Road Trip; Part 1 with the boys

3500 miles
9 States
3 hotels
3 family homes
26 restaurant meals
3 swimming pools
1 lake cabin
2 awesome weeks of family and God sightings!

The girls and I got home from our two week road trip this afternoon. I decided to sit down while the laundry was tumbling and started looking at pictures. We had an AWESOME vacation! I've divided this update into two posts...the first with the boys and the second without. Mid-trip, Scott decided to go home to rest, and Eliot was invited to spend some time with his cousins in Minnesota... but let's start at the beginning with.... CHICAGO!

We had so much fun in Chicago. We had only visited in the winter, never in the summer, and the weather was just gorgeous! We planned to go to Chicago because Adrienne bought tickets for the Dave Matthews Band Caravan and I wasn't comfortable with her going to Chicago by herself. You can read all about Adrienne's experience here. We ended up taking two cars to Chicago because Scott had to work until noon on Friday and Adrienne wanted to hear one of the bands at 3pm. So, at 5:30am I loaded up the kids and we were off! We managed to find the drop-off site for the concert in SOUTH Chicago. I wasn't really sure if I should have let her out of the car or not, but as a group of college kids came by, I shooed her out of the car and drove away PRAYING that she would be safe and that we would find our downtown hotel. (She was and we did.) I really loved our hotel, Best Western River North. The hotel was in a very convenient location, our room was huge and quiet, and we had free internet and parking! Plus, we had a beautiful swimming pool and rooftop deck that we used more than once every day we were there.

The kids and I found lots of fun things to do. We shopped, and walked, and went to Navy Pier, and ate, and swam, and took a water taxi to the Planetarium. Scott was in a lot of pain from his Chron's disease and his leg. Before we left Lincoln, the doctors discovered a cyst in his hip and we were waiting for some results. He was also fighting fatigue from his anemia. So, he stayed in the hotel until it was time to get Adrienne to the concert site. Then he faithfully drove her and picked her up, staying on the phone with her while she received a police escort to the car... did I mention I was PRAYING for them each night? We did manage to find a perfect restaurant on our anniversary that was around the corner from our hotel and served some food that Scott could eat.

We got word while we were in Chicago that the cyst in Scott's hip encompasses 60% of the bone. We decided that Scott would go home and try to see the specialist, and I would continue on as planned with the kids. Scott won't see the specialist until July 27th, but it was good for him to have some time alone to rest and regroup from a stressful year at school.

After we left Scott, (and Elise's suitcase), Adrienne, Eliot, Elise and I drove through the lush, green land of Wisconsin to Woodbury, MN to spend the night with Scott's sister, Annette, and her family. We had a great time at my nephew's baseball game and just hanging out that night. The next morning we headed to the Mall of America to spend the day with my mom.

After a day of shopping and rides, we drove 2 hours west of the Twin Cities to our beloved cabin, where my dad and his wife met us with supper, and a fishing pole for Elise :)

We were able to get a little swimming in before the rain came... then it rained, and rained, and rained...for a couple of days....

So, we moved over to dad's house. We did puzzles and laundry, went out to eat, and Adrienne and Eliot and I got to go shopping at the outlets while Elise stayed and played with grandma and grandpa- that was a wonderful treat! We also celebrated Eliot's and my brother John's birthday with Uncle Loren and Aunt Betty.

Our visit went by fast. It was soon time for the girls and I to head to Montana to visit my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Lynn, while Eliot went back to Woodbury to spend a couple of weeks with his cousins. I'm not going to lie... we were really looking forward to girl time!