Our first family vacation

Marcus was so excited about our trip that he could hardly keep his diaper on!
Baby hippo (there was no harm done to thsi animal in the making of this photo)

This was the most awesome thing Elena saw

The kids - especially Elena - could not get over "living" in a hotel.

The happy couple

Elena and Thelma (Martha's first dog)

We had rootin' good ol' time athe Opry.

This was the last night of our vacation. As you can see, Marcus was entirely pooped out! No pun intended.

Well we spent a great 10 days vacationing seeing our family and friend. The drive was what I expected and the kids did well despite a few bickerings. Overall I can say that the kids did great with tolering being in car seats and such. But thank God for technology because without games and a DVD player, we would have really driven each other insane! Because seriously, there is only so much talking and such you can do in a 16 hour drive!!!

We had a blast going into Chicago seeing the zoo, walking on Navy Pier, seeing the Field Museum, visiting the aquarium, walking into downtown after searching for some Chicago pizza (which we did, but it was not IN Chicago), and of course being able to attend my cousin Marisa's wedding. Everything we wanted to do, was pretty much done. And the weather was great! We actually had to buy the kids sweaters to keep warm. Sweaters?! In July?! We look forward to going back and seeing even more next time. We have family that live in Naperville (about 45 minutes away from the city depending on traffic), so it would be nice to see them again.

Then we drove to Clarksville, TN (which is outside of Nashville) to visit my friend Martha. We used to work together, but then she met her husband and up and left us! She took us into Nashville to do some site seeing downtown and visiting the Grand Ole' Opry. It was great to spend some time with her even though it was a short visit. But we are very excited for her because her husband should be coming home safely (please help us say a prayer) from Iraq at the end of this month. He's been gone since January, which is a long time for him to be away since they had gotten married just a few days earlier from that. We look forward to hearing that he is home safe.

The last day we drove from Arkansas into Texas felt like the best drive ever! We couldn't wait to get back home. At first Elena really didn't want to leave the hotel, but as we talked more about being in our home, the more she was ready to sleep in her own bed - without Analissa, Andy, or me pushing her over.

We were all very blessed to have had a safe trip and got to do some exciting things. This is the first of many future family trips that we look forward to doing. Andy has already decided on our next trip next summer. We'll have to wait for that one!