Leaves, Leaves, Leaves

Here are some of my favorite leaf pics from our trip.

Galena, Ill

After spending Sat. in Dubuque we headed across the state line into Illinois to visit the town of Galena. I'm a sucker for old towns and it was beautiful. The leaves were a bit more colorful there. We found a neat park for the kids to play in. We took a little nature walk and had a leaf fight which was great. After the park we went downtown to tour that and see what it had to offer. We tackled a few antique stores searching for an old milk can to store Buddy's dog food in and were successful. Yippy for no more Iams dog food bag in the dining room!!!

On our way home we stopped off in a random little town and had another picnic their local park. It was a great weekend. I think the kids had a great time....and I got my leaf fix!!!

On to Dubuque

After the Field of Dreams we continued on to Dubuque. We visited the River Walk that they have and had a picnic lunch and watched the boats and birds. I even spotted a bald eagle, which was cool. The leaves weren't as changed there as I had hoped, but it was still a beautiful day. After our picnic we visited the Mississippi River museum where they have exhibits of all of the animals that live in and around the Mississippi. The kids enjoyed seeing all of the animals. After the museum we headed to the hotel to check in a relax for a bit.

For dinner we went to my beloved Olive Garden (love the chicken scampi and sangria.....I skipped the sangria this time around). Tiffany, the daughter of friends of ours from Japan is attending college in Dubuque so we took her to dinner with us to catch up. Her folks are still in Japan so it was important to me to make sure we touched base with her so she could see some familiar faces. It was great to see her and she seems to be doing well.

After dinner we let the kids swim at the hotel pool for a bit and then hit the sack. I was pooped!

Here are pics of the kids at our picnic, Brett trying without success to touch some large fish at the museum, us all in front of a river boat paddle, a river boat as it paddled down the river, and the kiddos with Tiffany. Tiff used to babysit for us a lot on nights and weekends. Brett doesn't remember her since he wasn't even one yet, but Reagan was a complete leach and loved seeing her again.

Field of Dreams

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa. We went on a road trip this weekend to North Eastern Iowa to check out the fall foliage. Fall is my favorite time of year so I planned the weekend as one of my last "outings" before we have four kids!!! Our destination was Dubuque, but we first stopped off in Dyersville to visit the site where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed. Brett is slightly obsessed with the sport (and pretty good I might add) so I thought it would be a hit, and it was. Scott, Reagan, and Brett took their ball gloves so they could play catch on the field. We watched the movie when we got home on Sunday night and the kids thought it was pretty cool that they were just at the farm they were talking about in the movie.