the awesome kindness of strangers and family

Tucky loves the fish. Future Scuba buddy.
Whitney doing baby snorkling at the aquarium
Whitney getting comfuy on the way home.

Eating with Haly
babies at the park
Tucky eating with taylor

a most ideal picnic
What is that?!
I don't know. Grandma says its an osage orange
Enjoying the last of fall color
whitney is so cute!
tucky in the tub
tucky and eddie
whitney "cooking"
whitney loooking out the airplane window
Whitney making international friends
Tucky getting energy for the upcoming adventure.



We did it! We made it to Illinois and back. With lots of help. Hence the title of this blog. I had this crazy idea in September to visit my aunt in Illinois. I've really been wanting to visit ever since my parents went to Illinois when I was about 23 and not taking me with them. I was very bummed. But didn't want to be a bum by not having a job. So I stayed home. And then went later when it would be easier. Like traveling with two small children. When I booked the flight, I was thinking, well, I'll do it then because my mom is coming up and it would be nice to have another set of hands and who would say no to visiting Auntie Jill. Now I know. It would have been impossible to go without my mom. My arms are sore and I'm used to hefting Tucky around.

We left our house at 9 and got to Auntie Jill's around 8. There was a 35 minute lay over, which I thought would be ideal as it would minimize the amount of travel. We thought we gave ourselves plenty of time to get through security at Seattle, but found it was the perfect timing. Just as we pulled up to the gate, they were calling for us to board. Whoops. Didn't have time to buy water after security for the baby bottles. Help number one. Oh yeah. I guess it is help number 2. The guy behind us retrived the stroller tray that popped off when I was trying to make the stroller skiny enough to fit through the conveyor belt. I didn't know that was sent through security. I also didn't know that the front tray came off until it was on the other side of the security belt. We got a little delayed at security because the lady in front of us had a rock in her bag. She had gone for a walk on the beach and picked it up. She didn't take it out of her bag because she didn't know it was bomb material. silly her. I think she might have been very close to missing her flight over that rock. TSA wouldn't allow her to leave her bomb and run to catch the plane for some reason. Anyway, that caused us to not have enough time to buy water for the babies after security.

We then sat on a full flight for four hours. That was an adventure. The babies needed to eat twice during that time and were very curious about their surrounding environment. Especially Whitney. No nap for her. Life is too short to sleep. The people sitting next to me were awesome. The lady next to me didn't speak a lick of English. I believe she was from Hong Kong. It didn't matter. She sang and played with Whitney all the same and Whitney smiled and played back just like she does with me. Either she speaks better Chinese than English, or that's about as much sense as my English means to her brain. The lady sitting next to the window let Whitney look out the window. Whoa. THAT was fascinating. Whitney had a blast. This same lady also asked the flight attendent about our connecting flight to Bloomington. This resulted in the flight attendent moving us up several rows on the plane. Our flight would be arriving late. In fact, the plane would be landing the same time as we were supposed to be boarding. I guess the 35 min layover wouldn't happen.

Once we moved up a few rows, we met more awesome people. The ladies sitting next to my Mom took over. They carried Mom's luggage (Tucker was fast asleep in her arms this entire time. 2 hours or so to be exact. My mom's arms hurt still), got the cart driving people to drive us to the elevator, found the flight screen to help us find our next gate, and were generally wonderful. The ladies sitting next to me played with Whitney and helped me get a move on also. One of them was returning from Hong Kong after a college recruiting business trip. Which is why I think the people next to me are Chinese.

We ran. From one gate to the other, we ran. Part of it was uphill and lots of it was supposed to be up and down stairs/escalators. That was my workout for the day. Lucky for us they held the plane enough to let us catch it. That was awesome!!! Bloomington airport is small but very functional. And smaller than I thought. After being in Minniapolis and Seattle, it was a noice treat. My aunt saw us through the windows and I didn't even know that she was that close to us. Then we didn't have carseats. I guess the transfer was too close for carseats to make it, so we had loaner ones. So we waited until the Delta guy made something work with the American airline people. On the way back, we met awesome people that talked and played and helped with the babies. One even offered to buy us a sandwich so we could eat on the next flight, since they knew we wouldn't have time to do it going to the next flight. Everyone was more than understanding about those babies.

And the babies were awesome!! They only screamed twice. Once was because I didn't realize they were still hungry, and the other was Tucker on the decent back into seattle because his ears were hurting. They did awesome!

Then we got to my aunt's. She made welcome baskets for us. They had toys, books, blankets and pj's for the babies. Good thing. I ended up needing those a lot. My aunt also found pack and plays and a high chair so we didn't have to bring that stuff. It helped a ton. My aunt also made welcome baskets for my mom and I let us have her room with the babies. It was great!!

We went to Allerton park, a park that is like walking around in the A and E version of Pride and Predjudice. Absolutely beautiful. We went to Lake of the Woods and walked on the swinging bridge. Everyone was nice about Tucker screaming every night and giving up their space. It was so good to visit with my family all day every day and not be by myself. I got to get out of the house everyday, enjoy the sun, eat lots of yummy food, and my aunt did all the cooking and cleaning. She spoiled me rotten. And I ate it up. I hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed the trip. Daddy was so glad to have them back and took them to the aquarium today. Enjoy like we enojoied the trip!!
our last night in Illinois