Day 7-11 of 18 (Wisconsin to Illinois)

From: Green Bay, WI

To: Bourbonnais, IL

Miles Driven: 414 Today / 2863 Total

Miles Hiked: 2 Today / 8.5 Total (14 for Taylor)

Buckle your boot straps, you are in for many much days of adventure. If you saw my Facebook post you know 2 things that others do not:

1. We met up with Justin's family and I purposely took a few days off blogging to hang with family. ALSO (unbeknownst to me at the time) the wifi there was awful and I wouldn't have been able to blog anyway.
2. Taylor sang to the waves and around the campfire and it was beautiful SO you should go check out those videos.

BUT now I'm back and have lots to fill you in on.

First we left Green Bay back like 5 years ago (aka 4 days) and headed to Cave Point County Park. We hiked a path right along Lake Michigan. Not the beachy area, but beach cliff/caves (straight down from the path) on one side, and a nice shaded hike through the trees surrounding you.  There were a few places you could get down closer to the water with minimal climbing.  It was a really nice hike and pretty beautiful all around.

Then we headed to Warrens, WI to meet up with 20 of Justin's family members. Yes folks, 26 of us in 1 big cabin for food, fun, and lots of desserts.  The girls had fun with all their older teen/early twenties cousins. Staying out until who knows when playing volleyball near the lake, jumping on this giant inflatable thing in the sand, or just cruising in the golf carts (it is a resort area).  Elijah was pretty much stuck at the hip with his little cousin Alex (a few years younger) playing games, hanging at the water park, or mini-golfing.  Us old folks had a great time just relaxing and talking with the other old folks.

One of the days Taylor went on her own adventure with Brian and Will. They were hiking to prepare for like a week long backpacking trip and let Tay tag along for 5.5 mile adventure. Taylor was in her happy place and loved it all. Minus discovering ticks for the first time.

Another one of the days we spent 5 hours floating on tubes down a river.  It was hot, but the water was super cold.  The water level was low in some places which made some of it a little difficult to get through, but overall it was a pretty beautiful trip.  We all burned through our sunscreen, so that was fun (thankful for my Norwex aloe I am pretty much burn free 48 yours later woooo!)

THEN there was today, We stopped to get some cheese (obviously a must in WI) then headed to Chicago,  We've been to IL a few times now and never spent any time in Chicago. We headed to Navy Pier and had some good grub then did some maze/light game stuff. Justin broke his sandal during one of the game so he got some new Chicago branded sandals.  Lessons learned? Pizza is good, Chicago with its "layers" of streets are dumb and should be banned.

After our pier adventures we ended the night at my Aunt Neen's house about an hour away. The kids ran around in the sprinklers and sat around playing/singing music together. Well most of the kids. Sally and Jordan disappeared to hang out with Lacey and I haven't seen them since. I'm pretty sure they have moved in.

And now, I sleep. Enjoy some (lots) of pictures of our travels.