Shawnee National Forest

The boys didn't have any soccer or baseball games this past weekend because of Labor Day so we took a short trip up to Illinois to go hiking.  We went up for Saturday and Sunday and stayed in a hotel for the one night (all the campgrounds were packed and we didn't want to camp with that many people on a holiday weekend).

All of our hikes were in the Shawnee National Forest.  Southern Illinois seems like a random place to go hiking but it's just over 3 hours away and actually has some really awesome rock formations.  We did 3 or 4 hikes each day - some were super short, some were a few miles.  And the drive between each hike was gorgeous.  We were on a "wine trail" for part of the drive and also went through some beautiful orchards and farm land.  Rural Illinois felt different than rural Kentucky and Tennessee :)

Day One

Giant City Trail (Giant City State Park)

Our first hike was a one mile trail in a state park.  Gray walked this hike and did a great job.  The boys all enjoyed getting to leave the trail and scramble on some of the big rocks and through crevices created from fallen rocks (which added on quite a bit of distance).

Little man has no fear and follows his big brothers everywhere ...

The highlight of the hike is the "giant city streets", or narrow canyons.

The trail continues under Balanced Rock ...

Devil's Standtable Trail (Giant City State Park)

After eating a picnic lunch, we did our second hike in the state park.  This hike was shorter - only about 1/3 mile.  Again, Gray walked this one.

In order to get a smiling picture, I have to promise a silly one afterwards (which usually gets deleted - but this one was a keeper)!

We came upon this large rockhouse.  Most rockhouses have dirt and small rocks below - this one had all the large rocks that had fallen to create the rockhouse.

Next to the rockhouse there was a large "puddle".  We found a bunch of tadpoles and then Rylan noticed a ton of crayfish.

Next was the standtable that the trail is named for ...

The boys climbed up on the backside of it.

Pomona Natural Bridge

For the next hike, we drove about 30 minutes to the trailhead.  Again it was a super short hike - only 1/3 mile - and Gray walked.  We've seen a lot of arches and natural bridges in Big South Fork, but none have been covered with as much vegetation as this one.

Little Grand Canyon

Our last hike of the day was about 15 minutes away and our only long hike.  It was a 3 mile loop and we put Gray in the backpack for this one.  I carried him so that's why there are no pictures of him (and I realized when we got home there is not a single picture of me).

The best part of this hike is that you climb down and back up creek beds to get down into the canyon.  The steepness of these sections was unexpected.  It was beautiful and challenging and fun!

The bottom of the canyon was pretty cool too.

And then we headed back up another creek bed.

The hike back to the trailhead was about a mile and opened up at one point to this beautiful view.

After the hike we drove to Marion, IL to our hotel.  It was about an hour away from the last hike.  Before checking in, we stopped at Jimmy John's for dinner.  We let the boys swim in the indoor pool for about 30 minutes (we usually say no - they gross me out but we were pretty gross ourselves) and then we watched the Nashville Soccer Club game on TV.

Day Two

Observation Trail (Garden of the Gods)

Our second day started at the Garden of the Gods area.  Our first hike there was on the 1/4 mile Observation Trail.  I think we spent an hour and a half though exploring and climbing all over the rocks!  We got there early before it got too crowded - it's a popular hike.

Indian Point Trail - Loop (Garden of the Gods)

Our next hike was just down the road at another trailhead in the Garden of the Gods area.  The map we had wasn't the best and the loop ended up being longer than we expected.  It was still only 2.6 miles (but we'd expected it to be 1.6 miles).  Luckily we had put Gray in the backpack or it would have taken much longer.

At the base of the loop, there were caves to check out and more fun rocks to climb through and around.

Indian Point ...

We were all starving by the time we got back to the trailhead so we drove down to a picnic area and ate an air conditioned lunch in the car :)


Rim Rock Trail

Our third and final hike of the day was about 20 minutes away in the Pounds Hollow Area.  We did the west side of the Rim Rock Trail and returned to the trailhead via the Lower Trail.  The hike was only about a mile so we let Gray walk (though we ended up picking him up a lot as he was getting tired). . This hike includes another really cool area rock walls to hike between.

There are also more fun areas to explore and climb around in.

After the Rim Rock hike, we headed home.  Our phones weren't getting much reception so when we got a weak signal and were able to get directions home, we went with it without really looking at the specific directions too closely.

Surprisingly, the route took us across the Ohio River on a free ferry!  It was a fun and unexpected surprise!

We had a great trip and highly recommend this area in Illinois!

Nashville Sounds Game

About a month ago, we went to a Nashville Sounds game.  Brian's company had their annual summer outing there so we got free tickets and free dinner (and free beer).  Woohoo!

We had seats in the outfield but I'm not going to complain about free.  The boys don't pay as much attention to the game out there where it's harder to see but they still had fun.

The Sounds won!!!

After the game there was a fireworks show on the field.  Gray did not want to stay because we forgot to bring headphones but once it started, he really liked it (as long as Brian was covering his ears)!

Kid Pitch Baseball

Rylan is playing kid pitch baseball this season!  It is his first year of it (and Carter's second).  The boys are actually in the same league (9-10 year old) but on different teams.  They both have good friends on their own teams and we didn't want to take either away from them for our convenience (though, it would make Saturdays a lot easier!).

Rylan's very first game was against Carter's team (eek!).  Carter's team easily "won" the game (though we don't keep score in the fall).  However, Rylan's team did really well.  The pitchers threw pitches that Carter's team hit (instead of being walked most of the game) and they had some great fielding opportunities.

On Tuesday Rylan pitched for the first time. 

He was the starting pitcher for this team.  Carter was playing at the same time on the next field and I was scoring his game.  But I was able to still see some of Rylan's pitches and get a video and a few pictures.

Rylan did GREAT!  He walked the first batter but then struck out the next three batters in the first inning!  In the second inning, Rylan struck out one, walked two, and had two kids get hits off of him.  Brian is trying to keep the kids to about 35 pitches a game so that was the end of Rylan's pitching for the game.  But he did so well!  We are so proud of him!

And he even earned himself this ...

Carter and Rylan play each other again next Thursday!