08 April 2008

Life Away

Frank took the day off last Friday and we headed northwards to visit his mom and other family. We left C-U around 1:30, after picking Evan up early from school and lunch at Panera.

We arrived 3 hours later (traffic on 294 wasn't too bad - we beat the rush hour). The first thing the kids did, other than hug their Oma, was head outside to the swing set. The weather was fantastic. Spring has finally arrived.

After the kids had had their fill of swinging, we celebrated Easter (since we were unable to be there on the actual day, the Easter Bunny waited and brought baskets to Oma's house and then hid about 50 eggs outside).


When the Easter carnage was over we retired inside to choruses of, "Can we play with Daddy's old toys?" My mother-in-law grew up in post-war Austria, which explains why she does not throw anything away. If you're of a certain age maybe some of these toys look familiar? She also has the old Fisher-Price little people and all the accouterments. The kids love playing with those old toys.



Saturday was just as fantastic as the previous day: warm, sunny and a bit of a breeze off the lake. We headed over to Woodfield Mall to Maggiano's, an Italian-style restaurant, where we were treating Frank's sister and her family to lunch in honor of Karin's birthday (it's Thursday but, hey, any reason to celebrate). The food was good, the company even better. After stuffing ourselves we retired to my SIL's house in Bartlett for MORE Easter (and dessert - a Boston creme pie from Baker's Square and my sister-in-law's amazing homemade cheesecake). A more frenzied egg hunt I've never seen. My nieces were "coaching" my kids, "Go! Go faster! There! Pick up that one! Look! Here's another one!".



Sunday morning we went to Mass at the church my husband attended growing up and where both our children were baptized. Afterwards we joined other family at Wildfire, a local restaurant, this time to celebrate Frank's cousin's husband's 50th birthday and his mom's 75th. The food was amazing. We begged off joining everyone at Gary and Gabi's for dessert so we could get on the road and come home.

It was a whirlwind trip, as always, and most likely the last trip for a long while as Frank won't be able to take any time off until his game ships.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like so much fun!