My Illinois Visit

 Hannah texting....like always

 Amish Town

 Me and Katy at the Tea House

 Hannah being herself

 My welcome plate to the tea house!! 

 This was what I had for lunch: chicken salad, pasta salad and brocoli cream soup and then had a german chocolate cake trifle. It was all delicious

 Hannah decorating our aquarium cake

 Finished aquarium cake

 Eric saw a pic of my hamburger cakes I had made so he told me he wanted me to make him one (I think he didn't really think that I would make him one) and this was the final project!!!

 Eric and his cake

 We drove Eric out to church and there was about 20 deer in the front and back of the church and on the side of the road. It was really cool

 The Indianapolis Children's Museum

 Hannah and Eric waiting in line for tickets to get in

I was blessed to be able to go to Champaign, IL to visit some really dear friends of mine that I hadn't seen for like 5 years! I was able to use my Christmas bonus to buy a plane ticket and was there for a week. So it's a really funny story as to how I met the Miller's. When I was 18 I started talking to their oldest son, Charlie, on the internet and flew out to meet him (but I had started talking to his family before I went out there) and things didn't work out with Charlie and me but I fell in love with his family and just have such a strong connection with them. Before I got married I'd visit them at least once a year, sometimes more but being married I haven't had a chance to go visit them so I was so grateful to be able to go see them.

For some reason I always feel that it's going to be awkward being there because it's been so long and sometimes you just drift apart from people but as soon as I see them it's like I just saw them yesterday and I just feel so comfortable with them and in their house. They are such amazing people and would do anything for anyone. They have been there for me in some hard times in my life and I have been there for them. I know we will be friends forever and am just so grateful they are part of my life!!!

So I flew into Indianapolis on March 23rd and then was there until the 30th and while there we went to a tea house in Clinton, IL, went and saw Little Red Riding Hood, decorated cakes, hung out, watched cake shows, watched You Again, had lots of laughs and on my last day we went to the Indianapolis children's museum. If you ever end up in Indianapolis for anything I highly recommend you going there even if you don't have children with you. It is 5 stories of just awesome things. There was a dinosaur, barbie, train, dora, courageous children (Ryan White, Ann Frank and Ruby something), doll houses, Egypt sections and a lot more. We got there at noon and left around 5 and still didn't really see everything. I had gone there about 12 years ago and it had changed a lot.

It was so much fun to just be with friends and not really having a schedule we had to stick to so we could kind of do whatever we wanted. We made a ton of memories and had some really good discussions. I'm excited to hopefully go back before the year is finished!!!