For a few short days in August, we had some special family time with my (Cydil's) parents and sisters. This was taken after cleaning up from the family reunion...
Bugs asked me to take a few photos of her family, which I was happy to oblige. Thankfully, they are pretty photogenic so they make my job easy.
Below, two of my dad's cousins, along with my Dad, ply Grandpa for his memories of the vanOrmans who settled "Section 29, Forest City" (it was his grandfather, Orlando, by the way), back in the 1850s.
For our one day 'out', we drove down to Springfield and visited the Dana-Thomas House designed by Frank-Lloyd Wright.
I loved his ode to the nature of the prairie repeated in motifs throughout the house -- particularly the sumac. I think it was possibly the oldest "split level" home I have ever visited. Contrary to appearances, it contains living spaces on something like a dozen or more different levels spread out over 12,000 square feet. Having grown up in central Illinois, I can't believe I have never visited this place before. It's definitely a 'must see' for those coming to Springfield!
The heiress who commissioned Wright to design the dwelling gave him no budget and this is what she got! Isn't that copper stunning?
We also stopped in and visited Lincoln's tomb on the way home -- someone in our family had never been there so we stopped in for a quick look. It may have inspired watching a few History Channel specials later that evening on the theft attemps of Lincoln's body before his final interment at the tomb we visited...
If you are an American history buff and have never visited Springfield, Illinois, there a number wonderful places to make it well-worth your visit!
Before our Vermont family had to leave, we had our obligatory 'farewell' photos on the front lawn...
After an extremely busy summer on the road, it was fun to take the kids to the Illinois State Fair on Saturday, "Kids Day." I had shared so many stories with the kids of my memories attending the State Fair (and even competing, too, in 4-H!) that I was worried I had 'over hyped' it, but I had nothing to fear. They LOVED it!
SADLY, my cell phone's SD card corrupted and I lost all of my images from that fun afternoon. I had pics of the butter cow at the Dairy Barn, Ellie with a pig from the swine barn, a selfie at the ring where I got first runner up with my dog O.D. in obedience training, and some incredible, blue-ribbon vegetables in the produce barn. Here are few from Nathan's camera. Notice the slightly different "theme"... :-)
Ellie decided she loved Elephant Ears.
The next day, we left for Kentucky... check back later!
No comments:
Post a Comment