My Trip Alone with the Kids to Chicago

Samantha: 63 Months, Week 2
Aedan, 27 Months, Week 4

As I wrote my blog from last week, I forgot to include this picture of the kids posing with Ronald McDonald outside the McDonald's that we stopped at for lunch. Too silly and cute not to include.

Well, even though we made it to Chicago, Aurora to be exact, I was totally exhausted on Monday evening as I sat in the living room with Matthew and Christy. I also didn't sleep very well that night because of various things waking me up and then Aedan was up making noise at 5:40. I told him to go back to sleep, but it was pretty bright in the room he was sleeping in. He got quiet, so hopefully he actually fell back asleep. Samantha's bedroom only had blinds covering the windows, so it was also pretty bright in her room that morning. I put a clock in her room so she would know not to get up before 7:00, but she started talking as soon as the clock turned 7:00, so you could tell she had been up for awhile just waiting for the clock to change. Needless to say, the kids were tired that morning and weren't exactly in the best of moods.

Christy and I wanted to take the kids to the Brookfield Zoo and Tuesday was the only day without a chance for rain, so we planned to spend the day at the zoo. Samantha and Aedan were up at 7:00 that morning, but we didn't get out of the house for awhile because Christy had a Comcast guy at the house connecting their internet and TV. He showed up at 7:40, which was nice, but we obviously had to be around while he was working. It's difficult to get showered with three kids around, and I felt bad leaving Christy in charge of all three kids, but I was able to sneak a quick shower in which helped me to feel more alive. Then, I had to switch the car seats over to Christy's car so that we could all ride together, and that always takes much longer then you'd think. I think that's one of the hardest things about being alone with the kids because I have to do everything by myself. I don't realize how much I rely on Ben's help until I have to do it all on my own. We eventually got out the door and arrived at the zoo a little after 11:00. It was a warm, sunny day, and after stopping for a potty break and getting tickets for the dolphin show later in the afternoon, we started walking around the zoo. 

We didn't see too many animals in the first exhibits we visited because they must have been inside or off resting in the shade. As it was getting close to noon, Samantha and Aedan were starting to lose it. They weren't listening anymore. Aedan didn't want to ride in the stroller, but he also wouldn't stay with us as we walked. In fact, he actually ran away from me one time, which caused him to get a time out right by the giraffe exhibit. Then, the kids were trying to look through these binoculars that gave you a view like you were a giraffe. Aedan wanted a turn, but Samantha wouldn't move out of the way for him, pushing him and causing him to scream. So then I gave her a time out. It was at this point, when both my kids were crying and melting down, and Christy and Brielle were just waiting for me to deal with their misbehavior, that I wondered why I even thought it was a good idea to bring them to the zoo. Samantha and Aedan were just so tired, and going out for the day, right after we were just in the car all day the day before and didn't get enough sleep the night before, probably was not the best idea. I was tired of dealing with them whining, crying, and fighting, so it was not the greatest day so far.

After the time outs, I decided it was time for us to stop to eat lunch. Christy was nice enough to pack a lunch for us, and we found a picnic table to eat at. However, something I should have realized ahead of time, the bees really liked the picnic area and especially liked our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yogurt. It was difficult to keep the bees away, and Samantha overreacts terribly to bees flying around her. Instead of just eating her food, she was too worried about the bees flying around her. Eventually I had her just get up and eat so that she could walk away from any bee flying near her. However, at one point a bee landed on the lid to Samantha's yogurt, and she just freaked out crying and dropped her yogurt, causing it to spill all over the ground. At this point, I took her over to a picnic table off to the side so she could have a time out and just calm herself. I was pretty frustrated with her behavior because I felt like she was causing our day to be no fun. I wasn't able to really talk with Christy much because I feel like all I was doing was monitoring the kids' behavior. I was exhausted already, and it was only noon.

Once we were finished with our lunch, we let the kids play on the playground and then went to look at the bears before going into the large monkey house. Samantha and Aedan did much better after lunch, so maybe they were just hungry and that was part of the reason for their crankiness. Even though they had a snack right when we got to the zoo, sometimes I forget that hunger can cause so many problems. We had a good rest of the afternoon seeing all the monkeys and walking around the zoo a little more until it was time to see the dolphin show at 2:30.

