Category: Big G

They say it takes a village to raise a child—or in our case, to photograph one. 😌

Following our trip to Colorado, Finn & Hen set out on their first unaccompanied trip to visit Grandma & Grandpa Nack. Armed with iPads, flip phones, and what proved to be a truly ungodly number of in-flight cookies (thanks, kindly flight attendants!), they got through the process without a hitch. After landing, highlights of the trip included:

• Visiting the Botanical Gardens with my folks.
• Meeting up with lots & lots of cousins at Aunt Judy & Uncle Bruce’s house where they celebrated Henry’s 10th birthday & enjoyed a cake from Katie. Aunt Judy fell in love with Hen, we’re told, and cousin Matt observed, “That Finn is one cool dude.” ☺️
• Riding on the milk route with Uncle Ted (9 hours for Finn, starting around 3am!) and on the Alpine Slide (a birthday treat for Hen while Finn caught up on lost sleep!).
• Cruising down the Galena pool’s slide dozens & dozens of times.
• Cuddling with “James,” the little stuffed pooch Grandma thoughtfully gave to Seamus-missing Finn.
• …and no doubt a bunch more I’m forgetting! (The lads are once again spending time away from us as I write this, so I’ll have to ask for additions once they return from camp.)

Thanks to my folks & fam for showing them such a good time, and for cousins Jill, Amy, and Sarah for pooling their photos with my mom’s. Here’s a little gallery of the goings-on.

Antiques-loving Hen spent all summer vibrating with anticipation of visiting Antique Archaeology in LeClaire, Iowa, not too far from Galena. It’s run by Mike & Frank of American Pickers—his favorite show, and beforehand he read Kid Pickers—a birthday gift from Grandma Nack, written by Mike & Galenian Lily Sprengelmeyer.

When our trip finally arrived, we zoomed up from Springfield, then across the river to the shop. Hen was thrilled not only to find a great piece—the taillight (?) from a 1958 Buick, but to bargain with Mike’s childhood friend and shake on a great deal! Given that it was found in Illinois, we like to think that the Buick might’ve been sold by Great Grandpa Liggett, or possibly to Great Grandpa Nack. 🙂

Afterwards we stopped off for some German food while Hen picked some old railroad shrapnel near a thrillingly active train line. Check out the gallery here.

Much as we’ve done in 2014 (gallery) and last year (gallery), on this trip to Big G we had a blast visiting our cousins Tom & Sarah Nack’s pond.

As we approached this year, I found myself eyeing my rearview mirror thinking, “Huh, I didn’t know that Galena Trolleys came out this far…” Well, they don’t except when Uncle Ted is behind the wheel! He was in the process of dropping off Ruby following Jenna’s birthday party, so our arrival was followed by a bus full of tired but happy 7-year-old girls. 🙂

Finn & Gus did some amazing synchronized jumping; Hen revolutionized his kayaking game; the dudes fed catfish bread with the occasional side of toe (!); and Hen & Ruby constructed some superb earthworks before getting wild with the hose. Check out the gallery plus a short video below:

And heres’s a 360º panorama that you can click & drag to move around:

Ah, nothing like a glorious Sunday morning in Big G. to accidentally terrorize my mom with my drone. 😬🚁😌 Here’s a quick shot (music courtesy of Wagner) of the device approaching the house (“It looks like a giant insect!” she said before shutting the door), plus a nice little overhead image. Stay tuned for more soon!

Amidst all the fun the guys had visiting Grandma & Grandpa Nack in Big G this past summer, I neglected to share photos of our evening out exploring hot air balloons in Galena Territory with our Murray/Mahoney cousins. So, taking a little break from Yellowstone pics, here’s a little gallery. Note that this was during Hen’s unfortunate but mercifully brief “roll eyes to ruin every photo” phase, so at Finn’s urging I added a little something extra to the final shot. 🙂

Among all the delights in our recent trip to Galena, a standout for all the kids (young & old alike) was when cousin Tony brought out his set of Legos & let us each build & arm our own minifigures! Even now, two months (!!) later, it’s a ball to see these little parts (backpacks, katana swords, ghost bodies, and more) float by in the basement & remind the guys of Tony’s generosity.

Check out a little gallery of the goings-on.

During our Galena trip my mom had the great idea of taking the lads to E.B. Lyons interpretive center in Dubuque’s Mines of Spain wilderness area. They enjoyed checking out all manner of critters, both living (snapping turtles, snakes) and stuffed (badgers, owls, flying squirrels, and more). Here’s our little gallery.

The boys have always been fascinated by anything related to Uncle Ted & his big vehicles. He’s given them some great tours, from checking out his ambulance one year to riding in his 18-wheeler the next. This time around we paid a visit to the Tri-State Tours “bus barn” as the dudes call it. By the end Henry was literally jumping for joy, as you’ll see. Check out the gallery!

G-Man: Down on the farm, up on a tractor, on top of the world.

Who’s got two thumbs, one spoon, and loves eating honey directly from the farm? This guuuuy. 🙂

Whenever we visit John’s family in Illinois, we fly to Chicago, then drive to Galena. We’ve now made it a tradition to spend a day in the city before heading out on the 3-hour drive west, so that we can soak up some urban sights and adventures with the boys. This time, we led our own Nack Family Blitzkrieg on Chicago. We kicked off our day on the 103rd-floor SkyDeck of the Willis (Sears) Tower before heading over to the amazing Museum of Science and Industry.

While Henry was fascinated looking through the floor of the observation pod in the tower, Finn was somewhat…um…less enthused. He was, however, really excited to see and learn about the captured WWII German U-Boat, the U-505, at the MSI. We also visited their coal mine experience, and spent some quality time touring the famous Burlington Pioneer Zephyr train, which set a diesel train speed record in 1934 traveling between Denver and Chicago.

Loath to go back to our suburban hotel, we rounded out the day by heading back uptown for a water taxi ride to Michigan Avenue, and then a “cheezborger” at the famous Billy Goat Tavern, a local Chicago landmark. Here’s a little gallery of the day’s events.