So, as you can see from all of the book reviews below, I've been reading a lot. I think the reading kept me sane while I was on vacation. Now that I've had a few days home and have decompressed a bit, I'll give you a travelogue.
Wednesday, June 7th:
Jilly, the kids and I left at 5:30am for Nashville. It's a 13-1/2 hour drive. We arrived just before bedtime and the kids had fun exploring all of the toys Grannie (my godmother) had saved from when her daughter Beth was a child.
Thursday, June 8th:
Took the kids to the mall. Annie whined her way into a bear from the Build-A-Bear shop, which meant that Bryce and Isaac got bears too (well, actually Bryce got a cow, which he named Carlos, after Jilly's fiance, whose name is actually Carl, but will henceforth be called Carlos). Took the kids swimming in the afternoon.
Friday, June 9th:
Took the kids swimming in the morning and to see Cars in the afternoon. Bryce kept his eyes covered for the first half of the movie.
Saturday, June 10th:
Drove from Nashville to Chicago (a 9-hour trip). Arrived in Chicago to find that it's freezing and will be in the 60s all week. We, being from the tropics, have only shorts and t-shirts with us.
Sunday, June 11th:
Church with my parents. Miraculously, all three kids go to their primary and nursery classes without a fight.
Monday, June 12th:
We take the kids to the Brookfield Zoo. It's a gigantic zoo, and we spend five hours trying to see everything, but Bryce cries all the way home when he realizes we've missed the addaxes, the ostriches and one house of birds. He's also extremely pissed that the walruses have been moved to Tacoma to breed with some stud walrus at the aquarium there.
Tuesday, June 13th:
We take the kids to downtown Naperville to look at the dragon statues. Bryce and Annie illegally feed the birds. Lunch at Culver's (note to self: do not share a dessert at Culver's with Mom, because she inspects every bite you take to make sure she's getting her fair share). Take the kids to the mall to get father's day presents. They run at top speed and tackle each other the entire time we're in the Gap. We abort the rest of the mall trip and take them home. We recuperate that night with dessert at Ethel's Chocolate Lounge after the kids are in bed.
Wednesday, June 14th:
I spend the morning planning my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. It's only 15th months away, but we're holding it at Disney World and my mom wants to get all of the details nailed down. When I present the options to my grandma, she springs for the most expensive/elaborate choices. It's going to be one heck of a party, but it seems like forever away. My mom also decides that I am going to be the designated wedding planner for my sister's wedding. We take the kids to the children's museum, then take my little sister engagement ring "browsing" (yep, with all three kids, good times, lol). We complete the trip to the mall we had to call off the day before.
Thursday, June 15th:
Drive from Chicago, IL to Jackson, MS (12-1/2 hours of driving) with a 4-1/2 hour stop in St. Louis. We drove by the old apartment, went to the zoo, and made our pilgrimage at Ted Drewes. This was the day Bryce had been looking forward to for a year (since our last visit) and we looked in every single animal cage at the entire zoo. For a little while he flitted around happily, loudly proclaiming it as "the best day of my whole life" but his tune changed when we got to the end of the zoo and he realized we hadn't seen four of the animals on the website (red kangaroo, kangaroo rat, chinchilla, and kinkajou). We tried hunting them down, but to no avail. For the second time in four days he left a zoo in tears. We finally arrived in Jackson, exhaused, at 10pm.
Friday, June 16th:
We had purposely made Thursday an insane driving day so we'd have an easy day on Friday. It started out easy, but once we hit Louisiana, things changed for the worse. We sat on I-10 for an hour while a huge accident cleared, then it started pouring and rained hard until we reached the Texas border. The traffic was terrible! But we finally got home around 5pm and I don't think I've ever been so happy to be home! I visited Eddie at the hospital that night after I put the kids to bed and we got to take a peek at the baby with his little portable EKG machine. It was kicking wildly and everything looked great. I even think I'm slowly starting to feel better. Once he tells his parents the big news (which he promises to do today) then I think we can let the cat out of the bag.
So there you have it-- I've been gone for almost two weeks, but I'm back. And very glad to be here!
--originally published 6/18/06
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