McAllister Heartland Tour: Day 5 - Where the wild things are...

Today began with a trip to the Wildlife Prairie State Park that is located on the far side of Peoria from our homebase in Morton. Each family put together their own sandwiches before the reunion procession made it's way to the park.

Taking advantage discounted prices we were able to get everyone in for well under half price. The first activity was a ride on the park train that chugged us through some of the scenic highlights of around the compound. Ashley thoroughly enjoyed her first experience on a train. She was entertained all the way until a few minutes before the end where she prceeded the endless attempt of sucking her feet.

We dove into our individually prepared lunches after the train return to the station. Following the sandwiches we drove to an area that contained a lot more cars, and thus must have been the more popular section of the park.

Each party was packed heavily with water as we set out of foot. Along our hike we saw black bears, bald eagles, various foxes, and even a cougar. Ashley, as she had been up to that point all week, was amazing. She seemed quite happy to be out in the woods and even fell asleep for a few minutes during the walk.

At the conclusion of our journey Amber, Ashley and I were ready to return home. While Ashley went down for a much needed sleeping session (under the watchful care of Carrie Nelson) Amber and I went to the house to help with dinner.

Ugo prepared a fantastic chicken-based meal. At the conclusion, a birthday cake was brought out to commemorate the several birthday's that were being celebrated during the reunion - or right around that time.

The night was capped with the viewing of a few Year in Review videos produced by each family. Geoff and Brent showed theirs this evening. Amber and I have been so wrapped up with moving that we didn't prepare a video...yet.

Tomorrow, it's off to Nauvoo.