Wednesday, March 17, 2010

We have made it safely to Illinois. The trip actually went pretty fast until we were able 2 hours away. There is a stretch of road that all looks exactly the same and it feels like you are on that stretch forever. It was a beautiful day and so I got a few pictures of the clouds (well, actually Kraig took the pictures). Kraig and I got to talk and it was just a wonderful time. The kids were great all the way up here. Chloe started to get a little restless a out an hour away but nothing too major. We got to my parents at about 5:30 but nobody was here. My niece Isabel is also here because my sister is on Chicago for a teacher's conference. My mom took Isabel to get a haircut and my dad was still at work. The door was open for us so we came in and unloaded the van. The kids and I went outside to play while we waited for everyone to get back. It is just a sweet feeling to see my kids run and play in the same backyard that I used to run and play in when I was a kid. Everyone got here at about 6:30 and all the craziness erupted. The kids were so excited! We ate supper and then we went up to my dad's business to see my mom's cats. She is keeping the cats up at work while we are here this week. The kids played with the cats and Kraig and I headed to the third floor of my dad's work. The building is not like a brick building with three distinct floors but it is a metal building that has been build to have a bottom floor then some stairs that goes up to a second floor and then the some more stairs in the middle that goes up to an attic type floor. Over the past 5-7 years my mom has been packing up all the things we left behind at home and has been storing them up on the third floor. It is pretty crazy up there but Kraig and I decided to take a look around. The first container I opened had my Fievel doll (The "American Tail" character) in it. I took it out and Sam thought it was the coolest thing ever. We were only up there for a few minutes because it was kind of dark and creepy, but it was neat to see some of the things that I had forgotten about. It was also weird how just one look at some of those items caused many memories and emotions to come back like they happened yesterday. I plan on going back up there tomorrow or Friday and look for a few things that I would not mind my kids having. After our adventure we came home and tried to get everyone settled for bed. They all slept pretty good. The kids are all resting right now because we are leaving in about an hour. We are taking the kids to this place called "Just Jump". We will do that for an few hours and then we are going to eat at mine and Kraig's favorite place, Taco John's. It is nothing fancy but they have these amazing things called potato oles and they are delicious. We have to eat there every time we come home. After that we have church and then back home.