Whirlwind Trip

It has been a tiring week. 

Last Wednesday, Luke and Joel, with some wimpy help from me, moved all of our belongings from the house in Olathe to the house in Overland Park.  Two other friends helped out for an hour as well.  To sums things up: It was really hot and we have too much stuff.

  Thursday Luke and I finished packing and cleaned every nook and cranny of the Olathe house.  Lynn came over in the evening to help and Joel met us at the Overland Park house at 11pm to unload the pick-up trucks and my car which were full to the brim with the random miscellaneous items that are left after you move.  We are so grateful for our family!  Kelly and Marji took care of the boys and Lynn and Joel moved many heavy things.  We couldn't have done it without them.

I don't remember ever being so incredibly tired.  So what should we do next?  I know!  Let's drive to Chicago!

Friday we loaded up the boys and headed north.  We had been planning on a long weekend back home over the 4th to visit family and friends and to attend the wedding of a dear family friend.  With all of the excitement at the house it got condensed into a quick two day trip.  Unfortunately we ran into terrible traffic leaving KC and the 8 hour trip took us almost 11 hours.  No worries, it's not like we were exhausted or anything.

This was taken 5 minutes into the trip.  Milo raged against the car seat straps.  Don't worry, kiddo!  Only 500 miles left to go!

Most of this trip's photos were taken as we travelled since most of this trip was travelling.  Don't worry, we only let them ride in the back for a little while.  100 miles, tops. 

He loves working with mechanical things- this wrench and the straps are right up his alley.

Playing in the truck bed while Daddy makes some car seat adjustments.

AH, the wind in the wisps of my hair.

No matter how hard they tried, both could not fit thru the window at the same time.

Finally they conked out.  Now that summer is here, it is still light out at bedtime.  Riding along in the truck, neither could be convinced to go to sleep until it was pretty late. 

Uncle Rick let us use his condo while we were in Bourbonnais.  We rolled in around 2am.  Both kids, refreshed from a nice long nap, thought it was time to party.  Look at those crazy eyes!

More crazy eyes.  "I'M AWAKE!!!"  Neither Luke's eyes nor mine looked anything like this.

Just a 6 hours after we arrived, Luke and I headed up to the Ikea in Shaumburg, leaving the boys with my parents who had flown in the evening before.  We had a shopping list of many things we wanted to pick up for the new house.  Mostly lighting, rugs, and beds for the boys.  There is no place in KC where you can buy inexpensive modern home furnishings.  The boys had fun out to breakfast and 'hiking' at the state park with Nana and Papa.

After racing around Ikea, driving back down to Kankakee, and changing clothes in a Wendy's bathroom, we made it with minutes to spare at the wedding.  It was lovely.  Later we headed out to the reception.  Here is Mom and Uncle Bob enjoying themselves.

It was great to see so many of our friends and family.  With my parents and Lea living out east and Joel and Kelly now living here we hardly travel back home anymore.

The bride was beautiful  A highlight was Mr. Ibrihim's toast.  He is such a kind and gracious man and his toast celebrated the many friendships and relationships represented in the crowded reception hall.  The bride's family is all Egyptian and the grooms family is from Alabama.  I'm pretty sure I've never been in the middle of so many Middle Eastern, Deep South, and Chicago accents before.

I had been fighting a sore throat and some congestion but Saturday night after the wedding I hardly slept at all due to chills and coughing.  I began to suspect that instead of a bad cold I had contracted some kind of monkey virus.  Unfortunately I was not well enough to make it to church in the morning. 
Aunt Kathy and Uncle Chuck came into town around lunch time.  The boys were glad to see them.  Aunt Kathy spent lots of time playing with Levi at the sink as they did experiments with the water.  She also read to him.

Sisters

Nana and Papa got all the cousins their own roller bags to travel with.  Levi was enamored by them (well, all of them except Ruby's princess roller bag).

They also brought him special workbooks and chunky pencils.

The roller bag has been his constant companion since then.

It was a quick visit but we'll get to see everybody at Lea's wedding next month.

We left at 5pm on Sunday and the return trip started out a lot better than the one on Friday.

When we arrived home at 1am Levi was fast asleep.  As I pulled him out of his car seat his mumbled something about getting down.  I obliged and set him on his feet.  With eyes only half open his wobbled his way toward the truck and said, "I need to pull my roller bag!"