At the end of July, we drove to Janesville Wisconsin to see JKK's family! Our driver (JKK) opted to drive straight through on the way there. It was a bit rough on him, but the rest of us were quite comfortable. ;)
iPads the whole way. Kids are so lucky these days.
We made it to Uncle Mike's house on the Rock River...beautiful!
This is JKK's homeland. He has a lot of memories of this house and this river.
Impressively parked.
JKK's grandfather built this house in 1938
Aunt Coco and Aunt Kathy
It really was so peaceful to hang by the river. Aunt Coco talking to the girls - the rest of her family, Tony and Dan and Luc, couldn't make it this time so she came alone.
Uncle Mike - such a generous host!
Tom and Carol came to visit for an evening! Here's the rundown: Tom is Mike's biological father and JKK and Kathy's adoptive father. After Tom and Annette (Mike's biological mother and JKK and Kathy's adoptive mother) divorced, Tom married Carol. Annette moved on to marry Bill (Coco's biological parents).
This old house has some cool features, like this little cutout with a dinette in it.
When the siblings went to see their mom (Annette) at the cemetery, Syd and I chose to opt out and go to the park instead. You could see this park straight across the river from Mike's house, and Syd was dying to go. It didn't disappoint!
The water was like glass - looking from park to Mike's property. It's a very shallow river and only gets about 6ft deep, so you could technically swim/walk across it. It's full of mushy muck tho. The girls kept playing in its and making me cringe. I'm guessing it's probably decades of duck poop.
The family cemetery where they visited their mom, Aunt Peg, and their grandmother...amongst others.
Those girls were ready for a ride on the jet skis!
Aunt Kathy's boys came down from Madison: Nick and Jack both started college last fall.
Luc missed out on the belated grad celebration! We couldn't get together last year because of COVID.
Millie is happiest when surrounded by her people!
Uncle Mike's son, Ben, came down from the Chicago area for a day. He was such a good sport about taking the girls out!
Ben even had a bit of a rescue mission when Jack got one of the jet skis stuck in the muck! Beth and Ben grew up on this river - you should see how aggressively they drive those jet skis!
Beth is a nurse at a Chicago hospital, so she also could only come for one day.
This is the muck. Millie kept calling it moisturizer and slathering it on herself. *shudder*
Siblings: Colleen (aka Coco), JKK, Mike, and Kathy
Aunt Mary, Tom's sister, and her husband Dave came for an afternoon visit. She's full of stories and very entertaining! She grew up in this house too! So much history.
Kathy, Tom (Aunt Kathy's husband), and Jack
This was so funny. The girls turned around on the tube, so ready to go!
But something went wrong and when the jet ski took off (maybe too slowly?), the girls were submerged for like 10 seconds. It's was thrilling. They came up out of the water freaking out! ;) Those of us on the shore were laughing.
Look at this sunset! After everyone left, we got to hang by the river with Mike. It's a gorgeous property and he's good company.
We left early Sunday morning and stopped in St Louis to visit the City Museum and grab some Imo's Pizza!
I wanted to go down the 10 story slides, but the girls weren't having it. Blerg.
Such an odd place.
We camped outside of Missouri that night at a place with a pool, which always makes the kiddos happy.
Another great trip! Thankful we have this RV and can ride in style...
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