We tried to go home.

We had a very long trip home. We went to the airport on Sunday morning to try and catch the 8:45 am flight but when we got there we were informed that it was oversold. Not a good thing to hear when you are on a standby ticket!!!!! We waited for that flight to fill up and sat and watched it fly away. We proceeded on to the next flight but had the same luck. We eventually were told that we should give up and come back at 8:30 pm and see if we had any better luck. The good news is that we got to spend an extra day with everyone. We went over to Kari and Craigs house for a BBQ with everyone so that was alot of fun. The bad news is that we went back in the evening and again watched all of the flights fly away without us on them. Peggy and Haley came back at about 12:30 am and picked us up and we went and got a few hours of sleep and headed back to the airport at 5:30 am. Once again we watched the plane take off without us. We finally gave up at about 10:30am and jumped on a flight to Portland. We figured we would atleast be within driving distance at that point. We finally arrived in Portland to find out that the flights to Sea Tac were also full from there so we eventually gave up and rented a car and drove to Sea Tac on our own. It took us about 3 hours to get to our suitcases but the good news is that they had made the original flight on Sunday morning so they were sitting there waiting for us. Yeah!!!!! We actually kind of had a fun time watching all of the flight leave without us and it made for quit the adventure. Every time the gates would close I would either laugh or cry and every time both Megan and Alex would look at me and say "it's not funny." What do you do though? That is the risk you take with standby. We had a great time on our trip and I would sit at the airport that long again if it meant that I got to go back sooner. I just love seeing everyone and spending time with all of the family.
Thank you so much for having us for so long and for making our trip so fun!!!!!!!!!

We finally got onto a plane. We are headed to Portland. It's not Seattle but it is close enough at this point!!!!!
Smiles of happiness and some tears of sadness. We were so excited to be on a plane and on our way home to see Mike and our friends but we were sad at the same time for leaving the rest of our family behind. In a perfect world we would all be in the same place but we know that isn't how it works!!!!!!!! We will be back soon for another visit. Watch here for updates.....

Saturday in Naperville

We had a great day on Saturday. We just stayed at Peggy's house all day and everyone came over to visit. We always have so much to talk about and so many things to make us laugh. It is so much fun to get to spend time with everyone it brings back the memories of all of us growing up together.
Haley, Megan and Rylee. They had a great day together.

Tami and Rylee. Aren't they both so cute......
I got all of the kids to stay in one place for thirty seconds. It is Noah, Alex, Megan, Maleah, Cameron, Carter, Haley, and Rena.
Kari was mad at Craig. The poor guy always gets the blame and he is always so nice about it. He is a lot of fun to hang out with. He has such a great sense of humor.
Alex, Haley, Megan, Tami and Carter.
I think that Megan might have taken this. We are missing Gimi so Craig had to sit in for her in the picture. To bad she couldn't have made the trip also. Poor Craig was the only grown man in house all day. I think he was totally out numbered.

This is Tami, Stefanie, Peggy, Stacy, Kari, and Craig.

Kari and Craig bought a new car on their way over to the house. It is a Honda Pilot and it is so nice inside. They ran out of room in the explorer they had with the new baby.
Haley and Maleah
Kari and Tami.
We made dinner and all of the kids ate outside. It made it alot easier to clean up after dinner.
Alex and Carter.

Cameron took the training wheels off of his bike for the first time. After a trip around the block with someone holding on he took off by himself. We was doing so good by the end of the day.
Some of Peggy's friends planted a tree at the local park for Curt. It is so nice and it has a very special plaque with it that is engraved with his information.
Megan and I were showing Haley how to take her own picture. I don't think that her arms are long enough to get a good picture though.
Peggy got stuck in the slide on her way down. I was laughing so hard that I was crying so this is all the better picture that I got. It really doesn't do the whole thing justice.
The kids all had a great time at the park. It is so nice to have them so close to the house. It sure makes it easy to get to go play for awhile.

We had such a fun day. I wish that I could put all of the pictures on here.

Friday in Peoria and Naperville

Well, unfortunately Friday came very quickly. We had such a great time with Stefanie and the kids all week and it seems like the days just flew by. It was Friday already though and we were packing up and heading back to Peggy's to spend the weekend with everyone in Naperville.

The kids are excited to go see everyone. They even were nice about getting another picture taken.

Megan and Maleah on the front porch.

