Happy Mothers' Day!

Sorry for not posting recently. April was an extremely busy month. My conference was the second week and then we were getting ready for our vacation. We just returned yesterday. We had a fabulous time! And I have lots of new photos to share! Hurray!

We spent the first week of vacation in Madison, Wisconsin with our friends Kelly and Grace. Christy, Cindy, and Katie joined us there, as well, and we all had a great time. We went boating on the lake, painted pottery, baked cookies, had a tea party, did a group photo shoot, went to the zoo, had a picnic, made homemade pizzas, and played outside a lot in the wonderfully mild weather. Us moms took advantage of the time together to hire a baby sitter and enjoy a childless dinner and movie. What a treat!

On Wednesday, Christy, Cindy, Katie, Alivia and I all left Madison for Chicago. We visited the Navy Pier, the American Girl Store, and Legoland. The girls really enjoyed the American Girl Store and Alivia got a new doll who she named Jeana after me! I thought that was really cool as up until this all of her dolls had been named Ali after herself. Her doll has blond hair and blue eyes just like her. I'm planning to take her and her doll to do some professional photos soon.

Then on Friday, Alivia and I left Chicago for Indianapolis where we visited with my brother and his two boys. It was a great evening--and I'm hoping we can see them again before another two years passes. We go way too long between visits!

Okay--now for the adventure tales from the trip... Livi and I had an uneventful set of flights to Indianapolis. When we got off the flight we stopped by the ladies room before going to pick up our bags and our rental car and when we got to baggage everything was gone except for our stuff. I had Livi, two suitcases, and her carseat to deal with, so I got a skycap to help us get everything out to the car. I decided to upgrade our rental at the last minute--the original vehicle only had two doors which is really difficult with a car seat. We got on the road at about 11 a.m. in pouring rain and started the 5 and a half hour drive to Madison.

About an hour and a half into the drive my cell phone rang. I had almost forgotten to bring it--in fact I had to turn around and go home to get it. Thank God I did! My dad was on the phone and informed me that we had the wrong suitcase! Apparently another passenger had a large red suitcase like ours and had picked up ours instead of hers. Since only a red suitcase and Livi's carseat were left at the baggage claim, I didn't bother to check the tags... We had to turn around and drive all the way back to Indianapolis and exchage suitcases.

We ended up hitting Chicago at rush hour and our 5.5 hour drive turned in to a good nine hours. I was so ticked! Thankfully the conference I attended over the next two days was so great and the time we spent with our friends was so enjoyable that it made all the aggravation of getting there worth while.

I hope you enjoy the photos!

~ Jeana