Road trip

We've had a crazy last 4 days, but we are finally back home in Illinois! We left St. Simons bright and early Friday morning, pulling behind us a U-haul trailer. When we moved up to Chicago 2 years ago, we anticipated moving back to Atlanta this summer, so we left several pieces of furniture and LOTS of boxes with our family. So, we had to round up our stuff to bring back with us!

We made several stops along the way - the first being at Lane to meet up with the Pearson's for lunch! Their little girl Lucy just turned 2, and she is full of personality and just too cute!

We couldn't leave Lane without peaches, and somehow ended up with 50 pounds of them. I thought it would be nice to bring Georgia peaches to our midwestern friends. But as the guy who worked at Lane was loading them into our car, he told us they probably wouldn't make it until Monday (too ripe) and he said, and I quote, "Don't go into Cracker Barrel and leave the peaches in the car. They'll definitely go bad." Great. So not only are we traveling across the country with a toddler, 2 dogs, and a Uhaul trailer, but now we have a "third" child that we need to take out of the car every time we stop: peaches.

You should have seen us. We got pretty good at it actually. Stopping for meals went like this: Matt went immediately into the restaurant to get water for the dogs while I changed Will's diaper in the back seat. We would find a nice shady tree where we could tie the dogs up and block them from sight with our SUV/Uhaul get-up. Then we'd get the boxes of peaches out and find a shady spot for them as well, but out of reach from the dogs. Then Matt and Will and I would go in and eat and then start the process of getting Will, the dogs, and the peaches back in the car. I have no idea how many hours doing this several times a day added to our already 17-hour trip.

Our next stop was Atlanta, where we stayed with Matt's sister Jessica Friday and Saturday night. We took a break from driving Saturday, and spent most of the day loading the Uhaul with furniture Jessica had been keeping for us...

Watching daddy load the trailer

Showing off his standing skills in Jessica's backyard

He loves his Aunt Lulu (Jessica)

And his Aunt B (she also spent the day with us)

We got up Sunday and drove to Elizabethtown, Kentucky - the halfway point between Atlanta and Chicago. And today we drove the third leg of the trip, making a brief stop at an outlet mall we passed on the interstate (where we repeated all of the step above...peaches and all). But FINALLY, after 4 days on the road and 2 months away from home WE MADE IT! The other good news is the peaches made it too, and will hopefully be successfully turned into peach ice cream tomorrow.

And then we started the process of unloading...

It's hard to make trips to and from the car with a toddler, so we came up with a plan...

He enjoyed a goldfish break in the front yard!

We are SO glad to be home!!!