The kids were all pretty excited about the dolphin show. We used to go to the dolphin show at the Indianapolis Zoo all the time, but it's been a couple years since we've been to that zoo, and Aedan had never seen a dolphin show before. It was a little difficult trying to keep Aedan in one place during the show, but everyone thought it was pretty cool to see the  dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water. Here's a great picture of my sister and I with all the kids. What a great picture of everyone!

Aedan was very tired and fell asleep before we even left the parking lot of the zoo. Samantha was tired, too, but she was distracted by the movie on Brielle's DVD player and didn't fall asleep until we were like five minutes from the house. It was okay though because we planned on having an early bedtime that night. When we got back to the house, the kids played for a little while before dinner. Here's a cute picture of Brielle and Aedan playing with play-doh together.

Christy made tacos for dinner which the kids ate well, then it was time for all the kids to take a bath. It was kind of funny having all the cousins in the bathtub together. They had fun splashing around playing with toys together. After bath time, I got the kids ready for bed, we were able to Face Time with Daddy, and then the kids got to bed early. I was hoping for a better night's sleep that night and more well-rested kids the next day.

On Wednesday morning Samantha again was making noise right at 7:00. Everyone else in the house was still asleep, so I had her color quietly in her room for awhile so she wouldn't wake everyone up. Once Aedan got up, I let her come downstairs, and then the kids and I played together until Christy and Brielle got up. The kids really liked the cats, especially this one you can see in the picture, whom Samantha affectionately called Coley-cat.

Wednesday was a pretty low-key day. It was rainy most of the morning, and Christy was watching Ava, so we just hung around the house, played, had waffles for breakfast, and eventually played outside once the weather cleared up. I had Samantha take a nap that afternoon as well as Aedan because I knew it would be a later night with family coming over to hang out. I stayed in the room with Samantha and laid on the floor until she fell asleep. It took awhile for her to calm down, but she gave up eventually, and I was glad. We had a few moments that morning that she was very emotional and was pushing my buttons. I was grateful for a few moments of peace and quiet while the kids slept.

On Wednesday evening Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt came over for dinner and to spend some time with us. Christy made a good pasta dish for dinner, the kids played outside in the backyard, and then we out for ice cream at Oberweis. The kids all enjoyed their birthday cake ice cream and played with the chess pieces when they were finished.

The kids got to bed a little later on Wednesday night since we went out for ice cream, but they were in pretty good moods on Thursday morning. We planned to go to the DuPage Children's Museum since we all could get in on Christy's pass. I hoped that we could all stay together so that Christy and I could talk to each other more while the kids played. But you know how kids are, all three of them were off in different directions and sometimes I didn't even know where Christy and Brielle were. Nevertheless, the kids had a lot of fun playing with and exploring all the different hands-on exhibits. This is definitely a fun museum to spend a couple hours playing. Here are some pictures from our day at the museum.

We bought lunch at the museum so that way we didn't have to worry about bringing food with us. Then, we spent a little more time in the upstairs of the museum. The kids were getting tired, so a little after 1:00 we decided to head back to the house. Samantha went to the bathroom right before we left, and we headed out the door. However, as soon as we left the building, she started whining about needing to go to the bathroom again. I was not about to take her back in to go to the bathroom when she just went. Plus, we only had to drive fifteen minutes to be back at the house, and I knew she could hold it until then. I held my ground, but it was difficult because Samantha continued to whine and cry and carry on, all the way down the block and half to the car and most of the way back to the house. It was taking all my energy to keep calm and not get angry. I knew Samantha was tired and was overreacting. I knew she would not pee her pants and could hold it. I tried my best to ignore her, and after awhile of not getting attention from me in the car, she actually stopped whining and just sat calmly. Once we got back to the house, it was nap time for all the kids and this time I didn't stay in the room with Samantha because it didn't seem to help the previous day. All was quiet, and she slept a little over an hour, which is pretty good for her. Aedan slept past 5:00, and I actually had to wake him up. He was definitely a tired little boy.

Thursday evening we had more family coming over. Grandma and Don, Grandpa and Grandma, and Uncle Matt. We decided to just order deep dish pizza that night so Christy wouldn't have to make dinner for everyone. We got Lou Malnati's, which is my favorite kind, and it made me happy to have deep dish pizza again. Samantha and Aedan were in really good moods on Thursday evening, finally acting like themselves after getting caught up on sleep. It was nice for my family to be able to see who they really are, not the tired overly emotional kids they were before. The kids all had a really fun time playing outside in the backyard, climbing on the play set, digging in the sandbox, coloring and playing games with chalk, and enjoying the attention of various family members. It was a really nice evening, and a good way to spend our last night in Chicago.

