Feeling Giddy with Excitement

I am so excited about our upcoming trip that I can't control myself. I'll actually not be responsible for any toddlers for at least ten days! I can just enjoy family time with my husband and daughter all that time. We are planning on going to Chicago. The first night we'll stop in Lincoln, NE, where the temp was about 105 yesterday. Yikes! We're so excited to meet families who have adopted from Thailand at the Thai Family Reunion. Penny is planning to do a Thai dance and show them her khim (Thai hammered dulcimer). We also plan to go downtown to visit the Shedd Aquarium, eat Chicago-style pizza and perhaps see my Alma Mater, Moody Bible Institute, where I went to college in the late 80's/90's. We'll stay with my "adoptive" family, the Hanaoka's, who took me in when I was a lonely college student FAR away from the prairie land of South Dakota missing my family and sheep. Can't believe their oldest, who was a four year old in my children's church class is now grown up and teaching English in Japan just like I did twenty some years ago. On the way back from Chicago we'll stay with a former co-worker of mine from Japan and his family. So fun that we'll get to see their kids for the first time and then see some relatives in Minnesota before stopping in South Dakota to see my (Chandra's) family. This will be the longest road trip ever for us with our daughter. It'll be sure to be a memory-making trip!