back home again in indiana!

this weekend was a whirlwind trip across indiana. traveling from chicago to ft. wayne to wabash to bloomington and back to chicago, not staying any place for more than 24 hours.

thursday night, we made our way to ft. wayne to get the timing belt on my car changed and, more importantly, to see our adorable niece, lilly. during the three-hour drive to ft. wayne, we hit a torrential down-pour. heavy rain and snow scares me when i drive; therefore, i was driving like a grandma down the 2-lane highway. some nasty person tailgated me through the storm and increased my level of road rage! we finally made it to ft. wayne at 11:30 est. our adorable lilly was asleep, but uncle adam quickly woke her up! she has grown so much since i saw her last! perhaps i'm a little biased, but she's the cutest damn thing i've ever seen!


on friday, we dropped my car off at the honda dealership, picked up our adorable lilly and headed to the mall (oh, after a quick trip to chic-fil-a for a chicken biscuit sandwich!). the two homos were set to do some shopping, while pushing lillers in her stroller. she was being so good, until we made our way into a store and stopped to look at some clothes. she started getting fussy. we realized that she wanted to be constantly moving. anytime we stopped pushing her in the stroller, she would start whining and begin to cry (it seemed to happen more when uncle adam was pushing than when uncle gary was in control!). my patience seemed to run a bit thin! thankfully, gretchen met us for lunch at the mall. of course, lilly was all smiles and laughs now!

later in the afternoon, we made our 45-minute trek to wabash (first electrically lighted city in the world, you know). later in the evening, lilly and gretchen joined us. we had a great night, where gary and i beat mom and gretchen at trivial pursuit!

saturday afternoon we had a cookout with my grandparents before leaving for bloomington. i was so excited to go to bloomington! i always love going back to my college home to visit! the reason for our trip was selina and jamie's 'luau party'.

the kids were CRAZY saturday night!

annie, not amused by the music of the evening!


rachie, just being rachie


dre, with two drinks in hand (as usual!)


gary, amused

and rica, striking a quick pose

sunday morning, we left bloomington after a quick lunch with a great friend of mine, anna, and her husband brandon. a quick stop a oliver winery for some goods to take home, and we were on our way. i knew that bonita (my '01 civic) was going to finally hit 100,000 miles on our way back to chicago. on our way into bloomington on saturday, and on sunday's drive, we heard bonita running a little louder than normal. perhaps it was because she was getting old, we thought. we kept driving, until somewhere between mile marker 209 and 210 on northbound i65 where a loud sound came from underneath the car. i quickly got control of the car to realize that bonita just blew a tire. the tread from the rear passenger tire came off and took half of the rear bumper with it. we quickly got to the shoulder of the road to see the amount of damage that had been done. a frantic mess, i wasn't quite sure where to start. gary got the spare tire out of the trunk. i was looking for insurance papers to call someone. about that time, we get a call from andrea who had just passed us on the interstate. the girls pull over and come to lend us a hand. i was able to call 911 and get transferred to a nearby garage that would come replace the tire. we sat for an hour, waiting for help!

poor bonita...


with a new tire and duct tape holding up the bumper (we're classy people like that!), bonita hit a pivotal point in her life somewhere in what we hoosiers refer to as 'the region':


i was never so happy to sit amidst the sea of taillights on lake shore and search for parking in lakeview as i was sunday evening.