Illinois

The Bumgarners are an awesome group of people to have a party with. We spent the day in the sun (as soon as it decided to come out...) and just hung out with some really fun people. Here are some pics:

This is Jared with Aunt Kim:

Here is all of us with Grandma Bumgarner, who said the most incredible things all day:


Here are some group shots of about half the people at the party, just to give you an idea of how big of a family the Bumgarners are:

Illinois is full of surprises; engagement party surprises, and Carolyn Wiley surprises:

Look! They match!


We played lawn darts -which is illegal but awesome! Aunt Kim kicked all of our butts. In this pic you can see her red dart mid air, probably about to land dead center in the ring:

The next day Aunt Kim packed us a lunch and we sadly said good bye. When we stopped to picnic for Molly's interview, we found special napkin notes that Kim had written for us. Kim, we can't thank you enough for your kindness and gernerosity.

We got back on the road and came to the mighty Mississippi River:


We pulled off to check it out. From the bridge it looked inviting, but once we got to the bank we saw garbage, and swarms of really nasty bugs that clung to Jared's pants, and the brown color of the river. This may be the first body of water that I've come across that I haven't immediately wanted to stick my feet into. I didn't, but these two did:

The opposite bank was filled with large industrial buildings with smokestacks and power lines, but we took this idyllic shot for mythology's sake, and then we continued on through Iowa.