Long Holiday Weekend

Thursday was the 4th of July. Also known as one of the busiest days of our year. We got up and had a quick breakfast before heading to Glenview for the church parade. We decided not to go crazy with our entry this year and just wing it. We all wore red or blue and the kids had poofy necklaces and sparkler headbands. Nick had his roller coaster and Ellie her scooter. We dropped our chairs off for the Skokie parade on the way up to Glenview. We met Nana there, she was staying with friends. We did our lap around the circle and the kids got a to pick a prize for participating. We came home and packed our clothes for Michigan. I cut the melons up to take to Mom's house later. I got all the food ready for the picnic in the afternoon.
We went to the Skokie parade which was just as good as usual. Didn't know how it would be because Skokie re-routed the parade due to construction this year. We picked up our picnic and went back to church for the afternoon. We got to visit with a bunch of friends, the kids got to do all the races and games. Nick won 2nd place in his age group sprint.
We headed to Mom and Dad's in the early evening for a BBQ. Uncle Bry was in from WI and the GGs came over. It was a great time. Mom had the food spread taken care of. We visited in the yard after dinner. The kids lit some sparklers and played while we visited. We went home for enough time to grab our glow necklaces and bug spray. We finished the day at the fireworks. It was a great show and the kids were troopers for our very long day.
Friday morning Rob picked up Nana from Glenview and brought her here and we got in the car and left. It was smooth sailing to Michigan. We ate lunch of the way at Culver's. We were able to hit the beach in the afternoon for a couple hours. We have a small beach this year and it was hard to find a spot for all our chairs and umbrella - very crowded. It was hot and steamy but the water was still way too cold to be in. The kids don't have that temperature gauge and were in the water playing.
Saturday we divided our beach time - we were way too hot in the early afternoon. We went for a couple hours in the morning and then a couple hours in the later afternoon. I took the kids into St. Joe's to look at all the art. Every year they have a theme and businesses and artists paint the theme and they are spread all over the downtown area. This year it is transportation - so there are trains, caboose, airplanes, and helicopters. We weaved up and and down the streets and then went down to the beach. We counted the steps this time - 73 stairs down and then the same 73 up. I promised the kids we would come back again during the summer but we arrived to the car just as the rain drops started to fall. We took a long walk after dinner and surprised the kids with a trip to the soda bar for ice cream.
Today we spent a couple hours at the beach in the morning. We weren't aware how long we were there today because it was the first day there was actually a breeze and was pleasant. Up until today, the water was like a sheet of glass, not a a wave in sight. We came back and started our clean up - sweeping, and garbage. We dropped another air conditioning unit in upstairs. I washed the kitchen floor and tried to clean the back porch of a gallon of sand. The kids played a couple games with Nana before we got on the road. We only got about 5 miles on the highway before we were stopped. We got off and decided to take the back roads. We stopped in New Buffalo for ice cream at Oink's. We listened to the traffic report and decided to take it slow, as all roads into Illinois seemed to be backed up for miles. We did some shopping in Michigan City outlets. We were able to get Ellie a couple swimsuits at the Hanna outlet. Rob picked up a couple things at Old Navy. We continued to head West on 20/12 but we began to hear that was be suggested as an alternate on the traffic reports. It seriously took us about 5 hours to get home today. We did stop twice, so maybe 3.5-4 hours but still. Traffic was terrible and slow because of the holiday weekend. We came home and I made pizzas, we watered the garden, I got laundry in, and we ate dinner.
We agreed, we will not be traveling next year for the 4th. Nice weekend but getting home sucked. Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree