We just got back from a whirlwind of a road trip hence the blog silence of late.  Traveling with five littles takes mucho preparation for me and then there's the post trip haze to come out of.  We drove through six states and Canada for a family wedding, making a few stops along the way.

Road trips have lost their fun and excitement, like a long time ago.  Remember when we took that trip out west with baby Luke four years ago?  And covered like 4,000 miles in two weeks?  I cannot see something like that happening anytime soon but hey, who knows?  Ben has been the happiest chillest baby thus far but he's not a huge fan of traveling and is a total homebody.  It's not terrible but I've just known since he was a newborn that it would be too much for him to take a long road trip and not worth the angst involved for any of us, especially him.  But soon he'll be old enough where maybe it'll be a *little* easier.  Anyway, because of that concern we decided for the first time ever to make the trip to Illinois in two days and stop half way.  

Yes, we are maxed out in this van.  Yes, I am on backseat entertainment duty.  Yes, I was just a little bit crazy-eyed.

We stayed at a somewhat sketchy hotel complete with lukewarm hot tub family swim time and pizza, pajama, and movie party.  The kids loved it.

I didn't get even one pic of us in our wedding finery!  Or from any part of the whole purpose for the trip!  Reception prep plus five children plus outfit changes plus family time plus wedding day chaos...you get it.  But we matched and it was quite impressive. 

We left very early the next morning and took a new to us route home that let us stop for Sunday Mass in Michigan and hear Mass from Father John Riccardo.  But first we got to visit with a dear and amazing college friend Mary and her family, one of whom happens to be Jen who I've gotten to know a bit online.  So good to see them.  So so good.

Look at us fancy bloggers and our brick wall backdrop!  Ignore the road trip hair.

Such an amazing family who had no problem welcoming us travelers into their beautiful home and then so graciously and generously feeding us.  It's times like these that make me long for heaven.  Unlimited time to be with friends and no hundreds of miles between us.  Until then, we'll just daydream once in a while about moving to Michigan...

Father has been such a gift to our family's spiritual growth and it was really awesome to be able to hear him preach and thank him in real life.  

And then it was back to reality.  But it's very very good to be home, even with the laundry.