How the rest of our vacation week went

The rest of our week with the kids went well. On Wednesday Larry took some of the kids to go see Transformers. Then Wednesday evening we went to see the fireworks on the Riverfront. We were soaked by the time they had ended. It was a fun yet wet memory. On Thursday I had to do my big grocery shopping. I took the four older girls with me and they were a great help. Because of our busyness throughout the earlier part of the week we decided to just hang out at the house on Friday. It was really nice. We worked on packing for our trip back up north. Throughout this week we also watched a lot of the Star Wars movies.
When we went to bed Friday, Larry started feeling really sick. Saturday morning he informs me that he can't make the trip up north to take the kids home. He said he had been up for over half of the night and didn't feel he could travel. Oh man did that throw me into panic mode. I printed out driving directions to the hotel where we would be staying, from there to the foster parent's home, and then back home again. I was terrified though. Perri ended up calling me (had to be a GOD thing I'm telling ya) and made arrangements to go with me. I was relieved to say the least.
My four bio children all wanted to go. I was going to leave the youngest with daddy but I knew he would be crying and I couldn't bear the thought. Nine children on an at least 7 hour drive (including potty breaks) did remarkably well. The 5 all made multiple comments of wishing they could just stay home instead of going north. We all stayed in hotel rooms so we could drop them off on early Sunday a.m. I think it may have been a first for our new additions. Pizza was ordered and with a little TV time they were off to bed.
Sunday we went to the store to pick up some batteries for the MP3 player and then we looked around a bit. I didn't want to take the kids over to their foster parents too early but also I wanted to make it home in a decent amount of time. On our way (to the foster parent's house) I called Larry so each of the kids could talk to him once more before dropping them off. I hoped that it would cheer them up a bit. It was sad to have to drop them off. I was so distracted with everything going on (talking with foster parents, making sure all the bags were out, etc.) that I didn't notice little Allen's tears flowing. I did notice, however, Eleana's who I practically had to pry out of my arms to have her get ready for their church service. I hugged each of the kids besides Allen who had ran into the house.

It definitely was a quieter ride home..

**I would like to say a special THANK YOU to Perri's family for allowing me to borrow her for the trip so I didn't freak out. I am sorry Andi for taking her away on such short notice. Also Perri I wanted to say I appreciate and value greatly the friendship that we have. I know of only a few people who would drop what they were doing at a moment's notice and serve as you did. I am glad you listened to the prompting and called me when you did. (BTW I see a McDonald's ahead :) )**