Elijah's First Hiking Trip

Elijah is 2 1/2 years old right now, so we thought it might be a nice little adventure to take him downstate for the weekend and do some hiking at Starved Rock State Park. We had no idea how fun it would actually turn out to be! Elijah hiked four separate trails for a total of almost 4 or 5 miles, all in one day! He let us carry him when we needed to jump over streams, but otherwise his little legs hiked up and down through the canyons all by themselves. After we were through with the two morning trails, he caught sight of a bench and said with all seriousness, "Ji-jah tired. I sit down now." Once we set him up with his blanket, he took a power nap and then was ready to go again.


The highlight for us was the last hike into St. Louis Canyon. It had a white sandy beach next to the waterfall, so we got to relax and play there for a good while.

After a full day, we got to enjoy a picnic dinner under the big oak trees along the Illinois River. It was a just a beautiful day. We enjoyed every second of it.

After all that, Elijah still had enough energy to check out a local classic auto show (the serious shopper made sure to investigate all the engines thoroughly) and then he finally ended the day with a swim before bed.

The following day was Father's Day. We enjoyed a breakfast brunch together and then headed for a ferryboat ride along the river. On our way home, we drove through the small town of Mendota and made a pit stop at their Railway Museum. This enormous black steam engine dates back to 1907. When I snapped this picture, I thought Elijah was smiling, but when I zoomed in on the photo later, I see that he was pooping his pants. Luckily, he's still in diapers.

I hope we can do this trip all over again before the summer is up. It sure makes good practice for those big road trips that we plan to take all around the country when he's a little bit older. The way things are going, he may be ready sooner than I expected. ~Nasreen