This past weekend had us on the road again!

Blake rented a BIG van – we all hopped in – and headed to Illinois this past Sunday!

Even Sadie went along for the ride!

Those of you who know me, and even those of you who just follow along here on the blog, probably know how well I ride in a van for hours and hours.

I am not very good at sitting still!

But my people made it very fun!

We even sang a loud squeaky rendition of Take Me Home, Country Roads!

At about 9 p.m. last night on the llooonnnggg drive back home!!

We had great snacks, of course, books on CD to listen to and books to read too!

Riding in a brand new van helped too!

Before we knew it we were in Illinois.

It was a beautiful day for a drive!!

And we stopped several times to stretch our legs!

We got to my Mom’s house around one.

First on the agenda – some yummy taco salads with her for lunch!

The kids made themselves right at home and were so thankful to be out of the van!

That afternoon we cleaned my Mom’s house!

It was a team effort, and went very fast.

While dusting I took pictures of these photos!

Or is it – I took photos of these pictures?

Anyway…this is me!

I see Lane as a baby in this photo!

This is Blake and my engagement photo!

Why does my head look three times larger than Blake’s?!!

I think it’s that HAIR.

Good grief.

That’s some big hair.

Blake and I then took Tate to the grocery store to get some food for dinner.

It took us two minutes to get there!

SO STRANGE.

Everything is at least 40 minutes away from Twin Oaks!

Tate loved shopping with us!

And shining his little light to everyone in that store!!

He is an inspiration, I tell ya.

And he thought a snickers candy bar was chocolate chewing gum…but that’s a story for another day!

Dinner was YUMMY.

Burgers, sausage, hot dogs, beans from home, and chips.

After dinner we had a little birthday party for my Mom!

She will be 76 on Thursday!

Addie made cup cakes!

We bought flowers!!

And strawberries!

And ice cream!

OK – STOP everything you are doing and go find yourself some of that salted caramel chocolate ice cream.

Really.

I usually don’t eat stuff like that….but I am here to confess….I was WEAK!

And it was SO yummy!!

SO, SO yummy!!!!

We took a sunset walk to get Sadie some exercise.

One of our favorite things to do!

Sadie took the whole trip in stride though!

She was very laid back about all the change, as you can see!

We borrowed my brother’s dog crate for Sadie while we were there.

He has an elephant for a dog!

His name is Milo and he is HUGE!

I sent my brother this photo to thank him! Ha, Ha!

We all headed to bed way too late – especially since some of us had been up since 3:30 a.m.

Ahem.

That was me.

The littles slept with Blake and I, and none of us moved until 7:30 the next morning!

Yesterday morning (was that just yesterday morning?!) we headed to a cute little coffee shop to meet up with Blake’s Mom!

The coffee was GOOD!

Grant had this Mayan Mocha made with ghost pepper that was a HIT.

We are going to be looking around for it here for sure!

After coffee we headed out to Blake’s Pop’s grave to set some flowers there.

It was a very sweet time for sure.

Lunch was…you guessed it….taco salads again!

With my Mom!

And soon it was time to head out.

We stopped and visited our sweetest Uncle Ken and Aunt Ann and cousin Doug – and I did not take a photo.

I regret that very much!!

On our way back to Wisconsin, we stopped again!

To see Blake’s Dad and his wife!

Yes, these visits were WAY TOO short!

But we are thankful for them anyway.

I just love this photo of the kiddos with their Grandpa and Grandma!!

We got home around 10 p.m. last night, and by 10:45 every last thing was put away, a load of laundry was going, and Blake was returning that big fancy van to the rental place!

Every one went to bed and I tried to stay awake until he got back.

Tried was the key word in that sentence, just in case you missed its meaning!

It was a blessed road trip for sure.

Memories made, memories tucked away, experiences for the littles were had, and another opportunity to keep the hearts of our family tied together.

There is just nothing better in this world than that!

Hope you all had a blessed weekend too!

Happy unofficial start of summer!!!