Fun In Two Directions

If you read yesterdays blog post, you know that David and I headed out separately this morning. I guess you can't exactly say in "two directions" because we geographically ended up in the same general area. Yet, any time we are apart it is two separate directions. All three of us were up bright and early this morning as Madeline and I had to drop David at the airport early enough to catch a 7:25am flight. Sooooooo not fair.....David was calling me from Chicago when I was only 1/4 of my way through the trip.

I do have to say that this 500 mile "solo + Madeline" trip had the potential of being disastrous but Madeline was a true trooper....despite having to hear me sing along to my CD collection for the majority of our trip. Anyway, if I had flown, I would not have been able to meet with another family that David and I met while in Russia.

Halfway thru our drive, Madeline stopped by Karen and Huibert's house (It was a shame we missed Huibert). It was so nice to see Karen again as she is just so easy to talk to and the two of us are similar in so many ways. I was able to meet her older son, Linus (also adopted from Russia) and it was great to see Milana again. Actually, Karen, Huibert, David and I spend many days traveling to the Baby's Home together for our twice/day visits to see Madeline and Milana. It was soooo not out of the way at all to visit them while passing through on the way to David's parents. We actually probably would've met up with them before this however Karen & Huibert were living in Germany for two years post-Russia. They are planning a visit to Niagara Falls later this summer, so hopefully we will be able to see them again soon while they are in our neck of the woods. Certainly, the kids would enjoy it as they got along great together.

After our visit, Madeline and I had to continue our drive. Karen made us yummy lunch on our visit but by the time we got to our final destination it was dinner time. After a long day on the road I wasn't feeling up to heading out to a restaurant. Knowing that we would have a fridge and microwave in our room, we headed to the grocery store as soon as we got in town so that I could pick up a few things for our stay. Meijer's had a descent prepared foods section (nothing like Wegmans though!) so I picked us up a Chicken Parmesan/spaghetti entree and green beans. After we headed to the hotel and unpacked the car, I warmed up our food and Madeline and I had dinner in the seating area near our room. After dinner. Madeline and I jumped in the pool. Madeline was doing great in the pool however, sad news.....Madeline is now able to touch the bottom of the pool in the area near the pool's bottom step. Why is this sad???......our baby is growing so fast! After a full day, Madeline had absolutely no problem falling asleep tonight.

As for David, he won't admit it but he is in his glory. He went to the 1pm Cubs game with his best friend Jon (see photos of David as well as a view from their seats). I thing David was also meeting up with some work contacts but I don't know which game (or both) that was for. In the evening, David also headed to a White Sox/Yankee game....again, see photos. One reason they went to this game was that Jon is a huge Yankee fan. I was amazed and couldn't figure out why David chose to purchase and wear a Yankee t-shirt for this game. With the help of Jon's enlightenment, I was informed that David's NY baseball team shirt wasn't so much meant to be a "Go Yankees" statement but rather an....anti-White Sox statement.
The day is catching up to me....must go to sleep.

David ready to see Cubs















A view from their seats at Wrigley
















A YANKEE shirt?!??!



















Seats for Yankee/White Sox (in Chicago)