Vacation begins in Illinois

The setting sun was just perfect on the golf course behind Oma and Opa Wilson's house to capture our tall shadows.

Unpacking the rest of our house in the Netherlands will have to wait because it's time for vacation in the good old U.S. of A.! Our visits to the U.S. as a family have happened every even year since we moved overseas in 2004. We've been blessed to have family and friend visitors in between time. Two years seems like a long time between visits otherwise.

Our first stop this summer was in Illinois to visit Dan's parents. Our nine-hour flight was the best we've had yet with our girls (Tana will be 3 in August and Loralynn is 4). Loralynn stayed up for the entire duration of our travel: 20 hours. Tana took a two-hour nap a the end of our flight and was amiable meeting Oma and Opa Wilson at the airport. Despite her throwing up two times in the truck on the three-hour trip back to their house, she was pretty content to sit quietly. We all went to bed just after 8 p.m.

As far as jetlag goes, we all woke up at 4:30 a.m. the first morning. Dan and Loralynn went to the basement to play and Tana and I went back to sleep until 7 a.m. The next two mornings we all woke up around the same time but went back to sleep until after 7 a.m. (except Dan). Jetlag is easy on this end. I try not to think about how awful it will be going back to Europe.

Visiting Oma and Opa is so fun. I always feel like the girls are growing up so fast right before my eyes when we visit family. Perhaps the reason is because I am more present with them when I don't have all the distractions of home life.

We've done a ton of Wal-Mart and Target shopping as well as thrift store shopping for clothes this past week. We usually send back several boxes of clothes and other fun stuff for ourselves during these visits. In between shopping, we went to Pioneer Village in Walnut Grove, a 4th of July festival, had a blast at the Bettendorf Family Museum, and had fun collecting bugs and flowers at Oma and Opa's house.

Here are some photos of our visit:

Radishes, radishes, radishes in the garden.

Loralynn's our adorable family doctor.

Cutting fruit with Oma was fun. Now Loralynn just needs to learn to eat it.

Oma found a giant bettle to share but it flew away (you can see it in the picture!).

Loralynn posed with her freshly picked flowers and container of bugs.

Flowers like hugs, too.

Reading outside is lovely. The front porch was a quiet place.

Pioneer Village had a fun swing, but it didn't allow us to go high.

Tana's first haircut 1.5 months shy of her third birthday.

She sat fabulously still during the whole haircut.

Tana was intrigued by her new "bangs".

Loralynn did not enjoy her third haircut.

The girls collected candy at the Bettendorf 4th of July parade.

It was fun to watch classic cars, floats, cheerleaders, bands, and more pass by.

Tana's first corn dog for $6 tasted yummy.

Playing in a bouncy house is always so much fun.

We fed lots of farm animals and stepped in just as much poo.

The train ride was the girls' favorite at the 4th of July festival.

Captured a cute photo while Dan rode the train with the girls.

The train returned with happy passengers.

The Family Museum was absolutely awesome.

Tana "planted" flowers and then "dug" them up.

Tana loved the monkey bars at the museum.

The girls put themselves into the animal cages in the museum's "vet clinic".

Loralynn enjoyed shopping and purchasing her plastic food.

Putting eggs on the conveyor belt as they were hatched was super fun, too.

Tana shopped the longest and carried the most.

"There's a fire! Gotta put it out!"

Tana looks adorable as a red fire fighter.