The Traveling Circus.

Phew. I have a minute to myself! This "vacation" aka traveling circus has taken it's toll on me. We have been SO busy. Of course, it's all fun...we love catching up with family and friends. But with a winey baby attached to Andy and myself, and lots of time spent in the car driving from place to place, we get tired. At the end of each night my body literally aches.

I'm surprised at how much we've been able to cram into our days...and pretty much keep every plan we made, aside from Como Zoo. What have we been up to, you ask? I'll give you a recap!

Saturday:

3 hours in the car, out to lunch, check into the Copa Cabana "resort" (we referred to this place as the Crapa Cobana), water park playtime, walking around downtown dells area, dinner at Houllihans, wine on the balcony overlooking the graveyard while Isla screamed herself to sleep in a crib from 1970 that I thought was going to collapse in the middle of the night.

Sunday:

3 more hours in the car, Target for forgotten items, lunch at Jimmy Johns, Andy's sister's house for family time, photo shoot in a state park in Hudson that required lots of walking, back to Andy's sister's house for dinner and chaos. 30 minute drive to Prescott, unpack, spend time with my mom and step dad. Crash.

Monday:

7ish hours at Andy's parents house spending time with the kiddos and Andy's sisters and step mom. Thankfully, we got home earlyish and were able to unwind.

Tuesday:

Errands in Woodbury (mostly shopping and getting my ring resized), lunch at Wendy's, Alicia's house for a fun friend get together and a yummy dinner, then an hour drive home. We got home around 10pm and crashed.

Wednesday:

This was our longest day! We left the house at 9:00 and got to the Mall of America around 9:45 for Isla's 10am Glamour Shots photo shoot (we had a gift card!). We shopped for several hours then headed to Woodbury for lunch and wasting time while Isla slept in the car. Then we were off to Hudson to visit Andy's sister and kids, then back to Woodbury to visit Ronda, Isla's old daycare lady (both her and her family LOVE Isla and it was great to see them again), then we were off to Prescott to meet my mom and step dad for dinner at Muddy Waters. We got home from our long day just before 8pm. EXHAUSTING. Isla dealt with the craziness like a champ! We've never attempted nap time in the car, but we had no choice and thankfully she slept for an hour and a half.

Thursday:

We had planned to go to Como Zoo but plans fell through. Isla woke up with a nasty cough, Mandy had to work, and Suzi had a busy day already...plus I was worried we'd get little Kellen sick. Andy took Isla to his sister's house for a while to visit and do laundry. I stayed at the house and dyed my hair brown (I hated my highlights...I know...ridiculous) and then cleaned up a bit. I ended up having 2 glorious hours of nothingness and I was able to do a lot of reading. Isla and Andy got home in time for the Vikes game, so we ate pizza, watched the game, and went to bed relatively early.

Friday (Today):

My parents picked up Isla around 9:30am for a weekend on the farm. Andy left for a golf outing so I've been at the house packing and cleaning. I'm about to get showered and ready for Lisa's wedding! Prior to her wedding I'm stopping by the school I used to teach at to see some of the teachers and maybe say hi to some of the kiddos.

Andy and I will be spending tonight and tomorrow at the St. Paul Hotel. We have some various things going on Saturday...but overall this weekend will be pretty relaxing. I'd say any time without a screaming baby is relaxing these days. Then on Sunday we will pick up Isla in Redwing and head down to Winona for the final day of our "vacation". I'm super excited to get yummy WSC sammiches and spend time wandering around campus. Oh, and I definitely need to get Isla a WSU shirt!

So yeah. That's our "vacation". 10 days of fun, crazy, CHAOS! We're incredibly lucky that my parents let us stay at their lovely retreat house instead of having to stay in a hotel. It allowed us to stay much longer than we could have if we needed to get a hotel room. And thankfully, we found an awesome portable dvd player that attaches to the headrest for the car ride home. Our drive from Winona to Chicago will take a little more than 5 hours...so we needed to buy something to keep Isla occupied and to keep Andy and I sane. A screaming baby in a car really sucks.

Yay for surviving and enjoying all of the craziness! As fun as it's been...I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed on Monday night.