At one point in September, our yard looked like this. A stream of water flowed through our yard out to the street, and the grass is camouflaging the lake in our yard. We were really lucky and had no lasting damage, but because of the eight inches of rain we received and the resulting flooding, our sewer line was closed by the water company. So the sewer backed up into our basement, and we couldn’t use any water. We are decidedly used to having flush toilets, so Ed and I decided that we were going to pack up the girls and go to a hotel for the night. If I didn’t need to teach Sunday school the next morning, we might have toughed it out. But the thought of going to church without showers helped us make our decision. Does this count as a mini-trip? Lily was so excited about being in a hotel that it took forever for her to go to sleep. She jumped and rolled and kicked around in the bed that I was sharing with her. Once she fell asleep, she was surprisingly pleasant to sleep with. She doesn’t move too much in her sleep, so I slept pretty well.

For our planned mini-trip, I forgot the digital camera. We bought a disposable at Wal-Mart, and Lily was very upset that it didn’t have screen to view pictures on. The whole concept of having pictures “developed” was foreign to her. We visited several state parks in Northern Illinois, and also met a dear friend and her son at an apple orchard. We had tossed around several ideas on where to go, and when I found out that our governor was going to close some of these state parks, we decided we’d better visit them. I signed a petition to protest the closings, and you can, too! Online petition – Stop Blagojevich From Closing Our State Parks! This slideshow has pictures from White Pines State Park, Castle Rock State Park, and Lowden State Park. It’s pretty long, since I thought we took some pretty good pictures with just a disposable camera.