Indiana trip

Okay, the long wait regarding our vacation post from our trip August 11-16 is now over. I wanted to wait until I had gathered all our pictures from the trip before I got this thing posted online. Our Photo Gallery has also been updated.

Early Thursday morning of the 11th we flew out to Indiana to visit some of my extended family. Our flight took us first to Minneapolis and then we caught another plane to Chicago. From Chicago, we took a rental car the remainder of our journey.

The first part of our trip was pretty stressful. Greg was chosen for a random search as we went through security at DIA. This meant that I had to lug our 2 bags, my purse, and the stroller through the regular security line by myself. That in itself wouldn’t have been to bad. But then I had to take my shoes and my belt off. So add two more items. And then I had had to take Adrianna out of her stroller, fold the stroller up and put in on the conveyor belt to be scanned with our bags, and walk through the scanner while holding Adrianna. *sigh* This is standard procedure and was sure a lot easier when I had Greg to help field some of the stuff. Thankfully I had a helpful lady behind me who helped me get things in order so I didn’t totally hold up the line too badly. And then when I explained they took my husband into a separate screening, the screeners where I was were more helpful in assisting me get the stroller back unfolded so I could put Adrianna back in it and gather up all our stuff.

Then, it was time for our flight. Our assigned seats were not together. Greg was to be seated directly behind me on the plane. We asked the stewardess if there was any way we could be seated together. Greg had Adrianna in her Baby Bjorn at this point, which actually helped our case, because then the stewardess asked the other passengers in our rows if they would be willing to switch with one of us so that “a mother can be seated with her baby”. I was surprised when two different ladies refused to move. They weren’t traveling with anyone, so it isn’t like they would have been separated from their party or anything. And it was only the difference of one row, so even if there stuff was stowed overhead, it could remain where it was. Greg said it is because they had coveted aisle seats, but I would have switched if that would have been my situation. Whatever. Thankfully a nice gentleman gave us his window seat so I could sit next to Greg. The stewardess gave him a ticket for free flier miles for switching. I was glad that he got something for his trouble.

It is TONS easier to travel with a baby when you have another pair of hands to help hold the baby from time to time and get things out of her diaper bag. I don’t know how other mothers travel alone with their children. How stressful that would be!

Our flight took us to Minneapolis where we had to catch another flight to Chicago Midway. Adrianna did pretty good. She was really talkative on our flight to Chicago. Once we got to Chicago, we got a rental car and were on our way to Indiana.

Thursday evening was spent at Grandma’s house with my family who had arrived the previous evening (Dad, Mom, Karen, Zach, and Cindy). I was so glad to be able to introduce Adrianna to her Great-Grandma Yergler.

For the vacation, Grandma was able to procure us a nice lodge to stay in. We had the place to ourselves. The place is just gorgeous and was a lot of fun to stay in. Greg, Adrianna, and I stayed in the loft.

Friday was a busy day. We drove out to Michigan City and had lunch with my mom’s cousin, Sally. After lunch, we went swimming in Lake Michigan after a walk out to the lighthouse. It is always a little disconcerting that we see quite a few dead fish there, but it never has stopped us from swimming before. The water wasn’t as cold as usual, which was nice. I absolutely love swimming. We spent several hours there enjoying the water and the small waves. Greg had a good time burying himself in the sand on the beach.

Friday evening we ate dinner at Ryan’s Steakhouse, which is one of my favorite places to eat. And once again, the food was awesome.

Saturday morning we headed over to Grandma’s. Uncle Ray, Aunt Donna, my cousin Jessica, Jess’s husband Chad, and their two-year-old son Ethan were there now too. I hadn’t seen them in 5 years, so I was glad to see them again. Jessica is my age and we used to play together a lot when we were younger, along with my cousins Laura and Sara since we were all around the same age.

After lunch at Grandma’s, Greg, Adrianna, myself, my mom, and Cindy headed to the little town nearby which was having an all-town garage sale. We walked around and made an afternoon of it. I bought Adrianna a couple little outfits.

