The Eldredge Times

My creative Logan one day made up a newspaper he called The Eldredge Times that recapped some of our family's goings on for that week. I loved it so much (somehow he got the reporter tone just right!) that I told him I'd pay him fifty cents a week if he would make me a weekly edition. The entrepreneur in him readily agreed, so now I have a wonderful, weekly family history through his eyes!

Cantigny

How many blog posts can I have about Cantigny? Every time I go I think to myself, "OK, no more pictures of this place!" but then my kids are cute and the grounds are amazing...and we get another post.

This is how the boys enjoyed the tanks:

And this is how Alison enjoyed the tanks:)

 It's always fun to reenact the statues!

 Sure love these faces.

Seamstress

Ali's grandma fixed her sewing machine while she was here this summer, so she has been enjoying using it to make all sorts of treasures! She even used her allowance money to buy more fabric.

The Eldredge Inn

Our home has been a bit of a hotel this summer, and we've loved it. Our friend Nick stayed with us for the month of June, a couple weeks in July, and a couple weeks in August.

Our friends the Nielsons needed a place to crash for night on their way to Europe, and we got to be the place! Their dad Dave stayed another night or two on his way home too.

Jason's college and mission friend George Bailey was in town for a conference, and we were his hotel!

Growing up, I remember several people living with my family for various amounts of time. I am glad Jason and I are in a position to do the same for our friends now!

Blackberry Farm

Jake and I took advantage of a free day at a fun local place called Blackberry farm. It has pony rides, a carousel, a train, a wagon ride, a playground, a petting zoo, and also old restored buildings like a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, and carriage house and a home. We love it there, and apparently so do all of his church friends because we ran into about 8 of them while we were there!

Jake absolutely loves the pony rides.

Another free day in the spring, we went with Jake's best friend Scotty.

There were two more free days during the summer, so took all the kids.

We couldn't believe our luck one time to walk up and find no line for the paddle boats (I've always vetoed it in the past because of the hour+ long lines).

"Oh, he's so cute!" Said Jake.

Every time was fun! Thank goodness for free days:)

Arkansas Outings

We did leave the house a few times while we were in Arkansas! We went to their fun Children's Museum. The grocery store areas are always a favorite.

Jake loved being allowed to paint on the walls!

Bentonville, Arkansas is Walmart's Headquarters, so we went to a little Walmart museum they have there. On the way out of the museum you walk through an ice cream store where they serve Walmart brand ice cream; everyone got something for a grand total of about $13...not bad!

We had a lovely time and are so thankful for the Barlow's hospitality!

The House

Most of our trip we just enjoyed playing at their lovely home. When we first walked in, Jake said, "Beautiful!" Then, later on the tour of the house when they showed us their awesome upstairs complete with a loft that had an amazing view of the trees, and a theater room, Jake said, "OH. MY. GOSH!" That kind of summarizes all of our thoughts on the house!

We spent tons of time in their pool, perfecting somersault dives, doing handstands in the water, floating on the big floats and playing hard!

At the edge of their backyard were tons of trees. They had cleared a path...

Down to a fire pit in the middle of the woods!

We enjoyed s'mores!

The theater room was another oft enjoyed space in the house!

The kids also loved that their big cousins were so generous in sharing their favorite toys from when they were little: Ali loved Bethany's American Girl dolls:

 They all were amazed by Will's lego collection:

And Jake loved Josh's Thomas the Trains!

Arkansas

We took at trip at the beginning of July to visit Jason's sister Crystal and their family in Arkansas. His mom met us there, making it even more fun! It was so good to see them! 

Our kids enjoyed getting to know their Barlow cousins again.

These two are birthday twins: both born on April 7, just a few years apart:)

Compassion Experience

I had heard of this travelling exhibit called The Compassion Experience, so when it came to town I knew I wanted to take the kids. You listen to true stories of kids in third world countries as you move from room to room that show what the places they are talking about look like. We heard the story of a girl who had to leave her tiny home and hide in the jungle to escape from men trying to force her and those of her village to become child soldiers. She also talked about how her mom got sick and died, and then later when she was sick for about a year she was afraid she too would die, but thankfully she got better. 

It wasn't quite the eye-opening, thought-provoking experience I was hoping it to be for my kids, but they thought it was interesting at least...and then wanted to get home to play their technology time. Ah, well, baby steps.

Reading Spot

We keep our library books on a shelf under the TV and Ali often grabs one and sits right there to read, even if the TV is on or the room is noisy, and despite the fact that there's a comfy couch a few feet away.

Starved Rock

In April Jason and Logan spent a few hours hiking around Starved Rock. Jason loves having a son who likes doing this kind of outdoors thing with him!