My Trip...Part 1

I'm so excited to tell you all about my trip to see one of my best friends Megan. I had such an amazing time but before I tell you about all the details want to thank all of my guest bloggers who posted for me while I was gone.

I want to send out a HUGE thank you and a big hug to Nicole, Jodi, Jennie, Krisitn, Nancy, Amy, Jayme and Dot. Each of these great ladies took time out of their day to post on my blog in my absence. As I expected every post was unique and different. Each talked about how they had met me but then put their own twist on their post. I loved reading them all. A few brought tears to my eyes and a few made me laugh. I'm so grateful that I have gotten to know all of these great gals a little better over the last year. So thank you to you all! I hope you all enjoyed the guests, I know I did!!

Ok are you ready to hear all about my trip to Chicago, well to be technical, my trip a bit north of Chicago? I'm going to break this post up into two different posts. I think it would be way too long if I made it one big post. With that being said, if you don't want to hear or see my trip then you can skip right over the next two posts. I think even with breaking it up it still maybe long, so feel free to bounce around. This post is going to be about my trip Tuesday through Friday.

I thought for sure I would wake up Tuesday morning and be a ball of nerves about my flight. I know to many of you this is no big deal at all but I have never flown by myself before. I have flown before several times, but never alone and I have also never had a lay over in which I was to switch planes, and at that switch planes in a big airport that I would have to find the gate all by myself. Anyways, I woke up Tuesday morning and to my surprise I wasn't nervous at all. I finished packing, said good bye to Bo (that was sad) and was on my way to our small local airport. My parents dropped me off at the gate and I made my way through security. It wasn't bad at all. My plane even took off on time. Then we landed and I made my way through a pretty big airport to make my connecting flight. I thought I would be nervous to walk the airport alone, and I thought for sure I would be nervous about getting lost and not making my flight. My layover was only 50 minutes. However, I surprised myself! I got off the plane and just followed the signs. I had to walk or actually ride the walkway but I found the terminal all by myself. I'm such a big girl now!! It wasn't hard in the slightest. When I found my gate I was about ready to skip down the hall of the airport! Another thing that I thought I would never do, but yet did!

My plane landed right on time. I was so excited to get off of the plane and see one of my best friends Megan and her little boy Logan. As soon as I walked through the security check point I saw Meg and Logan standing waiting for me. Logan was sitting in his stroller waving at me like crazy. The last time I saw him was in November and he was only six months old, he is now 14 months. Then Meg gave me a huge hug and we were on our way to pick up my bag. It was so nice to see them both once again.

Once we picked up my bag we were off. There was an outlet shopping mall on the way to Megan's house, so we just had to go shopping. I got an amazing pair of Guess jeans and some perfume that I had been looking for and happened to find. In college Meg and I were queen shoppers and we always found great deals. Same was true on Tuesday, we both got a few things we didn't really need, but they were on sale, so we made the purchases. On the way back to her house we just talked and caught up on things. Her husband Tom was going to be home when we got there. I was so excited to finally meet him. Even though we have been friends for nine years I have never met her husband. I was supposed to be in their wedding, but life got in the way and I couldn't make it. Ever since we have lived to far apart to visit. We pulled into the driveway and Tom was outside. He met us at the van and said hello to me and that it was nice to finally meet me. I told the same to him. Then he looked at me and said he would give me a hug, but he was too sweaty from mowing the lawn. I told him to remember that Shawn was a football coach and used to sweat all the time and that a little sweat didn't bother me. He was so nice and it was so great to finally meet him after hearing so much about him.

The rest of the night Meg, Tom, Logan and I just hung out around the house. Megan made us a yummy dinner of pizza casserole and we just sat around talking and catching up. Tom went to bed pretty early because he had to work. Since it was Tuesday Meg and I stayed up talking and then we watched Tori and Dean together. I know we are huge dorks, but are both fans of stupid reality TV shows. Meg is actually the one who got me to watch Tori and Dean so it was fun to watch with her. We talked for a while but then went to bed because Wednesday was going to be a busy day.
Here is Meg's and Tom's little boy Logan. Isn't he about one of the cutest little boys you have ever seen?

