So put me on a highway...

....and show me a sign... or rather, on second thought, don't. I've had enough highway driving for a while! Which means I must have done a lot of driving, because that's something I like!

Okay, I think I've managed to get my thoughts collected enough for a blog post. We've been busy all day getting stuff unpacked and doing several dozen loads of laundry...well, maybe not several dozen, but quite a few.

We got home yesterday evening, around 5. We left Springfield Thursday morning and drove to Georgetown, Kentucky, which was about half-way, and stayed there overnight. We stayed at another Hilton Garden Inn there...it was a little different from the one in IL, but I would definitely recommend staying at one if you're traveling. Hilton Garden Inn. They're very reasonable too...well, there are cheaper places, but these are clean and pleasant! :)

Let's see, what all did we do while we were gone? We left Saturday and stayed in Louisville, Kentucky. We were right by a mall and it was so busy. We were driving around trying to find someplace to eat that wasn't super busy. There were a lot of nice-looking places around there, that I'm sure would have been good, but they were all packed. Eventually we ended up going to Panera (after we found it again) and they managed to mess up almost our whole order! The girl running the cash register was new, so she rang stuff up wrong, so we got the wrong sandwiches, and they charged extra for Colin's milk. Apparently, milk isn't included with the kid's meal any more, but Dad had picked up an old menu that still said it was. Luckily the manager was working, so she got it sorted out about the sandwiches (they were out of what we ordered) and gave up a refund for the milk, since it said on the menu that it was included. She also gave us a refund on the sandwiches, so we ended up getting it almost all free! I think we ended up paying for one sandwich and my coffee, maybe. My caffe mocha wasn't messed up, probably because the manager made it! Oh well...we got some food anyway.

We got to Springfield Sunday afternoon, and we went out to eat that evening with my grandma, uncle, and three aunts.

Monday, I don't think we did much...oh wait, that was the day we switched hotels... Yeah, we did that in the morning, and then went to Hobby Lobby and a knitting store. I didn't really need anything, so all I got at Hobby Lobby was a button for a purse I'm working on. Then I thought we'd be able to just look at the yarn at the knitting store, but the guy working there was very annoying, and wanted us to buy the expensive yarn, and wouldn't stop talking very loud and shrill, until we highly regretted going into the store. Dad and Colin were waiting in the car, and luckily Dad called my cell phone and asked when we were going to be done, so we had an excuse to escape! Sheesh, if I'd had any idea it was going to be that annoying I wouldn't have gone there. When Rebecca and Andrea and I went to a knitting shop in Oregon, the girl working there totally ignored us until right as we were leaving! Not helpful if you needed any help, but I preferred that to being talked at.

We went to a little restaurant called Sgt. Pepper's Cafe, which was really neat. They had pictures of the Beatles everywhere and stuff. We went there to get horseshoes. Now horseshoes are definitely an Illinois thing (unfortunately). It's a piece of toast, with a steak burger on top, fries on top of that, and then a cheese sauce on top of it all. It's really, really, really good! :) I wish they made those around here. :(

Then we went to the grocery store and looked for some stuff to take to my grandma's house for the New Year's Eve "party". We finally managed to get through the packed grocery store and get a few things. It took forever to find ginger ale though! They don't seem to sell it much in Springfield. We finally found some that was the store brand, but it was just in little 1 liter bottles! What's up with that??

So we went to my grandma's house in the evening and sat and watched something boring on PBS until my aunt got a hold of the remote and switched it to "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve" which wasn't a whole lot better, but at least not so boring. Then it stopped (it had to be delayed on the stations in central time) so we watched the news and Seinfeld. And then when it came back on at 11:30, we watched it through midnight. So that was boring. And I thought last year was bad! Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Happy New Year's.

Tuesday we did some laundry, went over to my Grandma's house and sat around and talked some, and then we went to the church at four to get together with my mom's family. And that was fun! All of my second cousins were there, and we sat around and played Authors (which is basically like Go Fish, but with a bit more strategy), then we ate pizza and talked and talked and talked. Oh, and discussed Ricola cough drops among many other things. Those things are so good! They're not a whole lot of help if you have anything worse than a scratchy throat, but they taste lovely! Although not like butterscotch as far as I can tell! ;) (There was a bit of argument about that.) I can't even remember what all else we talked about...the thing was we'd get started on one subject and then get sidetracked onto another. And it's amazing how much we all had in common! I mean, they all see each other a lot, but I fit right in and agreed with them on a lot of stuff! And if I didn't agree with one on a subject, I agreed with someone else's opinion of it. That's one of the things that is so cool about relatives! All the same stuff you talk about in your family, but then you find a bunch more people who speak the same language! It's awesome!

Okay...so obviously I enjoyed that! :p

We all made plans Tuesday night to go to the mall the next morning and hang out. So my cousins came and picked me up from the hotel and we went to the mall, and wandered around looking at and making fun of stuff. And staying out of the way of the old people walking. Because, good grief, if you get in their way... I nearly got trampled at one point by an elderly gentleman walking very efficiently!

My cousin Lauren and I each got a hat. I'll have to take a picture of mine and post it on here. When we were almost done we decided to go get Chinese food for lunch (except for me because I had a huge breakfast). So were getting ready to leave when the boys decided they wanted to go to Borders...okay, that was cool, I wanted to also. So I went with them and the other girls started looking at B. Moss. Well, I didn't find anything at Borders, so I said I'd go find the girls. Which I did, and then Lauren and Ariel started trying on stuff while Jenna and I waited...which wasn't a problem, except that I kept getting called, because the guys were ready to leave!

They were leaving, they'd meet us at the restaurant. They were in the parking lot, they'd wait there for us. They'd driven around the mall and found where Lauren parked and were waiting there. Still waiting...

The guys are getting hungry and bored, I tell Lauren. She tells me they're almost done. We finally got out of there (and they did find some nice clothes, on sale too) and we went out to the car. I'd say the guys were very patient considering all the time we took! Especially when Levi warned us that he could walk around and look at things, but if someone started shopping, he couldn't stand it! So it was very nice of them to wait for us.

Then we went to the Chinese restaurant, and I ate a few bites of stuff and two fortune cookies. I was so not hungry! They all offered to share, but I really didn't need anything, especially since my grandma was going to take my family out for a late lunch! I was hardly even hungry then...I'm not used to eating so much for breakfast, I certainly don't have time to fix or eat all that most of the time!

So then all of us girls went to a candy shop, Pease's, which is apparently only an Illinois thing, because I'd never heard of it and they were all shocked and appalled that I'd never been to one! So we went there, and then they dropped me off at my grandma's house, and we all said goodbye. *sniff* :(

And then we went out to eat with Grandma and my aunts, and then went back to her house for a while, and I fell asleep on the couch because I had gotten up so early that morning, and then we said goodbye and went back to the hotel.

So, that was all of the trip...I don't think I've forgotten anything. I don't think I could live in Illinois, not in the winter time at least...I'm cold enough here, but that was just awful! And it's so dry out there, I'd have problems with that too. And if I got sick I'd probably end up coughing all winter instead of just for a month. Or rather, I'd get bronchitis, that's what my mom would get when she lived there.

And now I should probably go to bed! Wow, that was a long post, I hope it all made sense!

Mainly I wish all of my cousins lived closer to me! Closer and someplace warmer.