Bus, Train, and Airplane

We're Back! We got out of the taxi at about 11:30 last night which means we were all total struggles this morning. The kids, luckily, slept in a little, but the Big Guy had to get up and go to work. Poor guy. I have so many pictures and fun things to show from our trip to Kansas, but I thought I'd start at the beginning and do a few posts so it doesn't get too long. So....I left off saying that I had decided to get a spray-on tan.

This was me trying on a possible rehearsal dinner dress BEFORE the spray-on tan. All the strapless-ness made me decide that a tan was necessary. Lets just say that it turned out "ok". I was definitely orange for the first day...and very worried. But by day 2 I was faded quite a bit (after one shower) and, actually, by the wedding, it was pretty much almost-gone. So, if you are considering getting a spray on tan, I'd say do it the day before the event, with enough time for ONE shower to tone it down a bit.

Getting to Kansas requires taking various modes of transportation. We started on the bus. Sammy loves the bus and talks a mile-a-minute about the experience, which entertains the old ladies sitting next to him.

We take the bus to the "el" which is the subway.

Sammy loves the train, but it makes me very nervous to stand on the platform with him because I keep getting these images of him falling into the tracks and me not being able to get him out. I really do make little escape/rescue plans in my head for how I'd get to him before a train came.

Poor the Big Guy had to haul most of our luggage. He had one giant duffle on his back and two rolling suitcases. Don't worry. I carried the camera so he didn't have to.

I refuse to show you a full-body spray tan picture from day #1 of the spray tan, but just to give you a glimpse: here is my foot next to Claire's regular-skin-colored foot.

While riding the blue-line train, I spotted this sign from the Young Republicans in Chicago and thought my politician brother-in-law would get a kick out of it.

It said "It's not easy being RIGHT in Chicago" and then says something about joining the young republican club in Chicago. Hilarious.

We finally arrived at OHare Airport after taking both bus and train, only to find out that the plane we were riding on to Kansas was TINY. So tiny that there were only two seats on one side of the aisle and single seats on the other side. We decided the boys should sit together.....

...Claire should sit in one of the single seats in front of me....

....and I should sit in the other single seat all by my lonesome. Not a bad arrangement I have to say. The engine was so loud that I couldn't hear what Matt and Sammy were talking about in front of us, but it seemed they were having lots of lively conversation. I'm sure Matt enjoyed himself thorougly. :)

And here is my favorite part of the commute: landing in Kansas.

I love how the ground looks all divided up into separate farms. I bet those people have chickens. Lucky!

And here is how you REALLY know you've landed in Kansas. See, when we land in Colorado I always love seeing the signs for where to pick up your skis and the big conveyor belts loaded with ski and snowboarding equipment. Florida has these nice messages playing over the loud speaker telling you how nice you look and how happy Florida is to have you there. In KANSAS, you see signs telling you where to pick up your guns. Awesome. See....they don't tell you where to pick up your gun in Chicago. I wonder why?

Stay tuned for the rehearsal dinner photos.