Samantha really enjoyed Grandpa Don. He is so good with kids, and she just soaked up his one-on-one attention. He actually got down on the ground and colored with chalk with her and also challenged her to a few games of tic-tac-toe.

At one point Samantha pretended to be a kitty and crawled around in the grass. Aedan joined in, as he usually does, and followed her across the grass. Well, Brielle decided she had to get in on the action as well, so she crawled behind Aedan. It was so adorable to watch the younger kids following behind Samantha, copying her every move. You don't realize how much younger siblings look up to older siblings until you observe your own children interacting with each other.

Even though it was getting close to 8:00 and the kids should have been getting ready for bed, everyone was having so much fun that I let it continue for awhile. It was fun to see Samantha and Aedan interacting with and forming bonds with my family. Even though it was a crazy trip coming here by myself and dealing with cranky kids for the first half of it, I'm glad we came and spent this time with everyone.

I tried to be as ready as I could on Friday so we could get on the road, especially with losing an hour, but we didn't head out as early as I would have liked. However, our drive went pretty well. The kids really did great for being stuck in the car most of the day. We stopped once mid-morning for a potty break, stopped at a McDonald's for lunch and time to play, and then stopped at a rest area for another potty break after nap time. We went through some traffic getting around Grand Rapids, so I told the kids to wait until after we got through  the traffic to fall asleep so they wouldn't get woken up by the stop and go of the car. I put a book on CD for Samantha to listen to while in the traffic, but Aedan ended up falling asleep anyways. Unlike on our way down, Samantha actually let herself fall asleep and slept for almost an hour. Then, she just sat quietly while Aedan continued to sleep for another hour. Here are my cute kiddos fast asleep in the back of the car.

The last hour or so everyone was getting antsy to get home and see Daddy. Even though we would get home close to 8:00 Michigan time, I decided it would be better to just push through and eat a late dinner at home all together. Many people thought I was crazy to take a trip like this on by myself, and maybe I was, but I would say it was a successful trip to Chicago and a successful trip as the first time with just the kids and me.

It was so good to be back home with everyone back in their own beds. Ben even let me sleep until after 9:00 on Saturday morning. The rest of the weekend we just spent playing at home and relaxing together. It was nice not to have anything on the agenda. Plus, it was another rainy weekend which gave us another reason to stay inside.

On Sunday night after dinner we decided to take a bike ride to Dairy Queen to get ice cream as an early celebration for Ben's first day of teaching. His new schedule has him teaching an evening class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-8, so we wouldn't be able to go on his real first day of school, as is tradition in his family. Samantha was excited to ride her bike again, especially now that we fixed her handlebars so she wasn't falling off her bike as much. I pulled Aedan in the bike carrier, and Ben helped Samantha by riding behind her. It was a fun little outing, and even though it was a little cooler than the last time we went to get ice cream, we all got very messy eating our melting ice cream cones. But that's half the fun of it!

It still is strange to me that school doesn't start until after Labor Day in Michigan due to tourism, so even though Ben started his semester on Monday, August 29, Samantha doesn't start kindergarten for another week, on Tuesday, September 6. It was nice to have a week to kind of ease back into the routine of school, plus it was nice having another week with my little girl before she goes to school full time. We stayed around the house on Monday because I had to mow the lawn. The kids did a great job playing outside together, looking at slugs in the grass, and moving rocks from one place to another with Ben's play tractor from when he was a kid. It's fun to see what they come up with to play when left to their own devices. They were both getting along really well that morning, and I enjoyed watching them interact. The one thing I know for sure is that there will be two people at home sorely missing Samantha's presence come next Tuesday, but I have a feeling Aedan will be missing his Sissy more that we could ever know. When she is around, he wants to spend every moment with her, copies everything she does, and looks up to her in every way. I'm so glad they've had this summer to spend so much time together.

(Blog about August 23-29, 2016)

Our Last Week Before Ben Started Back to Work

Samantha: 63 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 27 Months, Week 3

Samantha continued on with her camp at her school this week, so Aedan and I had more time to hang out just the two of us. Aedan kept going in Samantha's room to get toys from her room to play with. I think he missed having her around to play with.

