i'm recovering from a long, exhausting - yet very fun - weekend. we went to chicago. porta graduated from kellog with his mba and we wouldn't have missed it. so we went. my weekend started on thursday. but let's back up to wednesday and the 12 loads of laundry i did because it had been a week since i had done any laundry and we needed clean clothes to take on our trip. have you ever done 12 loads of laundry in one day? do you even have enough clothes to do that? by 11 p.m. i was just so tired of doing laundry. i was so tired, period. the kind of tired where you just want to whimper and cry and then hide under the bed covers for a very long time. it was that kind of day.

we left thursday and came back monday night. we stayed at the courtyard marriott river north. it was so great to be right by everything in downtown chicago. i kind of wish we had another day to really enjoy it. but our long weekend was jam packed celebrating porta's graduation, meeting new babies, visiting family and reconnecting with good friends we haven't seen in a long time. and as a super bonus...chrissy was in chicago at the same time! yay for time with dinner buddy!

the boys were unbelievably good. they endured long lunches, an extended dinner in a fancy italian restaurant, a graduation ceremony in an un-airconditioned arena, torrential rain and thunderstorms and one room for all six of us with great attitudes and good behavior. well, they got a little loud in the hotel room and made me a little crazy, but i can't really blame them for wanting to let loose a little. they weren't even being bad, just noisy. it was more me being impatient and not wanting our hotel neighbors to hate us.

we shouldn't have been able to go on this trip. we still don't know how our finances are shaking out now that we are officially on one income. it's expensive to stay in chicago...yet somehow, god makes everything work. we actually only ended up paying the whopping $48/day parking fee at the hotel. the room was paid for with marriott points, courtesy of eric's mom. i coinstarred our change and it ended up paying for our tickets to the field museum and then some. i feel so fortunate to have such good friends and to be able to spend time with them in their own city. with 4 kids, it's tough to travel and everyone ends up having to come to us. it was nice for once to be able to visit them instead. plus i love taking the boys to new places.

i'm still dog tired, but i have my coffee and that always helps. next trip: the soo in two weeks!