Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Road trip!

We are getting our new floors put in this week! I thought about going to visit Lifehopes, which would have been awesome, but the flights didn't look good and also John Paul has a cold so I wanted to stick close to the doctor and his nebulizer. So we decided to take a short road trip to Chicago yesterday to see Cathy and family. We pretty much invited ourselves up and they were very gracious and wonderful hosts! We had some issues in the morning however.

Actually it all started Sunday night when I went to Mikes Car Wash to vacuum out the van. I finished cleaning it all up and then it wouldn't start. Some guys jumped me and I made it home. Then Ken put in a new battery and it started right up, so we figured we were good. The next morning I got up at 5:30am, packed the car with everything we could possibly need - books, toys, extra clothes, pajamas, double stroller, potty seat, snacks, diaper bag, stories on tape and CDs from the library, etc. I was just about ready to get the kids up to leave when I decided to try to start the van. It wouldn't start. DARN IT! I was just about to tell Ken to NOT get John Paul up but he already had. Ken went out and tried to start it (although I didn't feel comfortable taking it,) and it was completely dead. So I moved everything to Ken's car, which was much more crowded, dropped Ken off at work, and left, about an hour and a half later than I had hoped. I was kind of nervous about the 3 1/2 hour drive with them by myself. When I say "them" I mean BUD. But the kids were GREAT. I got them breakfast in the car, and we only stopped once on the way up for a potty break and diaper change. I packed a huge box of books and put them between them and they just looked at books the whole time. Bud fell asleep for about the last hour too, which was awesome since I'm scared of driving into Chicago, and at least it was a little quieter in the car so I could concentrate. By the way, I LOVE my Navigation App on the droid. Took me straight to their house.

We went out for lunch, and Bud showed off his food throwing and mess-making skills. Then we went to Navy Pier, which all the kids LOVED.


Madeleine with the remote control boats. (Which we didn't pay for, but she just liked the steering wheel.) By the way Cathy, thanks for grabbing my naughty girl before she fell in the water!

John Paul on the carousel. (Thanks Joe for the tickets!)

Madeleine and Mary on the chairs - they LOVED the chairs! We were probably there for 30 minutes! They were great friends - playing and holding hands all day.

Madeleine and Mary on Thomas the Train. You can see the start of the meltdown in this pic if you look carefully. She decided she wanted off in the middle of the ride.

3 happy kids with their lollipops.

On the road!

Thank you so much Cathy and Joe for hosting us and for paying for everything!!! You guys are awesome ;)

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8 comments:

Cathy said...

SO much fun.

Come back!

JellyBelly said...

Looks like you guys had a great time!!!

Beth said...

We have been up there twice - your turn to visit us!

Leila@LittleCatholicBubble said...

You are so brave! I've never done a road trip alone with little ones. And, I can't imagine you would be the type to invite yourself anywhere? ;)

Julie said...

I really wish Bella and I could have joined you. Instead, I got to go to work...hum, not as much fun as Chicago!

Joe D. said...

We definitely do need to come down for a visit, now that you "fixed" Drew it may be an easier trip. But you are more than welcome to show up at any time!

We really enjoyed the visit.

LifeHopes said...

Wow, it looks like ya'll had a lot of fun!! So glad you made it there and back! (can't believe you are back already ... did you not spend the night?)

Also hope Ken got the van figured out. Ugh I hate car problems!

Cathy said...

PS Mary looks so weird in that stroller to me.

Kids.

Monkey see, monkey do...