yesterday, we saddled up ole samson and hit the road to head back west. chicago, as usual, was a whirlwind of spending time with family and friends. bryant and uncle carlos were bob villa trainees as they worked on grandma alice's kitchen floors and continued to renovate her kitchen. i took the kids into chicago to stay at my aunt's house. we did four museums in two days (what were we thinking!), enjoyed chicago style pizza and tried to bbq in the rain (auntie 'layah has skills). then the kids and i spent a couple of days in west suburbs with a college friend and her kiddies (chasing large wooden insects and having a water balloon fight). next it was up to gurnee, il (close to wisconsin border) where we hung out with aa and ac (yes, in the nfl you are stuck with nicknames for life). then back to matteson, where we hung out with more family and friends (and forced ourselves on the alamins--hee hee) before deciding that it was time to go.
here are some pics of our stay in chi-town:
at the field museum and shedd's aquarium...
this is what the kids said kenny looks like when she wakes up...
the kids recapping with auntie 'layah their favorite part of the museums...
hanging out with maureen and her kiddies. they made us these cool welcome signs--note the portraits of our kiddies...watch out picasso!
we went to mortons arboretum where they make giant insects out of wood and then have a scavenger hunt for the kids.
WATER FIGHT!!!!!!!!!
God has blessed me with some truly amazing friends---including this one who is stronger than she thinks and has a heart of gold (love ya, mo---you are beautiful!!!!!!!!!!)...
then we went up north to hang with anthony and adenika and anthony III. so i would show you pics of them, but then i went downstairs in their house (aka "the man cave") and saw this....
yes, it's a URINAL--the only place to answer the call of nature in the man cave. bryant, of course, thought anthony was da' man and was ready to move next door. personally, i chalk it up to adenika being a true proverbs 31 woman to allow her husband 2,000 sq. ft. of "man space"---either way-it was way more impressive than showing you pics of cute anthony III (who a.c. refused to let me take with me--something about me having too many kids already).
then we trekked back south to hang with more family and friends. kai and tikayla bonded over bead making. which, of course, cost me a trip to michael's to buy beads and string for the rv...
colby has been wanting to go to a professional baseball game since playing t-ball this spring. bryant came through with four tickets to the cubs/giants game. (no loyalty to san francisco though---colby, tyer and tarik came back decked out in cubs gear) so now i have to say how impressed i am with bryant's photography skills since the girls stayed home. i gave him the (gasp) camera and asked him to take pictures. i think he has an inner scrapper who is waiting to come out (watch out tim holtz!)...
thanks to pam and tarik who let us crash at their house (and use their washer and dryer---yes, we are starting to plan our visits around laundry loads). and we can't forget auntie cindy!
kenny and i had our toes "did" with uncle tim....
then it was time to say good-bye to cousin nyiah, uncle carlos and grandma alice...
we did have a couple of learning experiences in chicago...
1. if you allow your child to eat unlimited free popcorn and skittles while waiting at the car wash for all the bugs to be taken off your car and then give him starbursts to keep him from screaming while you just run into home depot (btw, can you ever really just "run into" places like home depot and target????) and then take him over to your friends house where you let him suck down several capri suns before jumping on a trampoline, there is a HIGH probability that when you take him to olive garden after all of that he will throw up all over you and your new cute sweater.
2. mosquitoes bite...a lot...and it itches.
3. bryant seriously needs to be on "punked"...for the full story you gotta ask him, blogging it would not do it justice.
4. brian young is not the same as bryant young---as owners at a campsite found out when they politely tried to figure out how we got such a nice rig. for more details, see here (what amazes me is that they actually told him they tried to google him---thanks for stating the obvious).
5. the little rascals series is SO politically incorrect...and funny.
6. it's true....old playground equipment find their final resting spots among campsites around the country..isn't this the old cheeseburgers from mcdonald's....
so with sadness, we are making our way back to cali where we will stay home for a couple of weeks before heading out again....
(written from ogalalla, nebraska...)