I’m having some problems with my other email address, and
it’s not working right now.  This is my new address, and the one I’m going
to be using permanently, kristine.toone@gmail.com 
Please change it in your address book ASAP, as I’m not getting *any* mail from
my other address. 

All my other current contact info is below as well.  Thank you!

************************
Kristine Toone
3517 Laurel View Rd.
Birmingham, AL  35216
205.823.1615
205.492.4069 (cell)
http://www.toonesalive.com/family
http://www.TastefullySimple.com/web/ktoone

These were some fun pictures from a great Hardee’s playground in Madison, Wisconsin.  Let me tell ya… with 2 restless kids, we made use of restaurant playgrounds along the way. 

Or this will happen!  They were both smiling and laughing, thankfully.  Not always the case!

Josiah also really enjoyed the tunnel.  He was giggling and squealing the whole time, going back and forth. 

Peeking at me from the bubble section. 

This is the only picture I got in Wausau when we met Jen and Dena. 
As hard as it is to get my 2 kids to be good for a photo, it’s impossible with 4!
Callie (Jen’s pretty little 2-year old), Josiah, Derek (Dena’s tall handsome 3 year old) and Analise.

This is Jen saying, "Look at me, I can do 2 kids, no problem!"  An hour later, she was testing it out for real
as she and Dena took care of Analise while Josiah and I were at the urgent care clinic with Brian.

We came home to 2 fluffy baby birds in our hanging basket.  They grew up FAST, and they’re already gone. 
Glad my little ones don’t grow up and leave the nest so quick!

My friend Alison’s been waiting a long time for these pictures!  On our last day in Shell Lake, Grandma Sandy and I took Analise and Josiah to the beach for a picnic and some splashing.  We met Alison and Judi at the beach .  It was a fun time, and great warm up for our beach vacation in a week and a half. 

I’m afriad Analise might be known as the "Sand Creation Destroyer" on Shell Lake Beach. 
She kept joining people building sand castles and hampering their building. 
Here she is at creation that she managed to take over after the young builder abandoned due to her "help".

I’m not sure who enjoyed having someone to play with more, Analise or Alison!

Splash Games… Alison was the unlucky target.

You’ve not fully experienced the beach until you’ve found someone to bury. 
Analise, of course, thought Josiah was in perfect position to be buried in the little lagoon.

Another essential experience… eating the sand.  Look at his little belly!

One of my favorite parts was finding this pretty little frog. 
He swam in the shallows, trying to get away from Analise, but we kept finding him.  He tried to make his home in that lagoon, from the earlier picture, but it wasn’t safe enough from Analise’s little fingers. 

One of our first fun times was visiting the Underwater World Adventure at the Mall of America.  It’s a very cool aquarium with a glass tunnel that you walk through and the fish/sharks/sea turtles, etc swim over you.  It was so fun!  The pictures of the fish aren’t that great, but all in all, the kids really enjoyed it, and it was definitely worth doing. 

Fish above us.

This is what Josiah looked like the whole time.  He loved it!

Shark swimming right over us, like you could have reached out and touched him.

Huge sea turtle swimming right over us.

Very pretty little gators in another tank.

I think I write this often when we return home.  But this time was the sweetest.  Yes, we made it home on Friday at 4pm, only 56 hours after our long trip home began.  I’ll summarize more tomorrow, when I’ve finished processing pictures, but we were sure glad to be home.  We got home in time for a small pizza dinner and birthday celebration for Analise, much redeeming the long day in the car.  (Her birthday will continue this next weekend with a party for her friends at Chuck E. Cheese. )

Unfortunately, we didn’t leave the sickness in Illinois.  Josiah was grumpy when we got home, and grudgingly went to bed on Friday night.  He woke on Saturday am, blazing hot, running a fever all day in spite of motrin and tylenol.  I missed church on Sunday to take him to the doctor to make sure it wasn’t a urinary tract infection, as his fever was nearly 103 on Sunday morning.  But everything indicated it was a viral throat infection, and he seems to have recovered today.  Yeah!

More later, with pictures!  

Not exactly the way I’d like to spend my anniversary, but at least I was suffering with my sweet husband, and he wasn’t in the hospital!  

We’re still trying to get home… We got off at about 8am, then had to go back for something we forgot at the hotel.  Then we had restless kids and spent some time in Madison at a Hardee’s playground to wear them out around lunch time.  Brian’s feeling considerably better, but he’s still got issues.  I’m sure the checker at WalMart had it all figured out as Brian checked out with Immodium, a package of new boxers and a pair of shorts.  Then shortly after that, Analise woke from a nap burning up, and threw up when we tried to get some tylenol into her. 

We should have taken the cues to stop our travels there, and continue tomorrow.  But no, we pressed on… and sure enough, though she was feeling better and ate a little dinner, she threw up again this evening all over her car seat.  45 minutes and an entire container of wipes later, we trudged on looking for a place to stay.  We’re finally here in Marion, IL.  Brian desperately wanted to make it to Paducah, Kentucky, since he feels like Illinois has defeated us today.  But I convinced him to stop a littler earlier so we can actually rest.  We’ve still got 400 miles to go tomorrow. 

Hopefully we’ll check in tomorrow from Birmingham…