Saturday, June 7, 2008

Road Trip

There is just nothing quite like the open road, and we had our fill of it today. Today was my sister-in-law's baby shower, held in Streamwood, IL and the whole family went. The three guys hung out with my brother, Joel, while Anna and I attended the shower.

I was a little apprehensive about driving b/c our Map Quest directions took us there by means of multiple country roads (and even one "Bob's road"--see the movie Twister for an explanation.) We Google earthed the directions, but it took a half hour longer by means of interstate, so we opted for the crazy route. I'm so glad that we did! Traveling by backroads is so much more fun and you get to see all kinds of great stuff. We found a huge Amish gift and furniture store we'd like to go back to and Rob remembered that he had driven most of that route in college to get to the church he ministered in. The kids had far more interesting scenery to look at than if we took the interstate, so that was a bonus. Our only problem was the storm we hit coming back into Wisconsin, but even that wasn't bad.

We arrived with time to spare and had a good time visiting before the festivities began. Joel and Rob took the boys out for a bit and they went to lunch, a park, his house, and visited AWANA headquarters, where Joel works as a graphic artist. The boys had a ball and didn't stop talking about it until bedtime.

We had a great time at the shower. It was held at a restaurant and the air conditioning stopped working and our ceiling fans weren't working, but other than that, it was great. I felt very sorry for all of the pregnant women attending, but they seemed to make it through okay. Anna was very good the entire time and my mom held her for much of the shower. I won myself a prize by being the fastest diaper/outfit changer (which really isn't fair, considering I have lots of practice, but at least it paid off!)

It was good to see family, especially since I haven't seen some of them since Christmas. Mom took a picture of the four girls, three of which are pregnant. My sister Mandy is due July 25, sister-in-law Cara on July 26 (Joel's wife and he is Mandy's twin) and sister-in-law Melanie is due on October 2nd. Since we never got a picture of the four of us before Anna was born, Mom is going to splice in a picture of me while pregnant. I'll have to post it when she gets it done. Should be interesting!

In other news, Matthew can now identify all of his letters. We checked out a Leap Frog video from the library and after two viewings, he knew all of them and their sounds. He now finds letters everywhere! I love how he learns things "all of a sudden." Should make homeschooling him very interesting! I've been reading about unschooling and it sounds like it's the method that will work best for him. We'll just have to wait and see.

That's all the news that's fit to print....or post....

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