Somewhere in middle-America

I could barely remember my own blog address tonight as I sit here in Omaha, Nebraska, in a hotel room with my kids sleeping and my husband watching the Olympics. That's how long it feels since I've blogged! We have had a pretty incredible 10 days in the midwest, and we're on our way home, taking this break for what we hope to be a good night sleep.

There's so much that I'd like to write about, but I'll have to save some of the fun stuff for later. Since the month of August began, we have spent three whole days on the road in Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Day Four will be tomorrow as we finish our drive home. The kids have been phenominal travellers and we are so pleased with how well they have done as we've dragged them all over creation.

The purpose of our trip was to participate in the joyful celebration of John's sister's wedding. Since she planned to get married in Wisconsin, just two hours' drive from one of our favorite families, the Joneses, we made a sort of vacation of it. After spending a day on the way with John's grandparents and parents, we arrived in Madison and spent four days soaking up as much time with each other as we could. They also planned a day with us at the Wisconsin State Fair, which I can only describe as artery-cloggingly delicious!

Not only did we spend wonderful time with the Jones family, but our paths also crossed with dear old friends, the Kabuthas, who live in Kenya. They just happened to be in the US this summer, and just happened to be driving through Madison on the last day we were there. It was a brief but refreshing time, as it has been three years since we last saw them, when our daughters were the ages that our sons now are.

I could have stopped there and felt my cup was full, but on our last night in Madison, I also got to spend several very fast hours sipping coffee with my childhood neighbor and best friend Jess, who I reconnected with this past fall. This was only the second time I've seen her in the last 19 years, and it was such a sweet time togehter. I felt my cup was overflowing.

To top it all off, yesterday was my sister-in-law's wedding. John's youngest sister, Anna, was only 12 years old when I met her, but yesterday it really hit us both that she's no longer 'little.' She was radiant as a bride! The two days of rehersal and wedding festivities was exhausting and yet seemed to pass too quickly. Lucy did a truly beautiful job as a flower girl, and Josiah was a trooper through it all. (We took upwards of 800 photos, but you'll have to wait to see them until I get home and can sort through the best of them.)

We will finish our drive tomorrow, then as soon as we are finished unpacking from our trip, we'll begin packing for our big move which will take place in less than two weeks. Hmmm. I might not be blogging as much as I'd like to, but I'll at least update with some photos and maybe a few fun stories from these travels.

Good night from Omaha...