On the road... again...

As this swirl of emotion was going on, we started driving again.  My father-in-law was headed to MI anyways, so he drove the first 4 hours, then I drove another 2 hours to visit my friend Jenn and her family for dinner.  No pictures, unfortunately I couldn't find my camera in the big repacking...  we changed into pajamas and drove another 2 hours to Chicago where we'd spend the weekend with my college friends.

I still hadn't found my camera, but we went on to spend the day at Shedd Aquarium. It is HUGE and amazing.  The kids' favorite part was a special exhibit on jellyfish.  Who knew there were so many kinds? Henri's favorites were ones that are upside down and algae grows on their tenticles.  He even turned himself upside down to show off to them. Valerie loved watching the dolphin come right in front of her in the tank.

On our way to Shedd, we stopped off at a motorcycle themed cafe for breakfast.  The boys loved the theme, including the sign to the bathrooms, my lovely 1st grader can read "mom, what does 'piss this way' mean?"  the boys charmed a couple next to us who had 3 kids between the two of them and they were on the last few days of a week without the kids. Henri ate off her plate and sat on her lap, Carter talked her into a backrub.

The kids and I met Kari's boyfriend who entertained them with his dog and balloon animals. 

We then moved over to Melissa's so I could see the home they bought gutted and brought up to a beautiful living space.  We picked up Paul at the airport and headed to the Kohl's children's museum. Luckily, Melissa did have her  camera. 

Then we headed to Dairy Queen

Then Paul promptly passed out after being up all night previously franticly unpacking boxes so I wouldn't have to come home to a packed up house...

The next morning, we headed off to our friends near Minneapolis...

My ex-husband and Drew worked together in the military and Andrea and I are scrapbooking addicts.
Paul enjoyed hanging out in the garage with the guys and wondered, "how come we don't have neighbors like that?"

We trashed their playroom...

The girls hung out...

We had hot dogs... 

We tried to take a picture with 5 children...

Drew tried to trade Valerie for his two kids...

Then we cleaned up...

That concluded the visiting portion of our trip.