2018 Summer Road Trip: Days 8-9

Eric grew up near Muncie, Indiana, from about age 4 to age 13, and he was really looking forward to going back to Indiana so that we could see his old house and elementary school, and to canoe the White River.

Eric frequently talks about his idyllic childhood. He and his two older brothers spent a lot of free time playing in a corn field and in some nearby woods. He has a great appreciation of the outdoors and the changing of the seasons and attributes that to the freedom he had to roam as a child. One of his greatest regrets for our own children is that we don't live near any wild spaces. (Or rather, we have to drive to the nearest wild spaces.) Our kids spend a lot of time outdoors, but that time is primarily in the yards and an empty lot on our street.

We caravanned (literally since both families drive minivans) to Eric's old neighborhood, and most everyone got out to explore Eric and Bryan's old stomping grounds. I didn't feel like getting the baby out and lugging her around, so I stayed in the van with her. Pretty soon I saw Ike and a nephew racing up the hill back to the vans. I thought, "Well that was short excursion," but then I saw all the other kids racing back and rolled down my window to ask my niece what the hullabaloo was about. She told me two kids had been stung by something, but she didn't seem to know which kids. Turns out, Felix had been stung about 10-12 times by some angry hornets. We think he must have stepped on a nest. Our youngest niece was also stung once or twice.

We made our way to Walgreens and bought various medicines for the poor kid. By the time we were ready to get on the White River, Felix was doing great. He is such a trooper. (And I swear, he has some of the most painful things happen to him! It's really not fair!)

The actual canoeing was beautiful but quite hot. Felicia was happy for about the first half hour, and then she was over it.

We passed a lot of people floating down the river, and a few canoeing down it, and nearly all commented on our large crew. And we didn't even have everyone with us! (Our oldest nephew stayed home because he's too cool for family time.)

When we were all done the kids played in the river and got very gross. I was shuttling with my sister-in-law back to the starting point to get our van so we could go home.

I don't have pictures, but we stopped at a pizza place before heading home, and the old people in the restaurant gave us a lot of dirty looks because there were nine children aged 1-11 in our crew.

On Sunday we did the usual Sunday things. I made sure to get a picture of the nearly-twin cousins together (one day apart). They had so much fun together and got along much better than they did when they were together earlier in the summer (or the summer before that).

2018 Summer Road Trip: Day 7

One of the most anticipated stops on our trip was Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. (We got in for free because of our Thanksgiving Point memberships.) Our boys were especially excited to see a real German U-boat captured during World War II. The story of how the U-boat was caught was really cool, and the exhibit was cool too.

There were so many awesome exhibits at MSI. We could have easily spent several days there. One of the things I liked about the museum was that many exhibits required free tickets for certain times. This meant that the exhibits were not overly crowded because they managed the flow of patrons coming in. Genius.

We had a good time with the fun mirrors.

There was a little section about circuses, and there was a sign for the hagenbeck and Wallace Circus. My great-grandfather worked for that circus, and so did another more distant relative. I had spent so much time talking to my kids about our early Chicago ancestry during our trip, and it was fun to see a relic of my more recent immigrant ancestor's story mixed in there as well.

MSI is housed in a hall that was built for the 1893 World's Fair. One exhibit featured the engine for the world's fastest train that was featured at the fair. Also, I am a huge sucker for the cutouts where you put your heads in.

We loved the mirror maze, even though we went in just a few minutes after a field trip of kids. It was loud and chaotic and surprisingly challenging!

There were probably some tears from a toddler who was confused about where her dad went in this maze.

When our time at MSI was done, we loaded up into the van and headed out to the Indianapolis area, where Eric's brother and his family lives.

2018 Summer Road Trip: Day 6

Okay, before I write about Day 6, I have to finish Day 5. I can't believe I didn't include this in the previous post. After our trip to the beach got rained out, we decided to get out of the city quickly and find somewhere to eat on our way out. We were staying at a wildlife refuge (of sorts) southwest of Chicago. I put the address into my phone and searched for restaurants along the way. We wanted pizza. We found a place and went inside. It had decent reviews on Google, but we could see the food sitting out under warmers. Depressed-looking people pumped coins into slot machines. Nobody was eating. We decided that wasn't really where we wanted to eat. We looked for another restaurant with decent reviews. Eric ran in and said it was just like the other place. Finally we looked for a family restaurant with decent reviews and found a pizza place. We all walked in to find that it was an order and pick-up sort of place, not a sit-down restaurant. The wait time was about 35 minutes. We placed an order and all loaded back into the van. We found a nearby park, and I dropped the family off, then I went back and picked up the pizza. We ate the very mediocre pizza at the park and then finally headed to our cabin. It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever experienced. Clearly some of these restaurants are kept afloat solely because of the slot machines.

