Graduation Weekend, Fox Ridge State Park

Although we’ve been staying in Illinois recently, we’ve still been able to enjoy the lovely spring weather in our state parks.

We spent 5 days at Fox Ridge State Park to see our newest daughter-in-law, Leah, receive her bachelor’s degree at Eastern Illinois University.

We made it an extended celebration weekend, with Trevor coming in to Charleston on Thursday evening and then he and Leah spending time with us at the park on Friday.

One of our gifts to Leah was a pocket-book size photo book of their wedding.

Trev and Leah brought me a very thoughtful Mother’s Day gift--A beautiful geranium planter that folds and travels easily in the motorhome.

We did some grilling out.  Ken showed off his enthusiasm her for being ‘head bottle washer’.

The weather was quite nice for a campfire.

Leah and Trev brought fixin’s for S’mores so Ken got to show off to Leah his high tech marshmallow roasting sticks.  She’s obviously impressed!

On Saturday, Leah’s mom hosted us at the Firefly in Effingham for a luncheon to celebrate Leah’s graduation.

We took a group picture on the deck outside the restaurant.  From left: Ken, me, Trevor, Leah, Amy, Leah’s Mom, Chris, Leah’s brother, Jenna, Chris’ girlfriend and Angela, a Sobut family friend.

Trev and Leah have traded in Leah’s little VW bug convertible for a vehicle that will be safely carry a carseat in the backseat, this Infiniti FX.

The business college had the third round of graduations that day at 6pm.

Leah was at the end of the aisle directly in front of us where Trevor could take lots of pictures of her.

Then it was time for Leah and her roommate Marie to say good-bye to their house.   Trev had borrow his friend Chris’ truck and within a few hours they had her packed up on her way back to Palos Park, the college years and many happy years at EIU that both she and Trev spent on campus now just happy memories.

Hugs, C