More Weekend Pictures

Our weekend was so full of fun stuff that I decided to post the rest of our misc. pictures in one post.

Em, Jeff, and the girls came on Friday afternoon, so we got to spend the afternoon and evening hanging out with them before we headed up on Sat.  The kids all made quick work of destroying the living room. ;-)

This weekend was Lay Renewal Weekend at our church, but we were going to be gone.  There was supposed to be a bowling event on Friday, so Madie invited her friend Michael and we all headed over to the church to enjoy the events they had going on that night, since we were going to miss the rest of them over the weekend.  When we got there, we found out that it didn't start at 7pm like I originally had thought.  It started at 8!  That meant it wasn't going to be over until after 9 and I knew that would be too late for Em's girls and too late for us with such a busy weekend ahead of us.  Didn't want to disappoint Michael, especially, since he skipped the Youth Center activities for this event, so we decided to head to R.Grotto, a local restaurant, and have dessert.  We had ice cream, cinnamon bites, and some cheesecake.  It was delicious and definitely a good change of plans for the night.

With all that sugar in them, they weren't quite ready to go to sleep, so they sat up and read stories.  Kendalyn loved reading stories with Livie. :-)

The next morning, Pete dropped off Tater at John's house and we spent the morning getting our showers and getting everything packed.  Jeff and Noah were content to play Wii, while we moms were busy getting things gathered and kids cleaned up.

Pete had the very difficult job of sitting with sweet little Avery.  Doesn't look like he's too sad about taking on that job. ;-)

When we got up to Schaumburg, we were too early to check into the hotel, so we went searching for some lunch.  We decided to go to Five Guys.  We've never been there and it was really yummy!  Great choice for our first meal!

We were able to check into OUR room (Em and Jeff's wasn't quite ready), so we all dumped our stuff off there after lunch, Em included, took a quick potty break, then headed out to shop at Ikea. I'm the only one of the 9 of us in our group that had ever been there, so I was excited for them to see how fun it is!  The kids loved it especially and I'm pretty sure the adults did too.  We found this stuffed broccoli, so I just had to get my picture taken with it.  Would've been a better picture if I had a knife pointed at its head, but didn't have one handy.

After some shopping, we went back to the hotel to relax for a few minutes, before heading out for supper.  We met up with Jill, Trevor, and Ty, who literally live like a mile from our hotel and this restaurant.  We went next door from Five Guys to Noodles and Company.  This was my favorite place!  The kids were excited to see more cousins and we had a nice time chatting.

The next morning, we all got up early, Pete ran out to pick up breakfast, and the Spichers joined us in our room to eat.  We got our shirts on and were getting ready for the Walk!

My two special guys!

Yes, that's me back there with all the kiddos, except Avery.  We were so excited to get over to the park and see what great stuff was in store for us!

After the race, we celebrated wtih Portillos, then headed back to Ikea for a little more shopping.  We bought a new buffet!  I was so excited.  I had been eyeing it since I went there with my bestie Michelle and her mom back in March (I think).  When we walked outside to load up the boxes, the skies opened up and it just started pouring like crazy!  There was thunder all around and it was crazy!  As soon as we said our goodbyes to Em and Jeff, we left to go see Jill and the boys again (Adam was in IN helping his mom move).  As we left, we heard sirens going off.  Oh, goody!  A tornado!!  So, we booked it to Jill's and spent some time in their basement until the storm had passed.  You can tell the kids weren't too bothered by all the drama. ;-)

We were so glad to spend the weekend with my sister and participate in the walk, but also find time to see Jill and the boys while we were there.  It was a great time!