We were very excited to get spend Labor Day week with our friends and family in Illinois. Terry is originally from Mattoon, Illinois, but we rarely get to go up there. I snapped almost 200 photos during our trip, and there is no way I could post them all, but I wanted to share some of my favorites with you. There are several photos, so I hope you have a few minutes. :]
Snack time. :]
It was a blessing to see my friend, Ava, and her baby, Gracie again! She and her husband met us for lunch at the McDonald’s in West Memphis, AR. Terry and I enjoyed the fellowship with them so much. She brought us some homemade cookies and mini pecan pies for the trip! They were YUMMO! Thank you, Ava!
Matthew finally got to meet his Granddad!
Matthew is my first baby to take a pacifier! That was such a blessing for this trip. He was very content in his car seat sucking on his pacifier. 🙂
Lauren and Mitchell got to camp out in Great Gramma’s backyard! They were so excited that Grandma and Granddad bought them this tent. They have it set up here at our house now.
Leslie liked playing in the tent during the daytime, when it wasn’t too hot.
Great Grandma let us grill out. My Terry did the cooking. Don’t let the flame fool you, the food wasn’t burnt. 🙂
On Wednesday night, we attended church at Bible Baptist Church in Mattoon, IL, where my Father-in-law got saved and grew in the Lord. Here I am with an online friend, Jennifer. It was great to visit with her face to face for a change! 🙂
We ate lunch at this cute Dairy Queen in Arcola, IL. It was the nicest one I’ve ever been in!
Lauren, being cute, which she does very easily. 🙂
The DQ had this awesome playground!
Matthew and his Grandma. 🙂
After lunch at DQ, we went to Rockome Gardens. It has beautiful gardens with shapes formed by cementing small rocks into beautiful shapes. In the photo above, you can see the beautiful weather we had for the day there. The sky was blue, the temps were low and the humidity was zero!
My kids on the “bus”. That’s a stranger is in the first window. We hated to ask her to leave. 🙂
This area of Illinois has may Amish people. Here, the kids pose in an Amish wagon.
They loved this treehouse at Rockome Gardens.
Terry and Kathy got the blacksmith at Rockome Gardens to make them this sign on a piece of wood.
Terry and his Grandma, who graciously allowed us to take over her home for a few days and cooked delicious food for us! Thank you, Gramma!
Here I am with my little home school at the old school at Rockome Gardens. 🙂 I love my students!
The kids loved sitting in this giant rocking chair.
Terry and I liked the rocker, too! We had visited here years ago right after we were married. The trip brought back sweet memories. 🙂
Look at this huge rabbit!!
The girls found this “Three Bears” replica house. Laci was in awe, thinking she had found the REAL house of the three bears!
Leslie at the three bears’ house.
I snapped this picture of the kids as animals by the petting zoo at Rockome Gardens. Can you see what Leslie, the cow, is doing? See below for a better look.
She’s holding her nose!! She’s always been my prissy girl – I guess she couldn’t stand the smell of the nearby animals! lol!!
Laci didn’t mind the smell. She liked feeding the sheep, and Leslie did it, too, surprisingly! lol
I was so happy that a staff member at Rockome Gardens offered to take a picture of our whole family together in the heart! I will treasure this one always.
There were thousands of beautiful flowers at Rockome, but I couldn’t possibly show all of my pics here. These flowers were my favorite! Anyone know what they are? I love them!
On the way back to Arkansas, my husband wanted to swing off the highway and stop in the town where his dad pastored for about six years. Terry was saved at Calvary Baptist Church in Flora, Illinois, when he was fifteen years old. The place is special to him and he wanted to walk down memory lane for a while.
Welcome to Flora!
Here’s a picture of where the church used to be.(Click to enlarge) This is where it was when Terry got saved. Later, they built a building, much nicer than what you see here. The arrow indicates where the front door of the church was. It’s a private home now, we think. 🙂 It was hard to tell.
Eventually, the church outgrew the building they built, and purchased this church in town.
Here’s Terry with the church sign. This church will always be a special place, no matter what its address is.
Crossing the mighty Mississippi.
Whenever we pass through Sikeston, Missouri, we try to eat at Lambert’s so we can get some of their famous “throwed rolls.” Their rolls are good, but their grammar isn’t! 😉 lol!
Tuckered out kids. They had a wonderful time with their grandparents!
The last three hours of the drive home seemed to last forever! We were thankful to find this playground at a school in Marion, Arkansas, so the kids could get out some energy. It was very hard to find restaurants with play places on I-55 or I-57. : (
Mitchell got a bit tangled up!
I am so thankful the Lord provided us the money and a reliable vehicle so we could make this trip. The kids did very well on the journey, despite being crowded in the van and without a DVD player to watch, like we’ve had on previous long trips. I am so grateful that the Lord protected us and that we had such wonderful fellowship with our friends and family. To God be the glory.
Thanks for looking through my “scrapbook” with me. :]
With love,
valeriewritenow.com 
Thanks for sharing the photos!
Precious!
Love,
Melanie
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I'm glad you posted these photos. They are great. I didn't know that the Bashams had bought the tent for the children. I'm sure they have loved it!
Mother
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