Last Month in the States

My last month here in the U.S. has been very exciting and a little stressful. As all of you know my passport came in about 2 weeks ago and my visa came back about a week and a half later but since all of that has happened, I figured I would let you in on what we have been doing since the 4^th of July when I last posted. I know it has been awhile. Well the weekdays have been pretty repetitive but the weekends have been a blast. On the weekend following the fourth, we took a little adventure out to the coast and through some amazing parts of Washington on the way there. We packed up the car with boys still in pajama’s and everyone else still half comatose, we even brought Pickles along because she would be allowed on the beach and we felt bad leaving her home all day. On our way to our first stop of the morning Pickles proceeded to get car sick, the only reason I am bringing this up is because I had to sit next to her all the way in the back. After she got sick she then proceeded to eat it up. After this very traumatizing experience for me we drove through the town of Forks, WA which some of you might know is the setting for the Twilight series, it was interesting on how much they are marketing off of it. Every storefront had posters and signs saying, “Welcome to the Twilight Zone”. There was even a store called “Dazzled by Twilight”. From there we headed to the Hoh National Rainforest. We walked on one of the many trails through the rainforest and it was appropriately titled the Hall of Mosses. It was beautiful and very fun to climb the fallen trees and just see how cool nature is when uninterrupted. After the rain forest the boys put on their shorts and everyone was dressed for warm weather expecting the coast to be beautiful. Once we parked at Ruby Beach we realized it was about 20 degrees cooler than the rain forest. It was gorgeous but very cold. The boys climbed some rocks and we walked along the water. Jaxon ended up in the water so we immediately went to the car and got him some dry clothes after I had sacrificed 2 of my 3 layers to keep the poor kid dry. From there we headed to Hurricane Ridge which has amazing views of all of the surrounding areas, you can even see Canada from some of the paths. It was also about 30 degrees warmer than the beach so it was a nice change. The wildlife didn’t even seem wild there; it just walked around the parking lot and walked up to people like it was no big deal. After the ridge, we headed home and didn’t get back till about 9.

I think the weekend of the 18^th we actually just spent the weekend at home. But we had big things planned for the week; the reason being is that it was Steve and Gina’s birthdays.

On the 24^th as a present for Gina from the boys and Steve, we went up to the San Juan islands and went whale watching. It took 2 ferries and about an hour of driving to get there. We then spent about 4 hours on a boat and it was very cool. We were about 200 yards away from Killer Whales or as some people might call them Orcas. We were within distance for about an hour following them as they moved through the Sound. One eventually stuck his whole nose out of the water; of course none of us got a picture of it. After we did this we spent another 4 hours getting home which made it an extremely long day. The following day we went to the demolition derby and had a blast. They had two special events that I had never seen at a demolition derby, which I thought were some of the better events. One was The Rollover, this is when they put a ramp in the middle of the field and a car drive onto it and tries to roll their car as many times as possible. The more sides that touch the ground, the higher the score; the boys loved this event because in Mario Kart they jump off ramps all the time, we told them that this is what would happen if they tried it in real life. The special event planned for the night was the Can-Am football game, which was nothing like I was expecting. Basically, they paint a car like a football and it sits in the middle of the field and then 5 cars from Canada and 5 cars from America line up on both sides and the first team to push it across their end zone wins. Well this was absolutely hilarious and the highlight of the night. I had never seen anything like it.

As for the first weekend in August we headed down to Portland. It was my last weekend in Washington and had never been to Oregon, so it was my day to knock another state off my list. I looked up free stuff to do in Portland and we did about 2 of them. We went to the International Rose Test Garden; they have over 8,000 different types of roses there. Since it was about 95 degrees there we headed to the waterfront, where they had a fountain the boys could play in. Xander and I went on a walk and found out that there was a Wakeboarding Competition going on. We eventually grabbed dinner and then headed back to watch some of the riders. It was cool and something I had never seen. After that we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts. It is this crazy doughnut shop that put all types of crazy stuff on them. Steve got a doughnut that had bacon on it. The boys and I had ones with Cocoa Puffs on it. After we grabbed our doughnuts we headed home. We didn’t get home till around midnight so it was definitely a late night. Other than all of these adventures I have been packing like crazy.

My last day in Washington was on Tuesday, August 4^th, 2009. We all packed in the car and drove to the airport around 4 and it was a very tearful goodbye, at least for me. I already miss those boys so much it breaks my heart even thinking about not seeing them for a year and a half.

