Galena, IL

Well folks it is now October and I am still trying to blog about our summer trips :( I have decided to get it done today! After we went to Texas we drove back to Champaign and spent the night at my brother Alex's house. It was fun playing with their animals. Then we drove to Chicago so David could run a race for the firm he interned with. Well a bit of drama happened. We went to our friend's home for dinner and I went out to the car to get some stuff out. I opened the trunk, pulled out some stuff and slammed it shut. Once it was shut I realized I had dropped my keys inside!! Pretty horrible feeling, unfortunately one that I have had before :( I'm seriously bad with keys. Anyway David missed his race, even after borrowing clothes and trying desperately to make it and we really put our friends out (thank you Watkins family. We love you guys!). A locksmith finally came and got our door opened for us. Then around 9pm we started on our journey to Galena. It was about 1 1/2 hour drive through little towns. David was driving and all of a sudden we are being pulled over. Seriously? For those of you who don't know David is an extremely careful driver. I have to remind him to speed up, not slow down. I couldn't believe our bad luck. Apparently the speed limit changed from 40 to 35 or something small like that and David was going 41. Luckily the policeman took pity on us and let us off with a warning. I think it was the enormously packed car, the crying woman in the passenger's seat and the two sleeping kids in the back. When we finally pulled up to our Worldmark we felt like we had been hit with a truck. But looking back it ended up okay. Our insurance covers being locked out so we weren't out any money, just annoyance. On to our great trip in Galena.
We have a timeshare and one location is Galena. We decided to stay there for about a week before David's internship. It is a little resort town comparable to Park City. There wasn't a lot to do there, but it was perfect for us. The place was beautiful and it was nice to have some family down time.
We went down an alpine slide. It was really fun and both of the girls loved it!





I have to admit the travel back up to the top was a bit scary with 2 little girls. I kept picturing them falling beneath the handle bars.
I really just could not believe how beautiful it was! We just loved sitting on our balcony looking at the view. We watched a lot of movies and I got in some good runs.
One evening Gigi even discovered some hot air balloons outside our window. Isn't it gorgeous?


We went and looked at some horses. The girls played in the gravel for probably 30 minutes. David is so patient he just waited while they played. I got more and more restless and finally made us all leave.
Galena boasts that it is the place where Ulysses S Grant is from. I'm still not sure if he was actually born there or just lived there for a little while, but we did enjoy seeing some historical homes. The only bad thing about the trip was that Madeline got sick. She developed a fever and so didn't sleep well for a few nights, but other than that it was the perfect way to spend our final days together before we had to leave David in Chicago. I had planned on spending a few weeks with my brother Ephraim and his family, but by the end of our trip Madeline was having such a hard time that we decided not to go. We were so sad not to see them :(
Aren't you jealous that I was able to take a bath in this? David was so sweet to watch the girls so I could take a few baths and catch up on some reading...ahh I really miss that bathtub!
Gigi as usual came up with many creative games. She is all tied down with cords that she took from around the room.
We loved swimming. They had a fabulous pool, hot tub and sauna. We even grilled hamburgers outside.
Worldmark came through again and provided a fantastic oasis for our little family. Thank you!