For awhile now I have wanted to get a picture/video of Aedan with his pacifier before nap time, so I made sure to bring my phone in the room with me on Tuesday afternoon as I put him down for his nap. In this picture you can see Aedan's sleepy, squinty eyes. He wears a sleep sack, which we call a wrap, hearkening back to his newborn days when we would wrap him up in a swaddle blanket. He loves his paci, but he only gets to have it at nap time and bed time. Because of that, he is often very excited to go to sleep so he can have his paci. Aedan thought it was funny that I was trying to take a picture of him laying on my lap with his paci.

Then, I had Aedan rub his paci like he does when he's falling asleep. I will turn off the light, hold him in my arms, and rock him until he falls asleep. As I rock him he switches back and forth between his hands, but always rubs it the same way, with his index finger under the paci and his middle finger rubbing the outside of the paci, back and forth, back and forth. It must be a soothing motion to him since he usually does it until his eyes droop shut.

This is what my little buddy looks like fast asleep on my lap. His little hands fall limp just under his chin, and he is heavy in my arms. I love rocking him to sleep at nap time, and I will do it as long as I can. I know he will eventually grow out of this or stop falling asleep with me. I know that any day could be my last day of rocking him to sleep, so I will take advantage of it while I can. I enjoy this special time to snuggle with my little boy who is usually too busy during the day to snuggle for very long. Man, he's such a cutie.

It's a little bit difficult for me to write much about this week because I am writing this blog post over a week later, and to be honest with you, I don't really remember many details about the week. I guess that is a good thing in some ways because it means that nothing bad happened either. It was just a normal week with Ben working on campus and Samantha going to school in the mornings. On Wednesday morning, just as I was trying to decide what to do with Aedan, I got a message from a local mom saying they were going to get together to exercise at the playground, so I decided that would be a fun thing to do with the morning. Aedan was pretty excited to play while I exercised, especially because the Sayer girls were there, and they did a really good job of including them in their play. He probably saw them as his replacement sisters. It was good to exercise and also to get to talk to two other moms. It's nice to begin forming relationships with people in our new town.

After we got back home that morning, I captured this video of Aedan singing and dancing around on the couch in the living room. He loves music, and he loves to sing. This little book of hymns was Aedan's favorite book for awhile, so he knows a lot of the songs by heart.

Thursday was Samantha's last day at her camp at school, and it was family day, so Ben decided to work from home in the morning so that we could all go to family day together at 10:30.  While Daddy worked downstairs in the office, I got some laundry and picking up done around the house while Aedan played. We did play-doh together, and then he requested to paint, so I got all the paint supplies set up for him. He was so excited that it was hard for him to be patient, and it took him while to remember that he had to rub off the excess paint before lifting out his paint brush and dripping all over the floor, but he was really enjoying painting and even asked me to paint with him as well. It's kind of fun to see what things Aedan enjoys doing when at home by himself, and it will be great to spend more time one-on-one with him once Samantha starts kindergarten full time in a few weeks.

We were all looking forward to seeing Samantha and her school on family day. Once we arrived at her school, we headed to the cafeteria to join Samantha for lunch. She was already sitting at the table eating her lunch and was very excited to see us. Aedan was especially excited to be able to go in Samantha's school for an extended period of time. Everyone was welcome to help themselves to lunch, so we went through the line to get our hot dogs, watermelon, carrots, and cookie for dessert. Aedan couldn't wait to eat his watermelon and chocolate chip cookie. We all sat down at a lunch table to eat together, and Samantha pointed out a few teachers that she knew as well. Once we were all done eating lunch, we had Samantha show us the classroom she was in for her camp and then we went outside to play and do activities. However, on the way out Samantha was not paying attention to where she was going and a door hit her in the head. From then on, she was just in a weird mood, acting very tired and spacey. Both kids woke up way too early that day and were ready for naps when it wasn't even noon yet. We stayed for a little while playing on the playground and doing different activities the teachers had set up before heading home. Here are some projects that Samantha made at school during her weeks there.

I mentioned this a lot in my last blog post, but we have continued to have issues with Samantha's behavior, with not sleeping enough and being tired all the time, as well as her issues with going to the bathroom more than normal. She just wakes up so early sometimes and is still tired but doesn't go back to sleep. We tell her that if it still says 6 on her clock, she needs to try to go back to sleep, but that if it's after 7, then she can get up. However, she doesn't really know what the difference is between 6:06 and 6:56, so sometimes I think she just stays up waiting for the clock to turn to 7. I have heard from different parents that have tried a special alarm clock that looks like this:

I thought that maybe a clock like this, rather than her regular clock, would encourage her to go back to sleep when it was not time to get up. Plus, we can change the time the light switches if we want her to stay in bed longer on some days. The time part of this clock is very small down in the corner, and she wouldn't be able to see it much from her bed. So instead of looking at a number, it would be the picture of the bunny either sleeping or awake. I thought it might help to try something to help encourage her to sleep more, waking up when she's well-rested, not just waiting for the clock to turn 7. Hopefully that will help her get more sleep, especially with being in kindergarten all day. Ben and I decided to order it because we figured it was worth a try, and we could always return it if it didn't make any difference.

