At some point in our 1/4 year stay in Illinois, I realized I hadn’t taken hardly any pictures of the kids.  So, on the peak day for leaf color, we went out to our favorite state park and I took a gajillion pictures.  Behold the over-doing of our family documentation!

Pretty  much as soon as we got there, they saw this tree stump.  They then proceeded to climb up on it.  And dance.

And then we picnicked.  Forethought is not our strong point, but ingenuity is!  Note the cardboard plates we sported!  And Olivia’s using a frisbee!

And no matter whether Levi sat by himself…

Or on Daddy’s lap…

The result was always the same…

And he’s off.

Olivia wouldn’t let me take a picture of her.  So I did the reasonable thing and snuck one.

Benjamin was being a cutie, though!  Look at that grin!

And then it was off to the trails! (Finally).

Look at those beautiful fall colors!

Lucy ran full speed ahead The. Whole. Time. Props to Olivia for handling her!

“Okay, everyone, time for a family picture…. wait… Where’d you all go?!” (Note that even the dog was being obstinate!)

But I suppose I was the fool for not expecting this:
(They’re about three feet up on a rock wall here.)

Finally, they settled down enough to recognize the awesome beauty of the place:

And we got our family picture:

And then it was back to civilization!

Two things to note here:

1) The extra set of feet

2) Benjamin, who had missed his nap, was not cooperating…

Until we gave him a piece of candy:

Here he is, showing me how he makes his candy last for hours (by holding it on his thumb and licking it):

Levi enjoyed the statue of a fox.  (Look at that curl coming off the side of his head!!)

And Olivia finally started hamming it up for the camera.

The end.