Wednesday morning I got up around 7:30 in the morning. It was early for me, but I think my body was a little off with the time difference. It was good though because it just gave us more time to hang out. I helped Meg with the little man's breakfast and then hit the shower. We were going to drive a crossed the boarder into Wisconsin and meet Megan's sister Erin for lunch and then spend the rest of the day in Madison. Erin works for the University of Wisconsin, she wanted to spend the afternoon with us and show us around the campus. The campus was beautiful! It was such a nice day as well, however the campus is HUGE, I don't think I would ever find my way around. After we got a tour of campus we decided to hit the streets of Madison and do some local shopping and eat lunch. We ate and a wonderful Mexican place and I had once of the best frozen Margaritas I have ever had. Here is Erin, Logan and I finishing up our lunch.

One again it was so nice to finally meet Erin. Over the last nine years I have heard so much about her. It was great to put a face and a personality with all of the stories I have heard. Erin was wonderful and it was great spending the day with her. She is the type of person that you feel like you have knows your entire life even though you just met. When Meg introduced us Erin gave me a huge hug. It was great. The three of us talked a lot during lunch and then enjoyed shopping together. It was so nice to be able to meet and talk with more of Megan's family. Erin also took us to see the state Capital building. It was huge and yet the entire campus wrapped around this huge historic building.

Here are Me, Meg and Logan standing a crossed the street from the Capital.

This is a close up of Meg and I. Erin actually took the picture of the three of us. However, half of her face was cut out. I didn't think she would appreciate a picture like that, so I cropped it and got an ok picture of Meg and I instead. (My hair is a bit crazy...there was a nice breeze that day.)

After we ate and shopped we went back to Erin's office for a little while so she could finish up some work. Then we followed her back to her house and ate dinner with her three little boys and husband. More family that I have heard so much about and finally got to meet. Erin's house is amazing. It is an old farm house and has so much wood detail and old farm house character. They even kept the old wooden plank floors in the house. It was great and had such a cozy feel to it. Dinner was wonderful we ate and old favorite of BLT's. Once again it was so nice to be able to spend time with some of Megan's family.

Erin, Megan and I sitting in a big cozy chair before we left for the night.

We had a two hour drive back to Megan's house. Logan fell asleep in the car so it was just time for Megan and I to talk. We actually had a pretty serious conversation about life, God and what has happened to me in the last 11 months. I'm not going to share that here but within the next few days I will share it with you, because for now what we talked about has given me a kind of peaceful feeling. Once we got back to Meg's house we talked with Tom for a while and then went to sleep because we were all really tired.

Thursday was a day of relaxing. Well kind of. On Tuesday's and Thursday's Megan watches one of her friend's little boy. His name is Issac, he is four and a half months old and is also oh so cute, oh and a bit on the chubby side. Like the kind of chubby that makes you want to grab his cute little cheeks. Thursday morning we hung out at the house with the boys. Once they woke up from their we got them all ready and then decided to head to Megan's parents house and chill out by the pool. Once we got their both boys fell asleep. So Meg and I just sat out by the pool and talked. Earlier that day she had gotten the awful news that her beloved Grandpa had stage three lung cancer. We talked about that for a while. Then Meg got a call from her Grandma and she started to cry. It was so awful to see her hurting this way. I didn't really know what to do for her. I knew if I would have given her a hug at that minute she would have totally lost it. Meg is a lot like me and doesn't like to lose control. So, I just let her know that I was there for her and tried to put her feelings at ease. I now know how my friends have felt when I have lost it in front of them. All and all Megan and I enjoyed our day at the pool with the boys. Well all except for the massively huge poopy diaper I had to change of Issac's while Meg was putting Logan down for his nap. Oh well I hate to say it, but I kinda miss changing diapers. (I know I'm sick in the head that way)

This is a picture of Issac after the explosion of poop. Out like a light!

Late in the afternoon we decided to head for home. The boys were starting to get a little cranky so we packed up. We were also going to be going out to eat with Tom that night so we wanted to get ready. As I was putting Logan in the car he wanted a kiss. So I gave him a little kiss. Then he wanted to kiss me some more. It was the funniest thing. However he didn't want to give me just a little kiss, nope, Logan wanted to give me a full open mouth insert tongue kiss. It was about the cutest thing ever.