Day 6 was our most organized and efficient day in Chicago! Eric was still feeling miserable, but we kept him sufficiently dosed on medicine to keep his fever and aches at bay. We first went to the Field Museum. We only took a couple of pictures, but we had a lot of fun! It was a really cool museum. Plus, we got in for free because of the ASTC program.

I really loved carrying Felicia around on my back, except for the hair-pulling. I could have done without that.

After the field museum we walked to a nearby (FREE!) beach. We got some food (hot dogs and tacos) from the only restaurant on the beach, and it was great food.

Then we went swimming. Everyone loved the water, especially Felicia.

The kids and Eric played in the sand while I kept Felicia happy in the water. Both Ike and Felix got buried in the sand, and Trixie took the opportunity to torture each of them.

In addition to swimming, Felicia was crazy about the beach. She couldn't shove fistfuls of rocks and sand into her mouth fast enough. As soon as we'd get one hand under control, she'd use her other hand to grab another fistful and cram it in her mouth. I eventually got fed up with this behavior and took her with me to get the van and pick up her siblings.

Our next stop was the free zoo. It was a great little zoo, especially considering the price. Trixie loved petting the goats.

Right outside the zoo, we got this great picture of our family and the Chicago skyline.

The kids saw the carousel before we had a chance to divert their attention, and we paid the big bucks ($3 each) to let them ride it.

Trixie loves giraffes, so she was extremely happy when we finally found one.

After the zoo we went to the Hancock building (formerly Sears Tower) to see some views of the Chicago skyline. I could have spent several hours there, but my kids were done after about 20 minutes. I made them stick around a while longer, though.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what the city was like when my ancestors got there. (Fact, it wasn't actually a city, just a town).

After that we grabbed some dinner at the mall food court and then headed back to our cabin.

2018 Summer Road Trip: Day 5

Sometime in the middle of the night of camping, my poor husband came down with a nasty bug. He had incredible aches and fevers, and he slept terribly or not much at all. Nevertheless, he pushed on, heavily medicated.

We saw some racoons at our campsite in the morning. Nobody got eaten or bitten, so that was a win.

We did some "hiking" in Starved Rock State Park. I say "hiking," but the trails were almost all entirely built up with wooden planks. There was virtually no walking on the original ground.

It was a pretty cool state park. Some other hikers informed me that it is the go-to place for a lot of Chicagoans who want to get away from city life.

After that, we headed to Chicago.

Now, for some back story. I started doing genealogy in 2005, just a few months after Eric and I were married. As one of my assignments, I picked my Sexton family and started working on learning more about them. They are on my dad's side of the family, and my mom mentioned his grandmother saying that her parents were first cousins. I looked at the tree our family already had and figured out right away that Mary Ann Sexton and Sarah Sexton must have been sisters. But who were their parents? Our details about both were pretty sparse, but we had a bit more information about Mary Ann. Researching this family and tracing them in original historic records was my first real foray into genealogy. I think the fact that they were my first family to really trace on my own and learn about on my own, contributes to them being some of my favorite ancestors.

The stories behind these sisters, their parents, and their husbands unfolded to me over the course of my studies. I have continued researching them in the last thirteen years. I had wanted to go to Chicago before knowing I had ancestors who had settled the city (Mary Ann and Sarah's father was a master carpenter who arrived in the city at least by 1836, a year before the the town of Chicago became the city of Chicago). Visiting Chicago was a long-awaited-for wish finally made into reality.

I could easily go back there and spend another 2-3 weeks wandering around, doing various family history things, and various touristy things, but we only had about 2.5 days there.

The first thing we did when we arrived in the city was go to one of the oldest cemeteries in the city (now technically in Evanston), Calvary Cemetery. My Sexton ancestors are buried there, and although their tombstones seem to have gone the way of the world (or possibly never existed, but I consider that doubtful since they were rather a wealthy family), it was still exciting for me to finally be where they are buried. We found the Ennis tombstones, which included Mary Ann, her husband, and three of their children, in addition to one daughter-in-law. The large monument is for the couple's oldest son; at age 21, he took over his father's law practice and became the guardians to several younger siblings when his father died suddenly in 1880. I have read so much about this man, particularly his fierce protection of his younger siblings in the public schools, where they were persecuted for being Catholic in a highly Protestant area, and I just have so much respect for him. And, despite everything I knew about this family, I did not know that Lawrence was a veteran of the Spanish American war. How did I miss that?

I loved teaching my children about their ancestors. It was so meaningful to me.

