Scott was feeling sad that he was going to miss the father and son campout our church was having (due to work) so he thought he would take Rylan out himself during mother's day weekend instead. I thought....hey what a second why can't we all go! We loaded up our camper and left as soon as Rylan got off the bus on Friday, drove an hour and a half, and we were there. Starved Rock is a state park that is along the Illinois river with over 13 miles of hiking trails. The campground is right next to the park, our little site:
There was poison ivy everywhere, we had to tell the kids not to go into the brush,
Ian really enjoyed being able to sit on the table! We got there about 6:00pm just in time for some canned chili (Spaghettios for the kids) and a campfire.
Ian's face when Scott handed him his first smore. . .
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| "I get to eat THIS?" |
He could barely get through the marshmallow
but, oh he liked it!
So did Rylan and Madelyn
We played until dark and settled into our little camper for the night. It was the first time that Ian wasn't in a crib, so we prepared for the worst, but he did pretty well on his bottom bunk. He liked that Rylan was sleeping up high above him, and would giggle when Rylan would poke his head down to see him.
We got up around 8:00 the next morning, had some quick cereal and headed for the trails. At Starved Rock you can hike through canyons, along ridges, or through the forest.
We chose to hike the Matthiessen trail, which Scott had done before with his scouts so he knew it was a good one, but little did we know that some of the trail had been washed away from the high waters from the record breaking rain we had a couple weeks ago. We had to improvise in some areas.
Walking down into the canyon
Our view from a bridge looking down
This was the trail, stepping stones and logs across the creek
I loved this tree!
We came upon some fun caves to climb into
Some people had carved their names into the rock and Rylan got really excited and said, "oh those are Indian carvings!"
This is where we had to improvise. We came upon a spot where there was no obvious way to get across the water, it must have been washed away, so Scott and Rylan scaled this fallen tree along the side.
Then had to jump across a section, this was just moments after he had thrown Rylan across, who surprisingly laughed the whole time AND landed on his feet! I didn't get a video because I being the smarter person just took off my shoes and socks, put Maddy on my back and waded across the water!
I am so glad that we didn't turn around when we came to the last obstacle because if we did, we wouldn't have seen this! A gorgeous waterfall!
The view from a bridge that was above this waterfall
After the hike we went back to the camper, had lunch and Scott and Ian had a nap. I took the kids for a walk and we found a playground near our camp. We played pirates, it had been a long time since I have just played with them like that. Played like "use your imagination and be a complete idiot" playing, we galloped on horses named Buttercup, Nerd, and Brownie, found and buried treasure, sailed away from evil pirates, had sword fights, made our ship fly with pixie dust. I let my inner child come out and I am sure that I looked hilarious playing with them, but they were having so much fun so I didn't care! I am glad that I had that time with them, because when I am at home it seems like there is always something to be done and I can't get down and play with them as often as I would like.
When the cranky boys woke up we went on another hike, up "the" Starved Rock
When we were up at the top we heard a loud, "CRACK BOOM" sound and when we were coming back down we saw that a tree had completely fallen on top of the trail that we were just on! Freaky!
Ian was such a trooper in the backpack, when we would pass people he would say to them, "I in the backpack!" Towards the end when the hike was level Scott let him walk, but he really wanted to still hold his daddy's hand.
Maddy got a lot of good practice riding her new bike around and around....and around the camp. She was very pleased with herself and only had one fall.
We had a great trip, it was so close by that on Sunday morning we woke up, ate, and packed up and had time to go home and get ready for 1:00 pm church! We definitely want to go back soon and find some more fun hikes!
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