Allie Takes A Road Trip

Okay, so she didn't exactly go by herself - and she wasn't willing to share the driving - but she did go on her first Road Trip and she did great with the very long car ride! Luckily, she had videos to watch (Thanks, Jason), songs to sing (luckily - no one could her her out of tune Mommy) and naps to take.

Tim couldn't get off of work for this long vacation, so Allie and I and about every outfit she owns got into the car and headed toward Chicago to visit my family. We left around 2am and headed North. For the most part, I felt like we were making good time. We did stop for two leisurely meal breaks - which ended up being about an hour each time - which we both needed. However, that put us entering into Chicago at Rush Hour. Of course, to me it seems as if Chicago's rush hour is an all day long event. It is completely different than the traffic I'm used to. Anyway, in addition to the rush hour, we also seemed to only need the roads that were being repaired. Let's just say that the first 12 hours of the trip were nothing but easy and pleasant. The last 3 hours were horrid! We arrived at my sister Maureen's house (Aunt Moe-Moe) a little before 6pm. I was a bit frazzled and very tired.

It was a very long day for both Allie and I. Other than Allie being a bit emotional and unsure of where she was at and why, she did great. After a nice long sleep and a morning nap, she was pretty much herself again. We did notice she seemed to need to keep her fingers in her mouth more than usual. But, outside of that, she seemed to be fine getting to know everyone. She was reunited with some family members and met some for the first time.

On 4th of July we celebrated my Dad's (Allie's Grandpa's) 75th Birthday and this trip was to be able to be there for the celebration. In honor of this event, Allie showed us all that she has been listening to her Mommy's teachings and signed "Grandpa" for him. It was a wonderful present! In fact, while there, she also signed Grandma and Mom - all on a regular basis and with accuracy (meaning, she didn't call me Grandpa and Grandpa "Mom".) Funny thing is that I haven't been able to get her to learn the sign for "Mom". My sister, Allie's Aunt Moe-Moe mastered this with Allie right away. (Thanks, Moe!) I'll post more on the birthday celebration in my next update. Our little celebrity, Allie, was in a parade, too. No, she wasn't the main attraction, but no one seemed to tell her or her Mommy that little fact. We seemed to pretend the parade was in our honor.

We had a wonderful time on our 9 day vacation. In fact, we had such a good time that I'm trying to figure out how to post all of the pictures we took. I'd admit how many I took, but it is embarrassing. In fact, we all took so many pictures it was amazing. I'm so glad I don't use film anymore!!

More vacation stories to come,

Sandy & Allie - the Travelling Duo