Roadtrip crew

As many of you know, I spent the past two weeks on a roadtrip with my mom, sister Kathleen and Dylan. We first ventured to the Chicago area to visit my brothers, attend a wedding reception and visit old friends. Dylan ended up with a really nasty cold that lasted pretty much the entire trip. He traveled in the car pretty good, but was a very clingy toddler the entire trip. I could not move two inches without him screaming and grabbing onto my leg. It made for a very stressed out mom. He wouldn't sleep in his play pen, so he ended up in bed with me almost every night for two weeks. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. In spite of that, we had a wonderful trip. The picture above is my sister Kathleen and my brother Aaron while we were at Olive Garden.

Aaron and Karl both work at Buffalo Wild Wings in Gurnee. One night we all decided to go eat while they were working. It was fun to see them in action. Karl was actually our server. He does a wonderful job and we had fun getting messy eating yummy wings. Karl took a quick break from working to pose with my mom and sister.

Dylan LOVES fish. It is one of the few words he says, but he will say it all the time. Grandma thought it would be a good idea to take him to Shedd's Aquarium in downtown Chicago. Dylan absolutely loved it! He was so excited to look at all the 'shishies'. His whole face just lit up and he kept pointing and pounding on the glass. It was so cute.

While we were downtown, we had the opportunity to meet up with my friend Amy and her son Logan. Dylan and Logan had fun sharing food at Grand Luxe.

After Chicago, it was on to Piqua, Ohio. I don't think any place feels more like home than my Grandma Burt's house. I spent so much time there as a kid and I just love going back and spending time with my mom's family. They have all been such a huge part of my life and I really miss being able to see them all the time. We had a lot of fun while we were in Ohio. One night we all went roller skating and crashed my cousin Karrstyn's birthday party. I haven't been roller skating since I was a kid. Surprisingly it came back to me pretty quick! It was a lot of fun. The picture above was taken at the bowling alley. My cousin Keighly was such a big help with Dylan, so we decided to treat her to an afternoon out with us. It was me, Keighly, Kathleen, Karl and his girlfriend Jenn.

Dylan loved running around in Great Grandma and Papa's yard. It's nice and big. A luxury he doesn't have at our house.

He loved playing with the well that is in their backyard.

After a few days, Dylan finally started to warm up to everyone. No surprise, his mood shift was directly related to when he started to feel better from his cold. Keighly was so happy when he finally started to play with her.

By the time we arrived in Ohio, my mom, Kathleen and I all came down with Dylan's cold. You can tell by my face that I was exhausted and not feeling well. One of the few things that kept Dylan quiet was food. He got to enjoy his first Twizzler. Boy did it make his mouth happy.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It was so much fun being able to spend time with my family. I miss them all so much and wish that we all lived closer. Even with the sickness and the whining - I think everyone was glad to see Dylan. He's grown so much in the past year and I'm glad that he was able to spend some time with the people who love him so much.