Chicago, The Ending!

Before I left Chicago, we all went to the zoo. We spent a lot of time being silly and taking pictures of ourselves!

April and Blake in the van as we drove to the zoo

Of course we HAD to do this!

Dani and Mom

I wanted to hold Blake as much as I could. I hoped that people would think this adorable cutie was mine. If anyone commented on him, I'd just nod and smile, never bothering to correct them and say that he wasn't actually my baby.

Dad pushing the stroller

Yep, I'm apparently a monkey. I don't even remember doing this!

We had lunch at the zoo and were able to find a quiet place to eat. After we finished, the girls decided to buy Dippin' Dots ice cream. I had never had any before. It was pretty gross, we were all sharing one container and I even spoon-fed my parents, LOL!

It's perfectly normal to act weird with your family, right?


We got sillier by the moment.
Mom was happy to let us go nuts with the ice cream as she held the baby.

Cat fight!

Give it to me!

Poor Blake was innocent in all of this. I absolutely love his face in this picture!

After lunch we strolled around some more, looking at all of the animals. It was actually St. Patrick's Day, and I was glad I did not wear green because just about everyone else at the zoo was! It made it a little easier to spot those of us in other colors in the sea of green shirts.


Blake's first trip to the zoo!

I think he liked it. Even if he did sleep through most of it.
At home, since it was my last night there, we sisters decided to take more goofy pictures. That is just what we do!

Our birthstone rings our parents bought each of us- I got mine for my 22nd birthday, I think, while my sisters got each of theirs on their 18th birthdays. We had never taken a picture of us with our rings before, so that's why we did it.

a blurry closeup

MUAH!

While I was staying there, Danielle and I noticed that we had some of the same items of clothing. We must have very similar tastes in clothes! We thought it would be fun to take pictures. We had the same sweater, just in different colors, same exact jeans, and shoes that were different colors.


It was such a great visit. I missed my boys though and was ready to go home after the week was over. The strange thing is, I missed my husband a lot more than I missed the kids. I enjoyed the break from Mommyhood, but my heart ached from being so far away from my best friend. I honestly thought before I went to Chicago that I would have missed the kids more than Raymond, but that was not the case. Most nights in Chicago I had nightmares that I wasn't actually married and was instead still living at home with my parents, yearning to be married and start my new life. My brain had some weird flashback to the past when I was indeed separated from my one true love. I remember one dream I had while there was that Raymond and I even had kids together but we still weren't married and living together! LOL.

Now, I've had dreams since getting married that Raymond and I were not married, they happened more frequently after our wedding than they do now, but I do occasionally still have them. For some reason, being actually separated from him while I was gone, and living in my parents' house for a week brought those dreams/nightmares right back and it happened almost every night. It was really strange.

Anyway, I've been home for a very long time now and of course my brain is back to whatever is normal for me. Hee hee.

Did my kids miss me? Well, like I expected, Jonah was rather indifferent. He did not seem to care since Daddy was keeping them busy and they got to do a lot of fun things while I was gone. Nathan had a more difficult time with my absence, and once when I called and he heard my voice he broke down into tears and sobbed so hard Raymond had to hang up. This is going to sound awful but I was secretly glad that at least one of them missed me that much! Nathan did all right after that though, but he constantly thought I was coming home right away, or that he would see me after he arrived home from a long and busy day with Daddy and big brother.

My trip was wonderful and it made me wish even more that we could all live close by. Raymond and I are hoping we can make a family trip to Chicago around Christmas time, Lord willing.

Thanks for reading my very very late recap of my vacation!