On Thursday afternoon we got both kids down for naps, and since Ben was home for the day, I left to get my fingerprints done for my criminal history background check so that I can substitute teach. Then, I got an oil change in preparation for our trip to Chicago next week. Fun things, errands and tasks seem to never end sometimes.

Since Friday was our last day together before Ben and Samantha start school, we wanted to go do something fun for the day. However, the weather did not cooperate and it was too rainy to go and do anything outside for the day like going to Mackinac Island. Instead, we decided to make a visit to the library to check out books and movies for our long trip to Chicago and then go mini-golfing with all four of us this time.

That morning while playing around the house, Samantha decided to put on a dress, and Aedan wanted to follow suit. Samantha picked out a dress from her closet that was just his size, and Ben was able to take this great picture of the two of them in their dresses. I'm sure Aedan will really appreciate this picture in years to come. :)

Just for kicks, I want to include this picture of Samantha two years ago to the day of the above picture. I took this picture when I dropped Samantha off at preschool for her first day. I know two years is a long time, but I am so amazed at the difference between these two pictures. Samantha just looks so much older now, so much taller. Her hair is darker and has less of the baby curls in it. However, she still has the same sweet smile, just on a bigger body. My how time flies, now this little girl is getting ready to go off to her first day of kindergarten soon.

Ben took Samantha mini-golfing a few weeks back, but we have never taken Aedan. However, we figured it would be fun to try it even though we knew it would be crazy with him running around. Ben tried to show Aedan how to hold the golf club right, but Aedan preferred to hold it pointy side down and hit it more like he was hitting a hockey puck with a hockey stick. Nevertheless, he really enjoyed the experience, running around on the greens, and sometimes just picking up the ball and dropping it in the hole rather than hitting it with his golf club. Here are some pictures and videos from our mini-golf outing.

Samantha is actually pretty good at hitting her ball in the hole when she is paying attention to what she's doing. The kids favorite hole was the one where it had several levels where you'd hit the ball into different holes and it would come out in different places on the next level. We let them do this hole over and over again a few times before moving on.

On Friday night, while Ben was playing with the kids, I decided to give Roscoe a bath. I hadn't given him one in quite awhile, and he really needed one. Now, this dog is an old, old dog. We rescued him when he was about 5 (that was their best guess anyways), and we've had him for 9 years now, so he's about 14 years old now. He was pretty active when we first got him, for he would play fetch, go on long walks with us, and run around the house. Now, however, he pretty much sleeps most of the day, really just waking up to go outside to go to the bathroom and to eat his dinner. The eye drops we got for him at the vet seem to be helping his eyes a lot more, which is good. Anyways, Roscoe has never been a big fan of the bathtub and doesn't like getting water in his face. As soon as he gets wet he starts to shiver. Well, on this evening, it was almost like the bath was soothing to him. He didn't try to snap at me as I cleaned his eyes, and towards the end of his bath as I was rinsing him off, he just laid down right in the bath. It seemed like he enjoyed the warm bath water pooling around his body, and he actually just laid his head down and fell asleep. I couldn't believe it. I have never seen him do anything like this before because he is usually just itching to get out of the bathtub. It was so funny that I called Ben and the kids up to see him sleeping in the bathtub. Ben took this picture of him. For all the times that Roscoe has been annoying, especially with his snapping and wariness of strangers, it's sad to see him aging, and I will definitely miss him when he eventually passes away.

Ben and I were really hoping to do some fun family things over this weekend, but the weather did not cooperate, and it rained quite a bit, especially in the afternoons and evening. However, Saturday morning was dry enough for a while that we decided to go over the bridge to Canada to walk on the boardwalk along the river. On the American side of the river, you don't have much access to the waterfront due to the locks, so it was kind of fun to see the view of the same thing from the other side. Samantha thought it was pretty interesting to see the tall tower and the park that we usually play in. When we first started walking, Samantha saw these statues of bears fishing, and she of course wanted to go over to them and have her picture taken with them. Aedan is next to her as well, but it's hard to see him in the pictures.

