checked in a Eagle Ridge Resort where we had a vacation home waiting for us.  We took along my parents for a couple extra set of hands. (I think I only changed two diapers the whole time I was there!  And every morning I fed Emily and then handed her off while I enjoyed another hour or so of sleep – a luxury I never get at home.)  It also gave Luke and I a chance to get out for a date night while we were there.  :)

Out for a date.  What a view!

We went swimming a couple times.  Logan was a little fish and loved getting wherever he wanted to go with his floaties on.  Emily also loved the water, and even though we went right during her nap time, she kicked and splashed and smiled the whole time.  Audrey, surprisingly, was the most timid.  She kept saying that she wanted her feet to touch the bottom and liked to stay by the steps.  We did get her into Emily’s “boat” once, but she leaned forward and almost tipped out, and that was the end of that!

   

In true like-father-like-son fashion, Logan loved the arcade.

We spent one afternoon going shopping in downtown, historic Galena where there are many quaint little shops and boutiques.  The kids thought the store “Poopsies” was such a funny name and laughed and laughed about it.  The humor of a preschooler! 

Papa and Nanny treated us to ice cream at an old-fashioned ice cream parlor.

We let each child pick out one special toy/souvenir to take home with them.  Luke tried to convince Logan to get the gnarly teeth (haha)…

But Logan ended up choosing a fossil to keep in his night stand at home.

Emily loved a stuffed mermaid (that we found at Poopsies, actually) so we got that for her, and Audrey picked sparkly butterfly wings (also from Poopsies) that she put on and danced around the store flapping her fingers (yes fingers, not arms).  She actually flapped her little fingers all the way back to our car, wearing her wings.  I had a moment of thinking Here’s my two-year-old, wearing her butterfly wings and fluttering her fingers as she skips down the sidewalk.  Someday she’ll be 16, and this will be only a memory of mine.  The time goes too fast!  :) Anyway, here are the kids with their treasures.

We took a trolley ride on our last day to learn more about the homes and history of Galena.  The kids enjoyed the ride and the wind!

 

Just one last story about the Jacuzzi tub.  My mom and I thought it would be a fun thing for the kids to try a bath with the jets on.  I prepped them by saying it might be a little loud, so they could cover their ears if they wanted to.  Wrong words.  Upon saying that, both of them started screaming and crying and wanted to get out of the tub!  Not the reaction I was looking for!  Audrey ended up going back in, just to prove she could do it, but she sat there with her eyes closed and her hands over her ears as the jets swirled the water around her. 

The next night, Logan said he was going to “be brave” and try it.  But every time he said that, Audrey got scared and said she wanted to get out of the tub (revealing how scared she really was the first night).  We told Logan he could try it when Audrey was out of the tub.  Well, when that time came… Logan decided he’d rather wait until next year.  “I’ll do it when I’m six,” he promised.  :)

All in all, a great vacation with lots of fun memories made!