Illinois Trip

I will be posting a better blog later but I thought I'd type something up for now... We are all running fevers, I think Caitlin & I are worse then Jeff & Hailey as far as symptoms but I don't know. Caitlin has the highest fever and has been chocking when she coughs and throwing up... FUN!

We left to go to Illinois on Wed the 18th - after going to pick up the rental van at 3, it wasn't ready - he offered a Chrysler town and country to us for $15 extra a day and so we wanted to look at it and see if it was worth the extra money over the Dodge Caravan we rented... after looking at it, all looked good until Jeff looked at the tires and the back ones were bald! We go back in and tell them, they said they'd find another and were so sorry, etc.... they bring another around and same thing! The tires were bald, just not as bad. So after Jeff raised some hell, they pulled around another town & country and a caravan... we looked and both were good but we picked the town & country, because earlier before looking at the first town & country, the guy told me he'd upgrade us for free - so we don't have to wait... so that was nice. Finally an HOUR later, we are heading back home to get packed up and go pick up the girls from Jeff's parents, they were wonderful and kept them all day Wed for us so we could pack & get all ready... it was great not having to chase after them, esp after dealing with that crap at the car rental place. So by 7pm we are finally leaving our house! We planned on leaving around 7:00! I forgot we had to go by the bank so finally we get to his parents close to 8:00, hurry & eat and load up to go get my Mom & sister. We didn't hit the road until I think about 9:30.... made good time though and the drive was actually pretty good. The girls fell asleep about 30mins out and stayed asleep for the most part. They woke at 2am when we stopped for gas but fell back to sleep... then woke again around 8am and we stopped to eat breakfast. They stayed up the rest of the way. We got to my Grandpa's around noon or a little after...

On Thurs we didn't do much but hang around Grandpa's and Jeff took a nap... he drove all night, and I drove the 3 hours after breakfast. Then we went to the Moose Lodge on Thurs night for Thunder, which is Bingo. It was fun - none of us won. The girls went over to my cousin Jami's and played with her daughter Ava (she is 4). We went and picked them up & got back to Gramps around 9:30... Let me tell you, there is NOTHING up there! You go into the next city and it typically only has a few gas stations, maybe a small grocery store & your lucky if it has any fast food... we were both hungry so we thought we'd get something and go back, well they had Subway & McDonald's... so we skipped those and ordered pizza from the little pub downtown Leaf River - ha, in a town of "600" - really about 400, it has NOTHING but houses and a gas station and pub.

Friday we got up and headed out to find a cell phone signal, haha! It was pretty sad, my sister came with us and we drove like we were going home to get a signal, parked on the side of the road and updated our emails, called his parents & Shawna. Then we went to see Black Hawk, http://www.oregonil.com/parks-lowden.html it was neat - not as big as I remember it when I was a kid. We had a small signal up there again... then headed to Gramp's. We went to the Moose Lodge again Fri night and had fish... they do catfish and now have branched out and do a few others now (they used to only do catfish when I was a kid)... and chicken. Jeff ordered "2 fillets" or so he thought... they were two WHOLE catfish! It was funny.... he ate it all, said it was good. LOL!

Saturday rolled around and we got ready & went out to Rockford, to the mall - had to find my Aunt Suzie a gift and my Mom had to go pick up some Harley shirts for some friends, we had a signal there too. Then we went to Jami's for my Mom to see her and let the girls play some with Ava... then went back to Grandpa's to get ready for the party. The surprise party for my Aunt went great - she was really surprised and there were soooo many people there, it was nice to see old great Aunt's and stuff. The girls DANCED DANCED DANCED!!! It was sooooo cute. I have pictures & video, I'll update later. We left the party around 11pm because the girls were sooo exhausted & ready for bed. Got the girls back to Grandpa's and put them to sleep and followed behind them. I think that's when I started to feel bad, or should of known I was starting to...

Everyone was lazy in getting up & ready on Sunday... we loaded up and headed to my Uncle David's around 5pm, so my Mom could visit & see their house. Then we figured we'd eat and head home from there... what did we eat? TEXAS ROADHOUSE! Haahaha! Of all places! We were on the road heading home around 9 I think... Caitlin threw up about 30mins out (nice!!!) that was fun cleaning that up on the side of the highway! So of course the rest of the ride was fun because I didn't want to give her her bup cup because I didn't want her to get sick again and every time she coughed I'd jump and make sure she was okay... She didn't get much sleep... so that was a lot of fun dealing with a "wide awake" baby... she didn't really start crying until this morning when she was begging for her bup bup... we stopped to eat around 8am which was not very good, she didn't eat much but she did drink her bup a little. She stayed awake and pretty much cried the last 2 hours home... she finally crashed close to home and then once we got home, she seemed better - I guess the little nap was better. We got home to our house around 1:30... and all laid down to take a nap around 3:30... I started running fever again and Jeff was exhausted from driving. Hailey must of been tired because she crashed on the couch & Caitlin crashed once Jeff put her in her crib. I bet it was great for her to sleep in her crib!! I know it was great to sleep in our bed!!! Caitlin woke up with a 103 fever!! Hailey has been hanging out around 101 but seems fine... Jeff has been hanging out around 100-101 but doesn't feel tooo bad, just has an annoying cough and am exhausted with body aches. I have been hanging out around 101 and not going down. I am having hot flashes which is driving me nuts....

Wow, didn't expect to post all that right now but I guess since I got going - I kept going. I am sorry if it doesn't make sense, I don't feel good. LOL! I'll post pics soon! I still have Hailey's b-day pics to post!! How sad...