After Anthony and I were at the Chicago airport taking our respective planes, Patrick again packed up the van and drove cross-country with the kids. This time, he was doing all of the driving himself since Anthony was no longer with them. On Monday they drove from Chicago to St. Louis and stopped at the Arch. Natalie actually seemed excited about this one, and Eric told me that he thought it was pretty cool that they got to get in the Arch and ride to the top. At the top they got a wonderful view of the city.
They had a late lunch/early dinner at Chili's. Patrick planned on specifically stopping there because it's one of Natalie's favorite restaurants, and Monday was her birthday--more on the birthday later. After that stop, they drove on until Springfield, where they stopped for the night. The drive was over seven hours total.
On Tuesday, they drove another six hours plus, until they got to the Dallas area. There, they specifically stopped by to see Patrick's paternal aunt. Even though they technically live close to us (about 5-6 hours), we haven't seen them since Anthony was our only child. We would have seen them in Milwaukee this weekend, but they had a devastating loss last week. Their daughter-in-law died suddenly, and they are still recovering.
They had a nice visit. The kids got to meet Aunt Jean and Uncle Dave for the first time, and Patrick's cousin Debbie was able to come over. Aunt Jean even baked cookies for them. Now we're all Facebook friends so we can keep tabs on each other. I was sad that I missed it.
Today, Patrick made the five hour or so drive back home. I got off early from work, but they still beat me home. I'm slowly combing through all the pictures and I still hope to post more of them by the weekend.
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