From Washington, I headed back to Illinois to spend a couple of days with my family. I got in Wednesday evening and it was so busy until I left on the following Tuesday. On Thursday the 6^th, I headed down to Bloomington to spend the day at Pub II and see a couple of friends. We spent a few hours there and then I headed home. On Friday I spent the day with my grandma and some of my cousins and my aunt. We went to Chili’s and then headed to my Grandma’s house and we spent the whole night there just talking and spending time with each other. My cousin Jenna spent the night at my house that night and then Saturday morning her mom and sister came over and ended up spending the whole day at the house. Saturday night was my night with some of my best friends we had a great night. We had Arranello’s Pizza for dinner and then we started drinking. We played some drinking games and then ended up heading to one of the bars, thanks to our D.D. of the night (Chrystal). I saw some kids from high school that I never thought I would see again and we all just had a great night. After the bar we headed to White Castle. If you couldn’t tell I was trying to hit all my favorite places to eat that are not over here in the U.K. After White Castle we headed home and watched maybe 5 minutes of Scream before we all just passed out.

Sunday was a big goodbye day, I said goodbye to all of my friends and it was sad. Maybe for me, than for them. After everyone left and my dad and I tok Chrystal to our favorite Ice Cream place in town my parents and I decided to go bowling. We bowled three games and the first two we played, I bowled over 100 for the first time in my life. After bowling, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings and from there we went to see The Ugly Truth.

On Monday my mom and I went shopping and we got a late start due to a delivery guy who was supposed to be there before 11 and didn’t get to the house till around noon. After we got home from shopping and running around I headed up to Chicago to spend the evening with Michelle and John. Michelle made egg rolls and stir-fry and then we spent the rest of the night catching up and talking about the future.

Tuesday was my last day with my parents and I had to start packing. Now when I described my goodbye with my brother and my nephews I said it was tearful. I couldn’t even talk I was crying so hard saying goodbye to my parents. I miss them everyday. It is more of the little phone calls when we were in the car to each other because now it is just emails and due to the time change the emails are about once a day. I am not using my phone anymore and I have not gotten a new one yet.

Two Weeks of Family Time

Week 1

Well Hello everyone! Things have been very busy for us for the past couple of weeks.  So in my last post I know I told you about how we were both having pretty bad travel days, well after that happened his flight out of O’Hare and into Indy was delayed by an hour so I was sitting there for 4 hours.  Luckily, Paula (Rob’s Mom) and Heather (his sister) came and we loaded all of my luggage into the car and we sat and talked for about 2 hours.  We ended up getting home after one am, so it was an extremely long day for the both of us.  The following day we had a BBQ at Paula’s house and I met everyone in his family.  It was a lot of fun and we had great food.  We were then supposed to go out with a couple of friends from his hometown but we ended up passing out at like 9.  Obviously we are big partiers if you couldn’t tell ;)  Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with Rob’s friends Emily and Paul.  It was Paul’s birthday and we were all getting together so we could go to Ball State for the night.  Once breakfast was over we drove on up to Muncie, IN.  Ball State is a beautiful campus (I made Paul give us a driving tour).   During the day we just hung out and watched a couple of movies and smoked some Hookah.  We went out to dinner and then we came home and started getting ready to go out to the bars.  There have not been many times since I really miss ISU (my old school) but this night was one of them.  College bars are amazing the alcohol is cheap and everyone is just out to get drunk and have a good time.   After we successfully liquored Paul up, Rob and I got a ride home from one of Paul’s friends and just passed out.  On Sunday we had to drive back to Eaton and go to his other sister’s house for another BBQ.  This was the day I was going to meet his dad, so I was a little nervous.  We had some hamburgers and hot dogs and hung out with our nieces (Lucy-5 and Nicole-2).  Overall it was a very good day and when we got home we were able to just relax.  Monday morning we went to get Rob’s new id since ours will expire while we are over in England.  We then spent the rest of the day going through boxes and boxes of stuff from Rob’s childhood.  It was surprisingly fun and I learned a little bit more about my husband.  That is all we did on Monday so it wasn’t really busy at all and then Heather made us baked spaghetti for dinner.  Tuesday we went to the mall in Dayton, so Rob could get some jeans since he owns like a pair.  The sad thing was, is that I had to convince him to buy them since we are moving somewhere that it is actually cold instead of Vegas.  After the mall we went to his grandma’s house for dinner and we went through pictures and had another great night with the family.  After we got home from his grandma’s we rushed home to watch Biggest Loser, because Rob is obsessed with it.  After that we called it a night and then onto a lazy Wednesday.  During the day we laid around and watched movies and then did the same thing through the night.  Thursday was definitely more interesting.  We went out to breakfast with his dad at Waffle House and then came home and cleaned out the garage.  Rob and I had made plans to celebrate Mother’s day with Paula on Thursday because we weren’t going to be there on Sunday.  So we went to the puppy store and played with some adorable baby puppies.  We also went out to dinner at Panera Bread and then went to see Star Trek.  Paula is a big trekie and we thought it would be fun to go see it.  After the movie we came home and gave her, her mother’s day presents, which she loved.   On Friday, we had another BBQ with the family since this was the last time they are seeing Rob for a year and a half.  We were again supposed to go out with friends afterwards but it wasn’t going to be until super late and we both had to pack and get up at like 6 in the morning so we decided against it. 

