The weekend expedition

This past weekend I packed my sister, my parents, and myself into the van for a trip northward. The purpose of the expedition was to transport all the shower gifts to our new house and as I was not about to get on a train with 75 gifts in tow, we just made a road trip out of it. I was so proud of my packing skilz at loading all the gifts into the back of the van that I made Aaron and Willie go outside and view my handiwork at 1:35am. Apparently pride goeth before a packing fall because immediately after I shut the back door I found four more items that I hadn't packed.

No one in their right mind would ask me to give the directions, but I was hardly able to sit back and relax for 7 hours without a job. The driver side window of the van refuses to open so I, sitting behind the driver, had to open my door each and every time we came to a toll. At the first tollbooth I felt the need to explain to the man giving the ticket why on earth he was dealing with someone in the backseat when the normal procedure is to hand it to the driver. He looked at me like he wouldn't have cared if a four-eyed alien rode by on a cow so I decided to keep the information to myself for the remainder of the trip.

We stopped at the capital along the way and found this wonderful statue. I don't know it's official name, but I have dubbed the dancers Fred and Ginger.

We took a tour of the state house and learned all sorts of interesting facts and tidbits. My dreams of becoming a politician were revived when I saw the buttons the senators and congressmen get to push when voting on a bill. It really does not take much to entertain me.

Look what we saw when we left the state house! It's a bunch of official looking people with flags and guns! And people were singing! And a crowd was gathering! Surely some sort of monumental event was occurring! Maybe a rich and famous person was in town and weren't we lucky to be at just the right spot at just the right time! Imagine the stories for the blog!

Or maybe they were just dedicating a small memorial to people we had never heard of.

Dad was so excited about the weekend that he did his best Bert the chimney sweep imitation. (Have I mentioned that I l-o-v-e Dick Van Dyke?)

We eventually arrived at the apartment and I gave my family a grand tour of all six rooms. They were all very impressed. I was glad they liked it, but I was slightly more interested in counting down the minutes until Christopher came home from work. (Have a mentioned that I kind of like him just a little bit? Well, I DO.)

Saturday morning we unpacked the van and began the process of finding every spoon, plate,platter,towel, sheet,bowl,pan,and potholder its own home. We don't have much unused space in the kitchen anymore but that's ok because I think it looks just lovely. Katie saw and fell in love with these towels when we were on our pre-registry investigation, so you'd better believe they were immediately placed at the top of my list. 

Later that day we got back in the car and went to a harbor across from Canada. I tried impressing upon Elizabeth how exciting it was that for FIRST TIME EVER she was viewing another country, but she wasn't quite as enthusiastic as I was. Sometimes I think I just get too excited about things. Case in point- pushing the voting buttons at the state house. 

While we were eating breakfast one morning, a fluffy white dog came waltzing in the open door. I named him Biscuit but we later found out his real name is Chief. I still think he looks more like a Biscuit. Apparently things were much more exciting in our neck of the woods because Biscuit/Chief came back again when we were preparing to leave. I forgave him for tracking mud all over the house because he made Elizabeth so happy.

One thing I love in our house is the special mailbox I bought at Joann's for us to put special letters and cards in that we write to each other. It has a cute little flag and sits on a bureau in the bedroom. I have always found great joy in getting the mail everyday(except on the days when I get bills), and I love having a little mailbox that's just for us.

The next time I go up to the apartment will be after the wedding!!