After finding the Ennis tombstones, we found a shady spot and had lunch. I remember in my classes at BYU that some of my professors talked about taking their kids to cemeteries and plopping the kids down for lunch while my professors did their research. It was a little like that.

After bearing with me at the cemetery, we told the kids we could go to the beach. My phone told us where the closest beach was, I did the parallel parking, we changed clothes, and just as we got to the entrance we learned it was a beach that would cost us quite a bit of money to enter. As we hemmed and hawed about how much we really wanted to go to the beach, it started pouring down rain. Then the lightning started, the lifeguards got everyone out of the water. Decision made, we headed out to our home for the next couple of nights.

My Ennis ancestors lived on Goethe Street, so obviously I had to take a picture of the street sign when I saw it.

2018 Summer Road Trip: Day 4

Our fourth day is sadly lacking in pictures. We went to Nauvoo. A friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend watched the kids while Eric and I went to the temple. It was the first time for both of us in that temple, and my first time to Nauvoo altogether.

We took a few pictures outside the temple afterwards. It was fairly hot, and the kids were over it.

Then we went to the historic town. We parked just in time to hop on a horse-drawn wagon. We thought it was the tour of the town, but it just went around some woods while a guy told stories about people who knew Joseph Smith. Our kids weren't that interested.

We were up against nap time, so we decided to go see the brick yard. Eric said we could watch them make bricks, but really they just talked about making bricks, and then our boys each got a brick to bring home. It was supposed to be about ten minutes long, but it was definitely closer to twenty. Again, our kids were just so over it.

We contemplated visiting one of the houses, but we had just missed the start of the tour and didn't want to wait for another one. With nap time coming soon, we hopped in the van and headed over to Carthage.

After our kids' poor behavior at Nauvoo, I was nervous about how they'd do at Carthage Jail, which is a pretty solemn place. Miraculously, the boys were quite well-behaved. Trixie was still pretty wild, but she didn't have to be ejected from the tour, so I call it a win.

We'll have to do Nauvoo and Carthage again sometime when our kids are bigger, and when it's not so blasted hot.

We snapped a photo outside of the jail and headed to our campsite.

We camped that night at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. I shared my tent with Felicia, and while Eric was getting his tent ready, Trixie came and partied with us. Our kids all did great with camping, and we will need to do more of it now that they are all competent campers.

2018 Summer Road Trip: Day 3

Day 3 consisted of a trip to the Badlands and a lot of driving.

We found the Badlands interesting, and they reminded us a lot of Goblin Valley here in Utah. We did a few short walks on some paths, and then we did one hike that was a bit longer (3 miles, maybe). It was really hot, but our kids did great.

This was the viewpoint on the longer hike that we did. The boys weren't that close to the edge, but I was really nervous anyway.

I opted to carry Felicia on my back because I knew that when Trixie was ready to give up, I'd rather Eric be the one to carry her. She kept taking his hat off of him, so I ended up wearing two hats for a while. I also found that Felicia would pull my hair, so I wound it up and put it at the top of my head inside my hat. Then she would pull the little baby hairs on my neck. Besides that, she really was a great sport on my back.

Part of the hike involved going up and coming back down this rather steep ladder. Going up was the easy part. Eric didn't think our family could do it, but I really wanted to do at least one decent hike in this park, so I insisted. When it was time to go down, my job wasn't too bad because Felicia was fastened securely to my back, but we knew Trixie couldn't go down this ladder on her own. (She had climbed it pretty well on her own.) Eric successfully brought her down, and the boys came down on their own as well. Worst case scenario, I would have worn Felicia down and then left her at the bottom with Ike. Then I would have taken the Ergo back up to Eric and let him wear Trixie down. (Okay, so a farmer has a sack of grain, a duck, and a dog that he has to get across the river, but his boat only has enough room for...)

The rest of the day was driving, driving, driving. Eric has two iPads for his classroom, and we use them on our trips. We have three kids who can use them, but only two who really understand the concept of set time limits. Consequently, the boys often ended up sharing one of the devices while Trixie got to have the other one with virtually no limits. (It's like the Little House story where Mary and Laura each get a cookie and give half their cookie to Baby Carrie, so the baby ends up with a whole cookie.)

On this particular day, I remember that it took me at least three attempts to pry the iPad out of this sleeping girl's hands so I could let an awake older brother play with it. Every time I'd try, she would wake up and play with it again as if she'd never fallen asleep.

One of the nice things about Felix and Trixie being so near each other in size is that their car seats are actually configured to the same height. That meant we could switch up those two quite frequently, which was necessary since one of them is particularly tyrannical sometimes.