 

Week 2

On Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with friends again and sat there for about 2 hours after we were done eating, so I am sure the waitress loved us.  From there we met my parents and they met my in-laws and Rob and I unpacked the van of all of my stuff that is going to England and then we packed it full of our stuff that we needed.  We sat around the house chit chatting for an hour or so and then decided to take our parents out to lunch, so we drove to Richmond, IN and went to Chili’s.  We then proceeded to have a 4-hour car ride and then went out to dinner with Grandma in the city at Flat Top Grill.  It’s a great restaurant that I would recommend to anyone.  It is a create your own stir-fry place and such a fun time.  So Saturday was another very long day.  On mother’s day we went to the Sox game and had amazing seats thanks to my dad’s work.  We sat right between home and first about 10 rows up.  We went early and tailgated and played bags (corn hole for my Ohio readers).   

  Rob and my dad became best friends as they drank the day away.  When we got home they both passed out for a couple of hours so my mom and I ate dinner and watched some TV.  Monday we went out to lunch with one of my best friends from home, Missy.  We also found out the Rob’s dad was in Hammond so we drove out there to meet him and talked for a little bit and took some pictures and said our good-byes again.  From there we had plans to go out to dinner with some of my friends from school, we went to Mongolian BBQ which is another create your own stir-fry place.  It just isn’t as good as Flat Top.  After dinner I said we said good-bye to some friends and met some more at the bar.  We went to Rizzo’s in Naperville, IL, which on Mondays has dollar beers.  I also overlooked that fact that there was a Blackhawks playoff game on, so the bar was packed but it was a good time and I loved seeing my friends and seeing Rob with them.  On Tuesday we went to get my new id for my new name and to renew it.  Since the DMV is about 3 blocks from my mom’s work, we stopped by with lunch.  After lunch we went home and got ready to go to dinner with my cousin Michelle and her husband John.  I tried to give Rob the full experience so I made him ride the train.  We went to a sushi place in the city called Sunda.  It was delicious and such a great time.  After dinner we stopped and picked up Garrett Popcorn for my parents and for us.  It is the best popcorn out there.  It is something I feel I must do when going into the city.  On Wednesday we drove up to New Buffalo, MI to meet my cousin Emily for lunch.  Yes, I got Rob to go into Michigan, something he told me he would never do.  We went to a really nice bar and grill and just caught up and ate some delicious food.  We then drove home in a pretty nasty rainstorm but it wasn’t anything we weren’t used to.  For dinner we stayed home to eat with my parents and had steak, baked potatoes, and broccoli.  It is one of my favorite meals ever, very easy but such a classic.  After dinner my Aunt and Uncle stopped by and brought dessert.  Thursday was our last day together and we spent the morning packing and cleaning his stuff up.  We then drove up to my dad’s work so he could say good-bye and then it was up to my Aunt Cathy’s house.  She lives about 15 minutes from the airport and someone I really wanted Rob to meet.  We hung out there for a couple of hours and had Aurelio’s for dinner.  Aurelio’s is one of the most popular pizza places in Chicago and has amazing pizza.  From there we left at 630ish and we drove to O’Hare and had our tearful good-bye.  It’s a lot harder saying good-bye to someone when you aren’t sure when you are going to talk to them again.  I drove back to my Aunt’s house and hung out there till about 1 am catching up and just talking.  On Friday my mom and me spent the day together running errands and just spending time with each other.  The weather was absolutely miserable but it was an overall good day.  Saturday was my cousin Jenna’s graduation/confirmation party.  It was amazing to see all of my family again.  We played bags and ate and drank.  Saturday night Emily stayed over and then on Sunday my mom and Emily brought me to the airport for another good-bye.