Blitz Trip to Columbus, OH

With Ben out of town for an entire week last week, I was starting to feel like I needed to do something while he was gone. I had plenty of things planned for the beginning of that week, but I decided last minute to drive to Columbus, OH to visit my friend Rachael and her family and to make the last few days of Ben’s time away not so hard.

Now, I would be lying if I acted like I had no trepidation about driving six hours, two states over by myself with a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. But really, how bad could it be, right?? Worst case, I figured I could always turn around and drive back home if they were really awful in the car. I packed enough snacks to feed an entire school and tried to have a lot of variety and levels of snacks (lollipops and fruit snacks were my last resort that I ended up not needing to use, which was nice).

I woke up at 5:30 on Sunday morning, threw everything in the car, woke up the kids and off we went. I figured out how to switch the DVD in the DVD player while it was hanging in its case between the two headrests, and probably did this five times while driving. It was tricky because I didn’t want to take my eyes off the road. Not to mention that my arms aren’t that long, so it was a little awkward. But we did it, and those movies made the trip bearable. We only stopped once really fast so Eli could pee on the side of the road. I had put him in a pull-up so we wouldn’t have to worry about stopping, but Eli was insistent on stopping so he could go, so we did.

I loved driving on Sunday morning because there was zero traffic going around Chicago. Seriously, how often does that happen?? HARDLY ever. So I relished in the open roads and the lack of constant braking that usually comes with driving around the lake to go east. We made it to Columbus in five hours! Not bad.

Rachael and I have been friends ever since her husband came here to get his MBA at Northwestern. She lived in a house within walking distance of mine, so we would meet up and take frequent walks together with our kids. It’s funny because now my friend Krista lives in this same house and we are close friends. (Krista, come back soon!! We miss you :) She’s been away all summer while her husband was doing an internship. And she had their third baby last week.

So back to the trip. When Rachael and I get together, a lot revolves around really good food. It’s essential that we make Whirly Pop kettle corn and bake yummy treats, eat delicious food… I brought my blender of course (who doesn’t travel with their favorite small appliance? You know I’m still obsessed with this thing :) and made spinach smoothies for her family.

Another highlight, however, was going to get ice cream at the local hot spots. We went to Graeter’s one evening – I LOVE Graeter’s ice cream. I wish it was here in Chicago, but it’s not. I splurged and got a yummy waffle cone bowl, drizzled in chocolate, filled with one scoop of black raspberry chip (YUM) and one scoop of chocolate almond coconut fudge ice cream (ALSO YUM). Eli got plain chocolate with a few sprinkles, candy eyes and a sugar cone. I told myself it was okay that I got two scoops because Charlie shared with me and was scarfing down this delicious treat. I had to eat fast to keep up with him :)

The next day we tried Handel’s ice cream, which was also delicious! However, we ate this outside in the middle of the day when the sun was shining hotly over us. The ice cream was melting like crazy, which meant my kids were SUPER messy, and by the time we were done I had ice cream all over me from my messy messy kids. It was worth it though! I liked both ice cream shops.

Charlie is Mr. Sunglasses man, so he kept that hot sun out of his eyes with one of his many pairs of shades:

On one of the days, I took some pictures of Rachael’s kids. Well, only her two younger kids because her oldest son was not interested in having me take his picture. Which was totally fine! Here’s Nathan, the youngest of the three:

And cute Megan, who was really sweet with my kids:

The two sweet younger siblings together. You missed out, Christopher! :)

Charlie and Eli played in a neighbor’s gravel pile while I took the other kids’ pictures:

On the last night, we went on a walk/bike ride around their neighborhood. Rachael lives in a neighborhood with a ton of kids and everyone leaves their garage doors open. We think it’s a signal to let neighbors know that they’re home and kids are able to play? It’s interesting. Especially when you compare it to where we live – you don’t want to keep your garage door open because someone will most certainly steal your valuable possessions (our neighbors are definitely not thieves, but there are plenty of thieves lurking around, waiting for an opportunity to steal bikes or whatever else).

Charlie found this ride-on toy in the garage and was insistent on riding it. This made our walk extreeeeeemely slow though. So I stayed back and walked very slowly with Charlie, who went back and forth, riding on it, then pulling it, then going back to riding it.

Eli was up ahead with Rachael and the kids, and at one point fell and skinned both knees. He seemed fine initially, but later he was tired and upset about the hurting knees, and would not stop screaming. He wanted his imaginary friend, Eli the dog, to comfort him, but Eli (the kid) was sad because the dog was still at our house in Chicago. I kept trying to convince Eli that his dog could come help him, but Eli kept insisting the dog was not there with us.

Yet all of the sudden as I was trying to convince Eli to let me put band-aids on his knees so he could sleep comfortably, Eli the dog appeared and was on Eli’s side, talking like a dog and shaking his head and letting me know that band-aids were not an option. (I finally snuck them on his knees, much to his dismay)

Eli the dog is a part of our everyday conversation, so I wasn’t surprised that Eli the kid wanted his dog around when he wasn’t feeling well. It’s pretty funny seeing my little boy have this whole world with his imaginary dog.

I had such a great time talking with Rachael and seeing her new surroundings (they moved there from Cleveland not too long ago). Thanks Rachael for being such a fabulous hostess, for helping me get my oil changed (my car was long overdue for one) and many other things. I’m sad I didn’t get a picture with her while I was there! Next time :) And thanks for helping me wash my kids’ car seats/covers when we realized there was nasty spilled milk and they REEKED that awful old milk smell.

We drove back the next morning (on Wednesday). We stopped once on our way out of town to buy some produce at a small fruit stand, but otherwise drove straight through and made it home in six hours, which wasn’t bad considering we arrived at the south end of Chicago in the early afternoon and there was a lot of traffic. Our drive home was great because I had rented a few kids’ movies from redbox the night before, which kept my kids’ interest more than the same old movies we always watch that are in our collection. Plus they were longer movies, so I didn’t have to change them as often, which was a plus for me!

We were SO excited to see Ben when he came home from work (he got home the night before – I didn’t come back that early because I wasn’t able to drive to Ohio until Sunday and it would have been too fast to turn back around on Tuesday).

I’m glad things are getting back to normal again! I promise I’ll blog more regularly soon too. This summer has been so, so busy and I feel like I’m juggling 20 different things all the time. From developing my photography business (my new web site is almost ready), to doing photo sessions and editing them (and I still have  yet to post them on my photog. blog, which I feel bad about), to writing articles, to keeping my house clean (or attempting to do so), to taking the boys on fun excursions and outings… there just isn’t a lot of time left to do the other 100 million things on my list :) It’s okay though. I am working on finding a balance. It’s an ever-evolving process!