Back to Illinois

The first weekend in October found us traveling back to Illinois, this time for Adam to run the Chicago marathon...and to see some old friends again ;) Our visit coincided with chillier temperatures and the St. Charles Scarecrow Fest. We were able to go twice, with two different groups of friends. 

Conor's favorite was a moving scarecrow of Herman Munster at the dentist. Riley's was a moving Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz riding a bicycle. (Of course I didn't get pictures with either of those!) Some of their other top choices were the Kane County Cougars baseball players

 and Charlotte's Web, since he just happened to currently be in the middle of reading it!

How fitting for these two to find a Madagascar 3 display!

 They thoroughly enjoyed the band, and within minutes, 3 of the 4 (Noah wasn't into it) were up jumping and dancing around in front of the stage. The kids still love to watch the video of them dancing on my phone.

 Later that evening, we met up with the Clarks for a big "carb loading" pasta dinner at Olive Garden--perfect timing for the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. 

The kids had so much fun reuniting again, and were so well-behaved during dinner that they let loose a little just before it was time to leave and they all hog-piled each other on the restaurant floor...good thing we were in a back room!

Friends Forever

Saturday was football day so I dressed the kids and me in Elon gear!

Later that evening, we had a bonfire. It was a little too cold for the kiddos and Adam and I bowed out early since we had to get up around 4 am to get ready and ride the train to Chicago for his race the next day.