The trip & trees

I thought I'd share a picture of how packing for Chicago went......

I'd get the suitcase started (1/2 full or so), remember something that needed to go in, run and get it, come back and this is what I found......it only took me 2 or 3 times to remember to zip the suitcase!

We survived the trip to Chicago...or should I say Jenna survived. She's just not much of a car kid. On the way down I ended up sitting in backseat for a bit, and on the way home Bruce sat in the back with the kids for about 3 hours. This allowed for a peaceful ride since Jenna seemed a little more content, and was willing to sleep. Andrew did great in car (like always). He picked out 2 new movies for the ride down, and was content watching Clifford and Bob the Builder.

We all enjoyed seeing Camille, Theo & Callie. Jenna seemed particularly found of Carlos the cat, and Lizzy the dog. Both of them did great with Jenna too. The kids loved Callie, and it seemed like Callie enjoyed watching all the extra activity that comes with having visitors. Andrew seemed to have a knack for getting Callie to laugh, which was really cute and Jenna loved to give Callie kisses, and sit in her bouncy seat.

We went to a small zoo, which Andrew enjoyed. He liked trying to feed the goats straw, although as you can see from the picture Jenna did not like the goat sticking his head through the fence to get a closer look at the kids. (crying ensued).Camille, Theo & Callie have a really cool water park type thing close to them, which Andrew loved, and Jenna was interested in, but I think the water was a little chilly for her liking. We don't have a park like this by us, but I wish we did. It was perfect for younger kids (great find Camille!). We finished off the evening with a wonderful meal prepared by Theo, and a bonfire.....you couldn't have asked for a better weekend :) Thanks guys!

When we got home on Sunday we were able to see the trees that were planted after we left on Friday. Thanks to the neighbors, they were all freshly water, and looking good. We had 7 tress planted, and they look really nice, it definitely adds to the house. We had one added next to the sand box/swing set that we're hoping will give the kids some shade to play in. The amazing part was that they only nicked 1 signal line for the sprinklers thanks to all the planning that Bruce did.

Well that's it for this past weekend. Bruce and I will be spending this week getting ready for the lake. We leave on Saturday for a week. We are looking forward to a week of hanging out at a lake with the kids. I'm sure we are all going to have a blast.