Visiting Herrin (August 2014)

A few days before school started in August, we traveled to St. Louis/Southern Illinois for a big family event - Grandma Jane's 80th birthday party.  We flew into St. Louis on a Wednesday (the 20th), got our rental car, and drove to Carbondale, IL to meet Martin's family for their weekly Wednesday night dinner at Quatro's.  The pizza was delicious, especially after a long day of travel.



The next morning Grandmommy met us at Giant City State Park for some hiking.  It was beautiful with lush ferns and trees and interesting rock formations - it was a great place to explore with the kids.









We grabbed lunch at the park lodge, stopped at the mall to pick out some gifts, then went back to the hotel to rest and clean up.  That evening we drove to Herrin, Martin's hometown.  We got to see the house he grew up in before joining lots of family and friends to celebrate Grandma Jane's birthday with dinner and cake at Mary's.  We especially loved seeing all of the photos from Grandma Jane's life and hearing lots of stories about Martin and his siblings.  :)  I'm so glad we were able to be there!