We made it!!

Dad flew in late on Friday evening. We all picked him up at the airport and were able to have breakfast together on Saturday morning...before Tyler, Ted and I left for Indiana. It felt strange to leave Dad at our house. (He is visiting Grandpa David this weekend).

Here is Tyler, enjoying his orange pop (which he had never had before). He told me later that I needed to make orange pop when we get home.

He also told me that he didn't need to ... um, go #2... until we get home. That would be a looooong time to wait!

Tyler watched a few DVDs, but did not spend nearly as much time as I thought he would watching movies. For much of the time, he just rode quietly. He really enjoyed a preschool sticker workbook we brought along. For an hour, he and Ted played with a piece of thread. :)

On the road...

We enjoyed a leisurely trip. I didn't remember noticing so much greenery and nice rolling hills on previous trips. I guess we usually do this trip in winter or the middle of summer. We saw lots of baby calves... and a lot of dead deer. Yikes.

I had called Mom when we were 50 miles west of Chicago, so she would know we were running late. After a long day on the road (nearly 15 hours), we finally pulled in to Mom and Dad's house at 12:15 am (1:15 am Indiana time). Tyler was fast asleep, and we were going to let ourselves in, put Tyler to bed and unload the car.

But, the front door was locked. We rang the doorbell, but Mom didn't appear. Mom's bedroom light was on, her door was wide open, and I could hear that the doorbell was working. Oh, well, I figured she left the side garage door open. Holding Tyler, I fumbled to the garage door...that was locked too. Uh oh. By that time, Tyler had woken up. I went back to the front door and knocked as loudly as I could and rang the doorbell several more times. I started to panic and get giggly...we made it all this way, and now we couldn't get in. I looked around the front stoop for a hidden key to no avail. I made a trip around the whole house trying all the doors just in case Mom had forgotten and left one open. Nope. Secure as could be. I threw some pebbles at her window, which bounced off the screen and basically didn't help anything. So, since I had no cell phone signal, we decided to drive out until I got a signal. We were pulling onto US20, when a police deputy passed us. Ted turned the car around and flashed his lights at him a couple of times to flag him down. A young looking officer (that makes me feel old)! got out looking a little suspicious. I quickly explained the situation. He got out his cell phone and let me make a call...but Mom didn't answer. I laughed. What in the world were we going to do? He asked me if I was sure they were home. Oh yes, I explained, we had just spoken a few hours ago. It seemed as though he was thinking that I was C.R.A.Z.Y. He asked where the house was, and as I finished explaining, my cell phone rang. Even though my phone showed no signal, somehow through the broken connection, we were able to communicate we were there and she was obviously now awake. We thanked the slightly confused officer and headed home.

We all had a good laugh, and relieved recounted what had happened.

I'm so happy to be here. It is always worth the trip!

Today we explored outside. Everything is green and beautiful. Mom gave Tyler a ride in the Gator. He collected twigs for a fire...for when Grandpa Norm comes home.

We were excited that Lynette and Rusty stopped by on their way back to Chicago for an afternoon visit.



The last couple of days, Tyler has enjoyed being a "sterry [scary] ghost" complete with spooky oooo's. He explains that ghosts wear white costumes, (just in case you were wondering what ghosts look like). Here is the scary ghost in the massage chair, which doubles as a fun toy since it has lots of buttons to press.


Tonight at dinner, Tyler asked me whether I was done eating yet. I said that I was. He said authoritatively, "then you should leave. Go play checkers or something."