Here I'm asking Logan if he wants another kiss. See his mouth is already open. He is getting ready. (Sorry about the obnoxious boobs in this picture...I still had my bathing suit top on)

Two seconds later I got the one of the best kisses from one of the sweetest little boys.

Later on Thursday Meg, Tom, Logan and I went to a local Italian place for dinner. It was so good and they had the best bread sticks I think I have ever eaten. Once we got home we gave Logan his bath and put him to bed. Then the drinking started. Megan, Tom and I spent the rest of the night talking and hanging out and drinking. We had a great time and it was so nice just to be able to hang out and talk. Tom and I even got to talk just the two of us for a while because Meg was on the phone with other family about her Grandpa. Tom and I had a great conversation. We both said that it was so nice to finally be able to talk in person because we had both been hearing so much about each other. Tom went to bed around 11:00 because he had to work in the morning. Megan and I stayed up a while longer talking and uhm still drinking. We both had a pretty good buzz going on. It didn't take much for me since I don't drink all that often. We had a great day and boy did I sleep good that night.

On Friday Megan, Logan and I decided to visit yet another mall. Neither one of us really felt like getting all dolled up to go to the mall so we both put on our relaxing clothes of yoga pants and a t-shirt and went shopping that way. Logan must have sensed that he was going to be doing a lot of shopping with I was visiting because he was 100% perfect every time we went out. Since I didn't go to Logan's first birthday party I still had to find him a gift. Then we walked into a shoe store and they were staring at me. I found the cutest little pair of Nike shoes for him. Meg said they were perfect and that they were from Shawn as well (all Shawn ever wore was Nike shoes) We shopped for a while and then ate lunch at one of the places in the mall.

Happy Logan!!

Logan dive bombing the table because I had put some cheese on it for him. (No worries we both washed off the table before letting him lick off of it!)

After we finished shopping we headed back to the house. Tom was gone for the night and Meg and I had big plans. Actually, not big plans but something the two of us did in college and wanted to do once again. Once we got home we gave Logan his bath and put him to bed. He was so tired and fell asleep right away. When we were in college the two of us loved eating grilled cheese sandwiches. However, not just plane old grilled cheese. We ate grilled cheese on Texas Toast with the ooey gooey kind of Velveta Cheese. So you guessed it...that is what we ate for dinner. It was so gosh darn yummy!! Ahh the good old days of grilled cheese on Texas Toast. Then we sat down on the couch for the night and watched the movie P.S. I Love You. I had seen the movie about 10 times but wanted to watch it with Meg. We both sat their on the couch bawling our eyes out. About half way through the movie we opened up two different bags of chips, one container of dip, a bag of peanut butter M&M's, and two bags of gummy bears. Before we knew it, both bags of chips were almost gone, as was the dip and the M&M's. I think I forgot to mention that we both had about three Mike's Hard Lemonade's. Can we say two little piggies? Neither one of us ever eat or drink like that but we chalked it up to vacation.

After the movie we also watched another one of our guilty pleasures while we were in college. I can't believe I'm going to tell you all this but here it goes. Don't laugh! When we were in college Dawson's Creek was really popular. I used to HATE the show, but one day Meg got me started watching it and I became addicted instantly. Megan and I have the same degree so we had a lot of the same classes together. We would each tape Dawson's creek every day. Then at night we would watch the episode and either talk during it or after. (We also did that with the Bachelor and Bachelorette while in school, and yes for those who are dying to know. We still do that now. We text each other during the entire show every Monday night) Anyways, Megan just so happens to own the final episode of Dawson's Creek. Yes...we sat on the couch with all of our junk food and watched the series ending of Dawson's Creek, and yes we cried all over again, at all the same parts we did so many years ago. We are HUGE dorks, what can I say?! Needless to say after all the food and a few drinks so we both went sleep after the Creek was over. I won't even mention what both of our eyes looked like on Saturday morning when we woke up after crying through both PS I Love You and the final show of Dawson's Creek. Lets just say that eye cream was used.

Ok, there you have it. Part one of my trip. My next post will be Saturday through Tuesday...Part two. You for sure don't want to miss Saturday. I went line dancing in a country bar! Yes, you read right, I went line dancing.

Thanks for reading...I'm glad to be back and will be getting caught up with each of your blogs in the next few days.

Hope you enjoyed a little of my trip