On Saturday, after the garage sale, Adrianna became really fussy. I am wondering if she is starting the teething process, even though I don’t see any tooth buds yet, because she normally doesn’t have many fussy moments that are unexplainable (i.e. where she isn’t hungry or just wanting to be held). We thought she might also have a tummy-ache. I had unfortunately forgotten to pack her gas drops, so we decided to drive to LaPorte to pick some up and then we would visit Grandma Franks as well while we were there. Adrianna cried the whole way (about 20-30 minutes). And by cry, I mean screamed. Towards the end of the trip, Karen suggested that I show Adrianna Cindy’s stuffed penguin, named Rupert. Rupert was given to Cindy by her boyfriend, Kendall (whom we all really like a lot btw). Adrianna took to Rupert immediately and showed her affection to the poor bird by placing his beak into her mouth. We could tell that Cindy, not to mention Rupert, wasn’t too crazy about this scenario so once we got to Walgreens, I purchased a little stuffed bull terrior (along with the gas drops) for Adrianna. Adrianna fell in love with this little dog right away, much to the relief of both Cindy and Rupert. Cindy named the dog “Droolie”. Adrianna loves Droolie very much, and he is well earning his keep. The best $4 I have spent in quite a while.

After the Walgreens run, we headed over to the nursing home to visit my Grandma Franks. Grandma Franks has Alzheimer’s and is not very responsive and does not remember us. That makes it really hard to visit, especially when I remember how youthful and vibrant she was when I was younger. She and Grandpa were big into golfing and would always show us how to properly hit golf balls (in the field behind our house) and take us to the park and push us on the merry-go-round. I was still glad to see her though, and introduce her to her newest Great-Granddaughter. Grandma Franks did hold our hands though – tightly – as if she didn’t want to let go. That meant a lot.

Saturday afternoon/evening my Aunt Mare came down from Michigan to visit. My Aunt Mare is a lot of fun, so it was good getting to see her again. Uncle Bear unfortunately couldn’t make it this time.

Sunday afternoon was the Whitcomb Family Reunion. I think the banner stated that we are “Celebrating our 367th Year in the New World”. I got to see some more family that I hadn’t seen in quite some time. Adrianna was in a better mood and I was proud to show her off to my extended family. Of course, she would choose that moment to let loose a huge poo that leaked all over her cute outfit. *sigh* Thankfully I had a spare outfit packed. hehe.

Sunday evening we stopped by a recently harvested field and looked for arrowheads. The field had contained peppermint, so it smelled really good. My dad found the tip of an arrowhead; the rest of us just found pieces of flint. Zach was kind enough to watch Adrianna for us during this time. I have always enjoyed looking for (and finding!) neat rocks and the like. We then headed back to Grandma Yergler’s.

Later on Sunday, my Uncle Larry came to vist us at our lodge with his new wife, Ruth, and his step-daughters, Sandra and Diana. My family instantly fell in love with them – they are all so sweet.

Ruth held Adrianna for awhile and my Uncle Larry joked with Greg that he needed a stepladder to shake his hand. Of course they are both exagerating their height difference in this picture though. 🙂

Monday morning we took a few pictures with Grandma Yergler – 4 generations!
 
Then we headed back to Chicago to drop off our rental car and catch our flight to Minneapolis. Our flight from Minneapolis to Chicago was delayed quite some time. I wish I would have known that this was going to happen sooner as then I could have called our friends Tom Nechodomu or Eric Smith to see if they could hang out with us for an hour or so at the airport. Oh well. The flight delay (and the layover in general) made for a long day. Adrianna had a melt-down at the Minneapolis airport, poor thing. Once I fed her though she was better and she was an angel on the actual plane. We finally made it back to our house at sometime after 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. It felt so good to flop down into our bed that night.

Tuesday after Greg got off work, we drove to Colorado Springs to pick up Chloe and Molly. They were being watched for us by Shad and Lynette. So after some dinner at Louie’s Pizza, we came back home and got home around midnight. We are hoping to remain home for a few days. All this traveling sure has got us running ragged and on very little sleep. But it was oh-so worth it!

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2 Responses

  1. Janis says:

    I really enjoyed our time together in Indiana. reading your blog makes me wish i could live it all over again. (maybe without the long drive there though…so far!) don’t know which was worse…your long flight with the delays, or our long drive….I figured that with your delays and everything, it only took us about 6 1/2 more hours to drive it though. but like you said “it was so worth it!”

  2. Jen Allen says:

    I remember Uncle Larry from your wedding. He is cool & I’m really happy for him!

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