We had to stop for gas before we headed out and Stefanie was anxious to get back into the car.

The kids got tired on the drive. It was so quiet in the car!!!!!! Alex was the only one awake because he couldn't take his eyes off of his game boy.

The kids decided to make a fort when we got to Peggy's house. They weren't to happy when they found out that we had to take it apart because they had used all of our suitcases for the walls and we needed them. Peggy's birthday is next week so we decided to have a little birthday party for her. Stefanie made her a chocolate cake with seven minute frosting. I am not sure that she had a piece of cake but I know for a fact that she ate a bowl of frosting.
She didn't feel to good in the morning!!!!! :)

Thursday and we are still in Peoria!!!!!

It is hard to believe but it is Thursday already. We are heading back to Peggy's house tomorrow and it seems like the week has gone by so fast. We had a lot of fun again today. We went downtown Peoria to go on the River walk and to eat lunch. It was a bit misty and a little chilly so we didn't make it to far on the walk but we definately didn't miss out on eating lunch.
Alex and Cameron are checking out the river. They liked the bridge. The kids were in strange moods today so I decided that a funny face picture would be the best bet. It wasn't to far of a stretch for any of them to make the faces.
It started to rain a little bit in this one. Good thing we had out hoods on!!!!! The good news is that even when it is raining it is still 85 degrees outside.

We ate at the Old Chicago pizza place. They have very tasty pizza.
Everyone enjoyed their lunch.
Maleah would only eat if Megan fed her and didn't watch.
Rena ate with no problem.....

We went home after that for a while. A rest and some outside play time sounded like a good idea. We were all a bit tired after our day of shopping and eating.

Megan got a kiss from Maleah.

Everyone went out for a bike ride after dinner. They all looked so cute.
Malead decided she didn't want to go after they got down around the corner so Stefanie had to carry her back and go get her scooter.
Alex and Cameron were riding like crazy on the scooters. Good thing Jeff isn't home this week or Alex would have to fight him for his scooter!!!!!! :)

We went down to play on the outside toys at the shopping center down the road in the evening. The kids all got to make a wish and throw their penney's into the water.

We are going to have to clean up our stuff in the morning and get the van loaded up for our trip back to Naperville. It is going to be sad to leave here, we have all had such a good time this week. Hopefully we will get to come back soon. Maybe next time we can build some snowmen.

Wednesday in Peoria

Well, it was another fun and busy day around here. We went to a water park today and it was alot of fun. The kids all had a great time and everyone was so tired by the time we left.
We got ready to go and realized that Megan and Maleah had the same hat. I guess that great minds think alike. :) Maleah is all ready for the water with her googles and Cameron is having a little snack before we get in.
Rena is anxious to get back out there. She didn't like the idea of us taking a little break.

Everyone in the big pool. The kids love to jump in!!!!!
Alex and I coming down the big slide. It was a lot of fun. You could either go down alone or in a double tube. I liked the double a lot better.
Megan and Alex are trying out the big slide for the first time. They went to the single tubes after they got the hang of it a bit.
They both liked the slides. I can't tell you how many times we went down them.
We had to take a break to eat lunch. No one was real happy about that.

They didn't mind when we took and ice cream break though. No complaints about that one.
Rena is trying to catch Megan. Alex is just in her way.
Alex really liked standing under this when it would tip. It was a huge bucket that would fill with water and then tip over everyone. The other kids didn't like it at all though. Rena especially didn't like how so much water came down.
This is what it looked like before it tipped over.
Megan and Alex liked all of the weird stuff that was squirting out of the ground also.
We took Maleah to Target the other day and Stefanie let her pick out whatever baby doll that she wanted. The catch was that it had to sit on the back of the toilet in the box until she could go poop by herself. She did it last night before bed and she was so excited to get to open up her new baby. She had a huge smile on her face as it was getting opened and then she had to sleep with her.

Doesn't she look so cute????
Megan and Rena are sharing Rena's bed. It doesn't look to comfortable to me but they do have a back up plan on the floor. They have a sleeping bag down there for whoever decides they are uncomfortable first.
Rena got to have Thumper come over for a sleep over. He actually belongs the the neighbor girl but her and Rena worked out a deal for the night. Rena left one of her baby dolls with the little girl and in return she got to watch Thumper for the night. She was very excited about it and didn't let him out of her sight all night.