Ditka and Sox do an Update

Hi, this is Ditka and Sox.  Mom has taken some time off blogging since we’ve gotten back from the Southwest but we wanted to give you an update.

The weekend after we returned to Quincy, we headed out again in the motorhome to Carlinville with the primary objective to pick up our three months worth of mail that  Kyle had been collecting.

We love Beaver Dam State Park and long walks there. Mom and Dad even lucked out arriving just in time for  St. Pat’s Day and their corned beef and cabbage at the state park café.

While we were in Carlinville, there was an trip to watch the St. Michael’s girls volleyball team play. Jenni helps coach the team.

Since Kyle and Jenni know that every Frericks Adventure needs a new dining experience, they suggested the nearby Fast Eddie’s Bon Air in Alton.  Really cheap but good food is the draw here.  It’s another ‘destination’ restaurant with a huge outdoor patio and frequent live music.  If you are ever through Alton hit Fast Eddies between lunch and dinner when they are less crowded.  Two people can have great burgers and shish-ka-bobs and come away stuffed for $10!  We were hoping for doggie bags.

On the way back to Carlinville, there was a stop to see Jenni’s classroom.  She sure had lots of neat stuff to look at.  Those kids are really lucky to have her for a teacher.

After the Carlinville trip we stayed home for a few weeks. I think Mom and Dad may have figured out that they came back to the Midwest too early.  Here’s Sox sitting at home in the snow, dreaming of that warm Arizona sunshine!

As we understand it the reason we are spending so much home time is because our house here in Quincy needed some fixes.  There has been a couple of nice men coming in and out of the house a lot putting in a new furnace/heat pump. 

There was also a lot a bad words being said around Dad’s laptop for awhile.  Something about another card going bad on the inside and so a few days later Mom came home with a new HP laptop.

We were really looking forward to a trip back down in to Tennessee to the RV-Dreams Rally in mid-April but with all these unexpected expenses and activities, Mom and Dad decided it was was best to do some home time, especially considering that with current fuel prices they’d be spending $1000 just in fuel to go down to the rally and back.

Instead we got to go over to our other favorite Illinois State park, Fox Ridge in Charleston, IL.  Trevor’s Leah is finishing school there so that meant we got lots and lots of great Leah time.  She really knows how to find those best places to scratch where we itch!

We even got to go mushroom hunting with Dad.  He told Mom we were too noisy though and scared them away.

Mom and Dad ended up spending their 30th wedding anniversary sitting by the campfire with us, serenaded by the owls and the coyotes.  Of course, we couldn’t let those coyotes sound off without joining in ourselves!

Sunday that week was a long down day for us since Dad and Trevor went golfing while Mom went in to Charleston to a baby shower that Leah’s roommates put on for her.

The theme of the shower was ‘Lilo and Stitch’ since Lilo is what the girls always called Leah and now they call the baby ‘Stitch’.  Here’s Leah at the party with her sister, Emily, to the left and her mom, Amy, to the right.  We’re hoping that baby Stitch comes out looking more like his Mama’s pretty family and not like Stitch-- blue, with big ears, teeth and claws!

Ok, well that’s a pretty brief update.  There’s other big news from last weekend but we’ll let Mom fill you in on that!

Lovin’ Licks,

Ditka and Sox