Our goodbye picnic

I'm pretty sure by now most of you know that we left for Chicago. We left on Saturday April 19th. Damian was unable to come back and get us so my brother Matt took a few days off and drove the 1,400 miles to Arlington Heights, Illinois with us. What a great brother I have!

We have a little going away picnic the night we left. My whole family (except Damian) was able to be there. It was great! I'm was so happy to be able to spend a little time with them before we left.



Here are some pictures of me and my bros.



















Grandma, me, Areya and Aniela.
3 generations (we are luck to still have 4 generations living, Grandma Great is in Tennessee)






My family!









Ida with the girl.








Here are the kids playing after dinner.
Yes, the big kids too.


















Areya & Britton on the swing.









Aniela climbing up the slide.









Look at us, this is so fun!










Here's everyone enjoying the yummy food.



















And now it's time for the goodbyes. I really hated this part.






































In the car, all buckled in and ready for the long trip .



















It took us just over 20 hours to get there, only stopping for gas and potty breaks. Well, we did stop Sunday morning for a quick breakfast. We left at night so the girls would sleep through most of the drive and switched off drivers. The girls did wonderful. Aniela was sick and threw up once but slept most of the way. Areya got an activity bag from grandma which kept her really busy. Matt was a trooper and drove most of the trip so I could get some sleep and take care of the kids.

Thanks Matt for being so willing to come with us. I'm glad we got so much time to talk. I love you!