Who knew Illinois was so big?

As we began our drive from Illinois to Ohio I was thoroughly enjoying watching the scenery go by. I loved seeing the endless rolling hills and the big fields of corn and the quaint farm houses. I just watched it all go by and tried to snap a few pictures through the window.

However, after 5 hours had gone by and we were still in Illinois and still watching those hills and fields and houses go by, I realized how endless they really were. How was it possible that we were still in Illinois? I’m pretty sure we already past that very corn field and farm house! Will we ever get out of here? The driving was starting to get to me apparently. But seriously, who knew that Illinois was so big?

We got a little reprieve when we stopped for lunch. We noticed that we were approaching a city that a friend lives in, so we gave him a quick call and he happened to be free to meet us for lunch! It was great to see Chris and get a break from the car and all that farm country.

For some reason we greatly underestimated how long it would take us to get to Ohio. Originally we thought we would arrive in the evening, then morning of, we decided it would really be more like 8. About half way through the day we called our friends in Ohio and said “we aren’t going to be rolling in until around 10.” We finally arrived well after midnight. A drive like that is not so bad if you expect it and kind of have an idea of what you are in for. However, when you keep adding hours to your drive as you go it makes you a bit grumpy and tired of the car.

At least we made it without any major issues and no car problems. Thank God for this amazing car! We stopped and took a long walk around Walmart in the evening when we were getting especially antsy. We are still in awe when we walk into those big stores and see all the products to choose from. We bought the kids each one of those glow bracelets. We thought they might be fun for the car since it was getting dark. They were excited about them and were waving them around thoroughly distracted from being stuck in the car which was great until Masami decided to take a bite out of his. Anthony saw him from the rearview mirror with an ugly expression on his face and specks of “glow” on his mouth, face, hands. We sort of panicked not sure that neon glowing toxins were the best thing for our baby to ingest. I quickly cleaned him up, including wiping out his mouth and tongue. Fortunately, the package said that it was non-toxic, so no worries. However, we freaked Alethia out enough that she decided that hers was hurting her and hurting her blanket and she wanted it as far away as possible. There was no reasoning with her. Thankfully, that was the only exciting thing that happened.