What I Learned about Friendship from my Weekend in Ottawa, IL

This weekend we traveled just an hour and a half away to Ottawa, IL. Our goal was to explore some waterfalls at Mattheissen State Park, explore Utica, IL, and enjoy an epic family sleepover with our best friends!
Here is what I learned about friendship during this adventure:

1. For months I’ve been telling everyone that Mattheissen has some super cool waterfalls. I sent pictures and advised water shoes and shorts. Our friends have to order water shoes for three out of four of their family members. They have a young toddler so I made sure that they knew my family would help her to navigate the streams and trails. Welp- it was dry. No water! But some mud every once in a while. No waterfalls either. So instead, we hiked along what would have been the stream. I obviously can’t control the water, but I felt bad because we all had water shoes on and all these expectations and it didn’t go as planned. But good friends don’t care if plans change. They are just happy to spend time together.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1dt1x-dEGnSWdVHfCt7_bYJw8LNw3CAmE

2. So our kids are older. And have done some pretty tough hikes in literal mountains, so this hike wasn’t too big of a deal for them. One cool thing about no waterfalls is the rocks and dells were dry and super tempting to climb on. For us, that’s fine, our kids know their limits and like to challenge themselves. But for our friends, their kids are still very much learning their own limits and abilities. The four year old thinks she is invincible and a two year old doesn’t have enough experience to even know she could get hurt, but the four of us parents did a good job of working together and finding logs to “climb” for the younger girls and still made sure Oliver (he is the oldest) had a chance to be daring. It’s okay that our kids are in different places. Friends don’t care about that. They support each other through all the tough parenting onstacles. They look back and share what they’ve learned and they look forward and share what they think. It takes a village, and good friends are the best village!

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=17HCXdIFA7ZVqC3Pq5xZNiAFq29CbnDra

3. So our campground this time was a Harvest Host called Skydive Chicago. People from all over the area come to skydive for the first time, second time, or 75th year! No joke- there was a group of 10 or so men and women over the age of 75 years old who have been skydiving for decades! Anyway, the people that train stay in campers and trailers on site during the weekends. There is a tiki bar where they all hang out on Saturday evenings, and it was less than a football field away from our camper door! After we put the kids to bed, we headed over there to have a few drinks… lots of hilarity ensued! Great bartender! Took turns paying for drinks. Laughed a lot! Never wanted it to end! Good friends can sync up as if no time has ever passed and it was still 20 years ago before kids and mortgages and being old.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1noRxSQZHHIpc8X4WhMssba56bJf5Vdb9

4. Throughout our exploring in Utica and figuring out sleeping arrangements and our kids each taking a turn to throw a tantrum, each of us had a bit of a freak out moment- some of us more than others. (Who has two thumbs and gets mean when they are hungry? This guy!) Best friends don’t care. They just go with it. And they don’t think badly about each other either.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1muVFEiyYMGvgpU2sMxzfbB6Yef8XfK2p

5. After a delicious breakfast on Sunday, we sat out behind the airplane hanger to watch the skydivers land. Wow! Sooo cool! I highly recommend visiting this place to watch them. It’s amazing! Personally I have no desire to ever to this, but Oliver says he is in as soon as he is old enough! And then it was time to split off. And even though we see each other multiplie times a week most weeks, we all still hug and say goodbye like even one hour apart is just too long. Best friends miss each other all the time and take no offense when we need a break from the hustle and bustle and just want to go home. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1iYjt2PYlvCF7tB4qlaZbhs0p6QV5rdwu

Our friends are the greatest. And we had an amazing weekend together! And even though the bartender thought Jon was my husband and Kari was Patrick’s, we just went with it, and even when Jon couldn’t remember that a 10 card clears the deck in the game we played, we just went with it. And even when Patrick snored all night, we just went with it. And even when I was hangry, we just went with it. That’s just what best friends do.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1ETYd3jkc5oRnahpaeOzuD8PGwuKqXk1-

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