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Monday, February 21, 2011

Hello Again, I-65

We traveled the past 2 weekends, to Chicago and Nashville. I think our family has worn grooves in I-65 with the amount of time we have spent driving up and down. I think I know every gas station, firework stand and Taco Bell between here and TN, although I doubt that information is useful.

We were in Chicago to see our friends, Nathan and Kate and Matt and Elsa. You may remember from previous blogs that we lived in Bolivia with these two awesome families, and Nathan and Kate (and their girls) stopped in Chicago for a bit on their way home to Australia. They are taking several months at "home" to have their fourth (!) baby before going back to Bolivia. It was fun being together again and we stuffed ourselves with deep-dish pizza and Indian food. Jude was way too excited about the pull-out couch in the hotel room to actually sleep on it, so it was an adventurous night! Then after a very yucky complementary breakfast (which we made up for with a second breakfast at Corner Bakery) we headed back to Indy and realized we'd left Vaca behind at the hotel. Vaca is Jude's "lovey" and must MUST be present any time Jude sleeps. We turned around and got him. We were only about 10 miles south on the highway, but we probably would have turned around in our driveway if that's the moment we realized who we were missing!




We snuck down to Nashville this past weekend to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. And he was actually surprised! We all came in town and we were waiting in a private room at a restaurant, and lured him in under false pretenses, and celebrated his 60 years with delicious steak and wild children and balloons and it was perfect. Perfect:) Then we went home for brownies and ice cream and the guys talked politics and the girls did makeovers and the kids got in trouble and once again, can I just say it was perfect? There was no drama, no stress, just total enjoyment of one another and especially of my dad. We put together a book of "love letters" to give him, and reading through those, its so clear what a giant he is in our family and really, in all our lives. And he even woke up early and cooked us all a huge breakfast!



As luck would have it, my friend Jaclyn had her first baby on Friday and we went by the hospital on our way out of town to meet her adorable son, Jack. She's going to be such a great mama--one of the funniest and most easygoing people ever, and her husband is too! She's been one of my best friends for almost as long as I can remember, all the way back to the schoolbus when we were eleven:) Congrats to their wonderful family and welcome sweet baby Jack!

Jude is doing great. He decided several weeks ago that he was going to poop on the potty and he has ever since--no accidents! Ada is 9 months old, crawling and giggling and picking up food and she's like a little person now and not so much a little baby (I can't decide whether to put a happy face or a sad face after that one...)


2 comments:

Lauren said...

It was so good to see your sweet face this weekend:) You did better than me and actually got a picture with the birthday boy!! Love you~

Beth said...

Three things: first, it sounds like your dad's party was perfect and how awesome that everyone could be together for it. I'm not entirely sure what the book of love letters is, but thinking about it still somehow made me tear up and how cool to share with him. Second, thank Vaca's fairy godmother that you were able to safely retrieve him. I shudder to think. And third, I absolutely love the succession of three pictures of you and Ada at the end! I think she might deserve a picture book dedicated to just her cute little face.
xoxo