The Adventures of Allison & Benjamin: ROAD TRIP

Part Two: Illinois

We left early Monday morning and drove for about 10 hours until we got to Bloomington, IL!! Allison slept most of the drive, which was much needed and she was refreshed for our week in Illinois!!!

When we got to Great Grandma and Grandpa Payne's Alli was so excited to see them and I think they were just as excited!!! They got to play with Alli for a little bit before Uncle Brian came over and we went to dinner at Avanti's. Avanti's has awesome bread and Scott and I love the grilled ham and cheese sandwiches!!! When we got back, Alli got to show off her crawling that she learned from her cousins. Well, it's not full-on crawling but she gets up on all fours and rocks back and fourth and then lunges forward onto her stomach then repeats - We are getting close!).

On Tuesday, we slept in, went to breakfast, came home and played with Grandma & Grandpa for a little while. Later that afternoon, Scott, Alli and I went to go visit Aunt Tracy, Tony, Jennifer, Jessica and Dylan for dinner. Dylan cooked us dinner as a senior year school project and he did a great job! We gave Allison peaches for the first time and let's just say she is not a big fan! It was so fun to hang out with everyone and Alli enjoyed being with her Great Aunt and cousins! Along the way, we went to the Windmill farm they have in Saybrook/Arrowsmith and we drove by Scott's childhood house and Grandma and Grandpa's old farm in Arrowsmith. It looks a lot different when there are massive windmills in the background of everything now!

On Wednesday after breakfast, we went up to the OTB (Off-Track Horse Race Betting). This is one of Scott and Grandpa's favorite things to do together! Allison was not too into it. She napped the full time we were there. I do think that she will be a fan when she gets older since gambling obviously runs in the family! Then Wednesday night we had dinner with Scott's cousins! It was so fun to see/meet everyone and celebrate Hank's birthday! Alli had a great time and we gave Blair (expecting a baby girl in a few weeks) an inside look at life with a new baby girl when Allison grabbed my water glass and spilled it all over the table!! Blair- they are easy when they are little, but lots of fun when they get bigger!! It was great to spend time with all of them and thank you all for making the time to come see us!

On Thursday, we got to sleep in again! Then Great Aunt Debbie (soon to be a Grandma), Ron, Kelsey and Mitchell played hooky from work and school to come down and spend a few days with us!!!! Allison loved all the attention she was getting from Mitchell and Kelsey! They were calling dibs on who got to hold her next! The funny thing about this is I remember doing this with my cousin Nicci when I was a teenager! That night we all went to Great Aunt Terri's house for Dinner! We had some AWESOME B-B-Q ribs and chicken and for dessert we had amazing wedding cake!! We were celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's 55th wedding anniversary! Grandpa's brother Roger and sister Beverly were there to help celebrate. Beverly even gave Alli a book called "The Very Quiet Cricket" - there is nothing quiet about our little Cricket but the book is very cute and very sweet of her to think of Alli!!! We had such a blast just hanging out with everyone and eating good home-cooked food!!

On Friday morning, Terri, Debbie, Ron and the kids came up to Grandma and Grandpa's to hang out! We went to Avanti's for lunch and then off to the Bowling Alley! There was a little wagering going on between the boys on who could bowl the best and believe it or not Mitchell beat all the guys!!! Actually, he tied with Ron but the in the head to head roll off Ron scored a 8 and Mitchell got a STRIKE!!!! After bowling we hung out for a little while before Aunt Debbie and them had to head back to Iowa. It was so fun to spend time with you all!! Thank you for taking off work and school to be with us!!! Later in the day, Uncle Brian and Scott felt the need to wager some more so we headed off to the basketball courts. Uncle Brian smoked Scott in Horse and the free throw challenge - so much so that we had to leave them there because I didn't want Alli to see her dad cry! :-) Since this was our last night here, we just stayed in, ordered pizza, watched the Rangers & Cubs game, and spent as much time as we could with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Brian.
Saturday morning we went to get Allison's car seat checked at Kohl's. Grandma read in the paper that Kohl's was offering a check of your child's car seat, so we made sure we got it checked before we were off on the road for 2 more days. We passed!! It's always nice to make sure! Then we had breakfast, packed up the van and we were headed back to Texas! We drove all day Saturday until we got to Norman, OK and then drove the next 3 hours on Sunday morning until we got home!

It was so fun to be with everyone and Allison loved meeting all her Great Grandparents, Great Aunts and Uncles and her Cousins!!!!!

12 days and 3,046 miles, we officially made our 1st Family Road Trip! We can't wait until next year!