This weekend we went on a trip down to Illinois. Normally I let the kids know when we're leaving but since they bounce off the walls all day long until we go, I left it a mystery. They knew we were headed down there, but did not know which day. It was fun to listen to Matthew try to reason it out and figure out when we were leaving. Anna didn't need to think about it: she just put on her coat and shoes and waited :) Of course, she was three hours ahead of schedule, but she didn't care.
We took off on Thursday after Rob returned home and it was such a nice, peaceful day at home before we left. The kids eagerly awaited Rob's arrival to find out the departure time and we kept to our regular daily schedule to help pass the time. We took off and arrived at his parents' home in Normal around 7pm. We messed with them a little bit and took a slightly different route, pretending we were lost the entire time until we pulled into the driveway. I love being an ornery parent!
We had a wonderful visit with Rob's folks from Thursday night through Saturday noon. We also snuck in a visit with my sister and her two little ones Friday morning. My niece and nephew are so adorable!! The kids ripped around together for over an hour, then we headed back for lunch and a nice, long visit with Rob's grandpa. I, unfortunately, got a headache that afternoon and had to nap. I still can't figure out why, but at least the nap helped. We had dinner at Avanti's that evening with family in the area, then visited with Rob's brother and his family afterwards. Matthew and Ben had a grand time ripping around the house with their cousin Jamie while Anna was far more fascinated with baby cousin Julian, who just learned to walk. I still think one of these days I'm going to sneak that little guy into my suitcase and bring him home :)
The next day the kids and Rob went out to Rob's grandmother's farm with his dad to see the two windmills that had been placed out there. I really think that was the highlight of their whole trip! The boys have not stopped talking about how big those windmills were. They got right up next to them and were very impressed. Even Anna has talked about it quite a bit. They were also excited to see where Grandpa Litwiller had lived when he was a boy. I really do think my children are farm kids at heart.
After lunch we left in our usual flurry and went to Pontiac. My mom was watching my brother's four children and so we got to see four more cousins. We hadn't seen them since the summer so it was fun to see how much they've grown. They left shortly after we arrived and Rob took the kids upstairs so we could prepare for Mom's Stampin Up! workshop. She had three ladies in attendance and all three of them took advantage of Sale-a-bration so Mom had a pretty nice workshop. We had a good time visiting in the evening.
We attended church the next day and all three kids went merrily off to their respective classrooms with no problems. They love the classes at Pontiac Bible Church. We enjoyed a great sermon and then went home to some yummy meatloaf. My mom has the bestest meatloaf recipe ever! We left shortly after lunch because the weather in Wisconsin didn't look so good for that day. We did him some ice about 20 miles or so from home, but made it right before another ice storm hit. The hardest driving we had was just getting down our street, but I'm glad we got in before the plows went through or we would never have made it into the driveway.
The kids had a pajama day today and are very tired (and in bed early tonight!) All in all it was a wonderful trip!
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