Here is the view from the boardwalk across to the other side of the river.

And here is a view of the International Bridge.

After walking for awhile and not finding the playground that we thought existed, we decided to head back to our car to run our errands. We stopped at Home Depot to look at faux wood blinds for our bedroom downstairs. Right now we just have light curtains covering the windows, which works fine for right now, but in the winter when we turn the heaters on, we can't have the curtains hanging in front of the heaters. I was thinking we were just going to look at them and compare prices, but we actually ended up purchasing some. It's nice buying things in Canada because we get a little discount because of the difference between the American dollar and the Canadian dollar. After Home Depot, we went to Once Upon a Child to look for pants for Samantha for school. Most of her pants from last year have seen better days, are just too small for her, or are too thin (like leggings) for the kind of weather we will have up here in the winter. Samantha was very cooperative for me and tried on many pairs of pants so that we could make sure they fit her before buying them. We found quite a few, so I think she is pretty well set for right now. Many of the shirts from last year still fit her, and she has one good pair of tennis shoes and one junkier pair. I think we just need to get her one more pair of tennis shoes, as well as some rain boots (and eventually snow boots) and she will be all set. I'm so glad that they have a Once Upon a Child nearby because it's wonderful not to have to pay full price for clothes. Anyways, after our shopping trip we stopped at Tim Horton's for coffee (for the adults) and donuts, before heading back over the bridge to go home. It was a successful trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Sunday was our day to get ready for our trip to Chicago. We went to church in the morning, and then I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and packing for our trip. It might have been a little crazy that I decided to take the kids to Chicago on my own, but I figured it was worth a try. Ben was going to be very busy during the week with meetings and professional development and training, so he obviously could not come with us. Samantha still had two weeks until school started for her, and we will not be able to get down to Chicago again until Christmastime, so I figured it would be a good idea to try and make the trip. Samantha was doing much better with not going to the bathroom all the time, and I thought we could to it as long as I was prepared with toys, books, snacks, and movies to watch. I tried to get the car as packed and ready as I could that night so that in the morning we could try to be on the road by 8:30.

Monday morning came quickly, but we did a pretty good job of getting up, ready, and out the door. We were on the road by 8:40 which is pretty good for me getting everything ready on my own since Ben left to go to campus at 7:20 for breakfast and orientation. I planned our trip ahead of time, making a list of all the rest areas along our route so that way if Samantha needed to go I would know how far to the next rest area. I also found a McDonald's with a play place along our route, about halfway through our trip, and planned to stop there with the kids for lunch. It's nice to let them eat and then play for a little while before having to get back into their car seats.

We made it almost two hours before stopping at a rest area to take a bathroom break, and it was going well in the car. Samantha did a great job of helping Aedan reach things to play with, and she enjoyed using her Twistables that I got her specially for this trip. Once we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge, I put on a show for them on our portable DVD player, and all was well. Then, about two hours later we stopped for lunch, which was good because Aedan was getting antsy in his car seat and was getting tired. (Both kids woke up earlier that morning than usual, probably out of excitement.) The afternoon was a little rougher because even though Samantha was tired, she did not nap in the car. Aedan slept for about an hour and a half, which is pretty good for him in the car, but Samantha just wiggled around in her car seat the whole time even though I tried my hardest to convince her to close her eyes and let herself sleep in order to help the time pass faster. Once Aedan woke up, I found a Dunkin' Donuts to stop at so we could go to the bathroom and get a little snack (and coffee) for the rest of the trip. The traffic in Chicago was about normal for dinnertime, but we didn't get stopped or anything, it just took longer because of stop lights and slower traffic at times. We finally arrived at Aunt Christy's and Uncle Matthew's house at 7:24 Michigan time, 6:24 Chicago time. Phew! It was a long day in the car, but overall the kids did well for being in the car all day. They were excited to get out, see Brielle, and play in her new backyard and her new house.

Since we got there later than I had hoped, we ate dinner later, like after 7:00, and then we still had to get the kids beds set up and the kids didn't get into bed until around 8:10 Chicago time, which was 9:10 our time. Samantha and Aedan were very tired after a long day, and I just hoped that they would sleep well enough in a new place that we could have a good day the next day. More to come about the rest of our visit in Chicago on the next blog post.

(Blog about August 16-22, 2016)