Devon's Bridal Shower

Eli made his first road trip over the weekend.  He and I took a 36 hour trip to Omaha for Devon's shower.  (Ella-I would've taken you too if I didn't think that it was just too much riding for a 2 year old to handle.)  Here are the highlights of our trip:

Ride up there:

Due to extreme flooding in Iowa, I-29 was shut down.  This made for an EXTREMELY stressful ride up there as we had to arrive by the time the shower started at 1.  The whole trip was for a 2 hour bridal shower, so being a half hour late meant missing 1/4 of the shower.  We took turns that we thought were for sure the wrong way, but we didn't have an option.  After hours of traveling down 2 lane roads through corn fields, Council Bluffs appeared out of nowhere.  We arrived to the shower at 1:30. :(  Here are some pictures we took of the flooding when we actually did make a wrong turn.  Someone had actually drove their john boat to town, but of course we didn't get a picture of that!  I feel so sorry for these people, but I can't help but feel happy that it didn't hit St. Louis this time.  Thank you Army Corps for breaking their levies!




Shower: We enjoyed talking to Aunt June, Penny, Aunt Jeanette, Grandma Mealey, Aunt Nancy, and Devon for a little while at least.  I showed of Eli, who was all smiles now that he was finally out of his car seat. 

Afterwards: We checked into a very nice hotel that we got a super discount on using priceline.  None of us had ever used it and were very happy with the results.  Sadly, this was the nicest hotel mom's EVER stayed at.  I mean, it was nice, but definitely not THE nicest I've ever been in.

Next, we ran to Grandma Revenaugh's and switched out old family pictures for new great-grandchildren pictures.  Seriously, this was almost a Mission Impossible task.  We had only 15 minutes to spare and did not want to visit with her because we thought our appearance without dad would only make her confused and nervous.  Luckily she was at dinner when we made our sneaky moves. 

Then we met up with Grandma Mealey, Aunt Nancy, and Uncle Mike at Red Lobster for dinner.  (It was Devon's bachelorette party and Michael "wasn't feeling" Red Lobster.)  Here we really got to visit with everyone.  We stayed for a few hours talking, then went back to the hotel to go to bed early.

Journey home:
After breakfast the next day, we picked up Grandma Mealey and came home.  She'll stay with mom and dad for 4 weeks or so.  Mom is so excited.

I was SICKENED on 435 when a silver convertible blew past me doing at least 80 and cut off the car in front of me.  I had just said, "Driving like that is SO stupid!  What are they thinking?"  The guy in the backseat had his hands in the air like he was riding a roller coaster as the driver jerked the wheel quickly left and right, left and right.  They lost control, spinning out across 3 lanes of traffic, hitting the concrete barrier on the other side, then coming back toward us.  Everyone, including me, threw on our brakes.  I was very scared they would hit us and I wanted to be at a stop if it did happen.  Luckily, only parts of their car hit us.  Kristin called 911 as I called highway patrol and we navigated around the accident.  I can only hope that no one was killed or seriously injured.  I pray that my children never drive this way or ride in a car with someone that does.  It scares me that those kids THOUGHT they were just having a good time and in a second their whole lives could've changed.  I would describe seeing the accident as horrific and thinking about it, just terrifying.

The trip was overall a good one, even if it was a whirlwind.  I missed Ella like crazy though and was glad to be home.  There's no place like home. <3