The Land of Lincoln and then home again!

So while we were in Illinois we had a hard time filling our time. Besides the fact that we had a newborn we also had some very chilly weather. Most days were a nice and balmy 10-12 degrees. And the snow did come. But there were some days where we just thought we'd go crazy so we got out and drove around to see the rural sites... not much to see, but it was nice to get out of the house. Oh, yes, this was the house we stayed in while we were there. The gracious Warner family, through church connections, let us stay in their home while they were holidaying in Florida so we had this large beauty to ourselves for about two weeks. When we arrived they had everything ready for us and for Kallen. From baby detergent and a crib to food and toiletries. It was so nice!This was our rural view from the front window of the Warner home. It really was quite beautiful. This was my favorite room in the whole house. This was the "do" everything room. I wanted to bring it home with me. This room in the basement was were we spent most of our time. Back to the left was our room and over to the right through the doors was were the big screen tv was. We spent our time watching tv on Scott's laptop. Kinda funny huh!This was the room we stayed in. It was very nice and ready for us when we arrived.

This is the video we made while Kallen was sleeping and during a very particularly boring period. Enjoy the isanity.

We watched all seasons of "The Office". We had never seen it before. The Office will always bring back memories of our time in Illinois.Taking care of my sweet babe. We were there long enough for his belly button to totally heal. Sleeping in together.The GPS saved our lives when it came to traveling through this foreign state. We didn't go anywhere without it. It was a dear traveling companion. Ready for church!

Scott and I chuckled at these streets signs. They were all backwards (the flags). Who made that mistake? Duh.The local grocery store. Scott and I called it Logi's. "Hey, can we go down to Logi's today to get some more diapers?" he heVisiting distance relatives for a sister in law. We were hoping to get some family history for our sister in law from a great aunt but came out an hour later with a full life story of a 90 year old woman who started smoking only 10 years earlier and came to the door to greet us with a knife in her hand. She had sent the family history in the mail a couple days before we arrived. But it was good to visit this old woman. She was very lonely. Too bad I didn't get a picture of Mary at the door with the knife, if I just had waited a few seconds more. :)Making dinner with the Warner family. They came home from their Florida trip on Jan. 7th. It was nice to meet them and spend time with them. They are an amazing family. Us with the Warner family.

Coming home was quite the adventure just as getting there was. We had tickets to fly out Wednesday Jan. 14th but we knew a horrible blizzard was coming in and the chance of us getting home on Wednesday or even Thursday was slim and we were getting very anxious to get home. We were still waiting for our paperwork to get through to Utah and back and we hadn't heard about the status since the Friday before. Tuesday morning Scott made some calls to the state of Illinois and found out that they had overnighted paperwork to Utah and that they should have it by now. Scott emailed the state of Utah asking for a phone call when the paperwork had been processed. He explained the weather situation and our plan to hopefully get out today. On a feeling Scott turned to me and said, "Pack up, let's go home." He changed our flight from Wednesday to that night at 7:00. We said good bye to the Warners and we were on our way to Chicago without a word from either state. We were going on faith and praying we got the call to leave as we were on our way to the airport. As we stopped half way through our journey for gas we got a call from the state of Utah stating they had recieved the paperwork and we were good to go. We now just had to wait for the call from Illinois. 20 min. later we got that call from Illinois that we were good to go through them and all we could do was cry. We were finally coming home and with our new son in tow. The flight was easy, Kallen was a gem and we arrived home at 10:00 pm. with a house full of neighbors, friends and family. Even our Bishop and his wife were there. It was so wonderful to be home after being away for almost three weeks. Kallen will always know what an amazing homecoming he had. He is one loved little man! The Banner was courtesy of my Young Women. (My dad took pictures of the night before. All we had was this picture of the leftovers from the morning after.)

Grandma's glad we're home!