Trip to Illinois!

Hey Y'all,

I am back and have been for a long time now. I had a great trip in Illinois with the Candlers it was so much fun spending time with them, meeting their friends, and just hanging out! :)

This was my first time to fly by myself and the first time I would be anywhere for an extended time without my family. So I was a little nerves at the outset of the 2 week and 5 day vacation I was embarking on, but by the end of it I was trying to figure out where "ALL" that time had gone.

The main event of the first week was the Pumpkin Festival, it was so much FUN! We went Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! Each night there was a different group of the Candler's friends that we go to spend time with and of course go on the rides with. :) We had a very fun and crazy time. In the end the top three favorite rides were the Zipper, Rock-O-Plane, and the Hurricane, I don't know how many times went on them but it was a lot! :)

The main part of the second week was spent in baby sitting, the church rummage sale, and ping pong! :D Tuesday night one of the Candlers friends Emilee got to spend the night, so we watched Wives and Daughters together, and of course talked a lot! It was lots of fun! :)

Then Friday evening we went over to the Neisen's house. The first activity of the afternoon was saddling up the horses and heading out to ride. Their horses are very pretty and they have some of the cutest little ponies! I did not do to good when riding, in fact I did horrible and was limping afterwards, but the others did really good and it was fun watching them. :) The next big event was when we got on the X-Box and hooked up with my brothers for some Halo 3, YEEHA!!!! The first game was Calvin and Robert against Garrett, Sierra, Lenna, and I. Now I bet y'all are sitting there going "Oh that is so not fair!" Well to tell the truth I agree 100% and so did the others, so after that Calvin and Robert were FORBIDDEN to be on the same team so that we would not get CREAMED again. :P Later on, Robert, Garrett, and I become another banned team combination. :) Playing was so much fun! Then after about half a hour or more Cal and Rob had to go, so we set up Call of Duty World at War (is that the right version?) and that was tons of fun too! X-Box is always fun but when you're right there with your friends laughing and talking it is always so much better! Call of Duty was ended when Mr. Candler came in and said it was time to go....but to our surprise it was not the end of the fun. :D We got all our stuff together walked to the door and saw a very dense fog (which all of us kids just knew we could not even think about driving in) so once Mr. and Mrs. Neisen said that we could stay, we focused in on Mr. Candler and pleaded until he gave in so that we could stay the night! :D Once that was settled lights were set up in the front yard and a game of Ultimate Frisbee was started! It was hilarious, all the jokes and slipping in the wet grass, it was just too much fun! :) I don't know what time we were called inside to go to bed but I know it was late, the next morning we were all very tiered and after we got home Sierra, Lenna, and I had to crash for an hour to catch up on sleep! (but I would still do it all again!. :)

Monday was Sierra's birthday and us Girls spent the morning by going down to their creek and taking lots (and I mean lots) of pictures together. :) Then it was time to go shopping. Now most the time I find shopping very boring, but when your with Sierra and Lenna it is very hard to find anything boring! :P They had me laughing almost the whole time. The rest of the day was spent at home talking and watching a movie.

Thursday we went to the Kings place to make homemade apple cider. I don't know how many apples we cut but the end result was 14 gallons of amazing cider and a lot of good memories.

Then Friday we went over to the McDonald's house for dinner, which of course meant lots of talking, fun, and games! Oh, and some music was thrown in there too! :)

Then there was Saturday the day of my return home, but before I could go home there was a three hour drive in the car. :D Unfortunately Lenna was sick so she had to stay home but Sierra was able to come along so we talked in the car and then Mr. and Mrs Candler took us to Cracker Barrel for a very good lunch. We ended up getting to the air port two hours early to make sure I would not be late, encase it was busy. But since there was almost nobody else there we got to spend most that time together. Of course since it was our last moments together, we could not just sit and act normal the whole time, so Sierra and I decided we would go up and down the escalators! :) It was hilarious to see some of the looks people gave us as we just happily talked while going in circles! :P After a while Sierra started to get dizzy so we moved our conversation over to Star Bucks, which was a yummy improvement! :D After that it was time for us to say good bye, so we got our last picture together and then I headed off through security.

I shall now conclude my post. :)

The Texan~

P.S Sorry that I did not put up any pictures. I did not take many and the ones I did take did not come out too well, but Sierra has some up on her blog. :)