Today we went to the Ford County Courthouse located in Paxton, Illinois to research some of Debbie's family history...
In the lobby of the courthouse, there is this monument to the soldiers that served in WWI from Ford County...
Arthur and Willie Rudolph are Debbie's great-uncles (her grandfather's brothers). Arthur served in a medical company and Willie was in the Foreign Service in the infantry. Both were inducted in 1917 and honorably discharged in 1919.
After a long day in the hot courthouse, we found this pretty little park on the way to Sibley and enjoyed a nice picnic together.
We located the deed records for this lot which was apparently co-owned by about 10 members of the Rudolph Clan and sold to a couple in 1946 for $1.00 and some other unnamed things of value... it is the west half of Lot 1 in Block 8 of the Hiram Sibley 1st Addition (corner of Indiana and Madison Streets) in Sibley, Illinois.
We got back to Brando's about 5:30 and headed out for the lake with the boys for an evening of Bass fishing... Ammon has been waiting to help grandpa catch the big one!
Hyrum fished for awhile but lost interest pretty quickly!
Kaleb used a rubber worm but did not have much luck... (great photo grandma).
Brando landed the first bass with a trout lure...
Hyrum was the net guy...
Grandma and Ammon waited patiently...
Grandma and Hyrum wait and wait...
Brando caught another one just as the sun went down... All together, Brando caught 3, Grandpa 1, and Ammon 1.
Brando's friend Mike caught this monster mud cat on a worm! That will be some good eating!
Today, I got a day out by myself and I went to Riverton (right outside Springfield) to see a friend, Lou Szokes, who happens to be the "Illinois Photographer Of The Year" for the 5th year running. I met him earlier this year when I took a seminar taught by him in Portland on Hollywood Style Lighting. It was great to see his studio and to discuss business with him and his wife Theresa. He gave me some valuable advice and it was great to visit with him again. You can check out his work at 
On the way back to Brando's, I decided to visit some historical sites. This was a great time of day because everything was closed for the day and there were no tourists to mess up the photos... My first stop was the Camp Butler National Cemetery where 1642 Civil War soldiers are buried in addition to the veterans of all other wars since.
These are the headstones of the Civil War soldiers...
and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library...
Across the street is the Lincoln Union Station Park...
and just down the street is the Abraham Lincoln Home - National Historic Site...
This is a pretty famous photo op... (Check out the history books)
Right across from President Lincoln's Tomb is this tomb for Governor John Tanner who served in the late 1800's... now this is a sweet tomb... I want one like this! (It kind of reminds me of something that Fred Flintstone would be buried in).
Ammon had fun with the molding foam that grandma gave him...
Ammon and Papa Chief save the Mayor from the inferno...
There was a Toys R Us conveniently located right next door... so grandpa and grandma took each grandson on a shopping spree... Hyrum was pretty excited about his dinosaur family!
and Ammon got a Nerf Rifle!
