I Am Thankful

And we're back.

I was afraid this would happen and it has happened: recounting the past 7 days is enough to keep me in blog hiatus land forever. Since I usually explain our days for my family's sake and they were with me all week, I think I can get away with being pretty brief.

The highlights of the trip:

13 hours (each way) in a car + 4 people + Christmas presents out the wazoo (or kazoo, as my mom would say) = one exciting trip. On the way up people actually stared at us as they drove past. We're not sure if it's because we are THAT attractive (my guess), or that all you could see in our car were gifts. We considered stopping to get some Santa hats but opted against it. It was a nice trip but we were SO glad to finally get there.

Evan was adorable. He had a few hours each day of being a bit fussy, but for the most part he was one happy baby. I FINALLY conquered my baby anxiety. The first time I held him I made Michelle wait until I sat down, put my arms in "baby hold" position, and took a few deep breaths. By the end of the week I didn't think twice about grabbing the kiddo from any angle (or anyone). I am now afraid I might grab random stranger's babies because I love them so much. Evan definitely had his favorites. He LOVED sleeping on dad. I think each of us were able to take a nap with him on our stomachs but dad was by far his favorite. And if Michael was anywhere near him, he was completely fixated on Michael's face. It was like he'd never seen anything so beautiful (smart kid)! :)










On Monday, Justin took Michael and I to visit his mine. For any of you that don't know, Justin is a Mining Engineer (I put that in caps because it's impressive) and spends most of his time at work solving big equations and other fun things. I took a picture of his white board because it explained his job so much more than I ever could. The mine was amazing and so huge. At one point he turned off the car and we just sat in the dark. It was a little creepy how your eyes would never adjust. I kept putting my hands in front of my face and eventually shut my eyes because I hated the lack of control. I figured with my eyes shut it wouldn't weird me out so much. It worked.




On Tuesday, Michael and I took off for downtown Chicago. It was very nice weather for late November (mid 40's and very sunny) so we were able to spend the day on Michigan Avenue. We met our friend Jamie for lunch and then visited the ol' bean (the first time Michael saw the bean it was under construction). Before dinner we had cocktails on the 96th floor of the Hancock building and had an incredible view. One of the highlights of the trip was our hotel. I am about to hyperlink the crap out of this place (because it was that good). The hotel was called The James. It was one block off Michigan Avenue and very, very modern. The first thing you see when you open the door to your room is this giant stocked bar. It had every kind of beer, liquor and snack you could imagine. They also had Kiehl's products, which were awesome. (We ended up driving to Lincoln Park the next day to visit a Kiehl's store so we could stock our own bathroom!) The best part, however, was when we came back from dinner. They'd turned down the bed for us, fixed the lighting, closed the curtains, turned on soft music, and had put robes, slippers, and 2 cookies on our bed. I was amazed. I am more than willing to admit I am not a hotel connoisseur so perhaps you are all reading this and saying, "yea... so?" but to me, it was like I was a 7-year-old getting my very first trapper keeper. Angels sang and babies (Evan) giggled.




This is getting longer than I intended. My apologies. We spent 2 days in Chicago and then drove back to Wauconda (where Justin and Michelle live). Spent the rest of the week enjoying delicious food, Evan, and family. It was a very thankful Thanksgiving for all of us. We put Evan in a Christmas onesie while we opened presents (this was the Besancon family Christmas since we will be spending the holiday with Michael and Michelle's families) and had a great time. My mom and I did some minor shopping on Black Friday but did not venture out until after all of the early shoppers were already back home and in bed. We repeated the 13-hour drive on Saturday back to the great state of Arkansas. Michael and I played dominoes on my phone for about 7 hours of the trip. I think I dreamed about little white dots Saturday night. At one point during the drive my parents were talking about binary numbers and Michael gave me the "what the hell is going on?" look. I told him later, "Your family talks sports stats, my parents talk binary." After seeing his face, I now understand why I was able to convince so many kids in high school that our family had "Tuesday Proof Night" at our house. You don't solve the proof, you don't get dinner.

And so wraps up our Thanksgiving trip. We drove back to Tulsa yesterday and I put up about half of our Christmas decorations within 30 minutes of being home. The rest will go up this week. It's beginning to look somewhat like Christmas! :)

(For more pictures, CLICK HERE!)