:: Birthdays are Meant for Celebrating All Week Long ::

My friend Beth and I have birthdays a week a part & what better way to celebrate than to torture our husbands, I mean go on a little day trip with the family and go hiking!
We set out yesterday morning around 8am. Three rest stops, a few "are we there yets", and a chipped windshield later; we arrived at our destination :
Matthiessen State Park in Utica, IL

It's located just past Starved Rock State Park; which was our next stop (unbeknownst to the guys).

The trails were beautiful. Muddy, but beautiful. We walked the lower trails, the upper trails, and maybe a few spots twice. 

We had a picnic lunch on the tailgate and set out to our next set of trails at Starved Rock. When we arrived we couldn't believe the amount of people there! The cars were lined for miles along the road just to get to the lodge. The kids nor the husbands were about to walk that far just to "freaking walk some more". LOL! Then, it began to rain! Seriously guys, did you do a damn rain dance?

So, we crossed that off our list and headed to the local Lock & Damn to watch a couple of barges come in. We stopped at a few local stops to look around, buy some fudge and then onto the guys' favorite part of the day: Lou's LaGrotto in Peru, IL for the best deep dish pizza ever! 

There was sleeping and laughing on the surprisingly quick ride home. It was a fun and exhausting day.

But, the birthday week isn't over yet! Next weekend we're signed up to go fishing, kayaking, and zip lining at the end of the year 4H party! Aaron is so excited : NOT. 

(Oh and Beth, be prepared for a little coyote hunting come January. Aaron is already plotting how we will be spending his "birthday week". LOL!)