On the way to Madison (Saturday-Monday)

We made it home safe and sound from our trip to Wisconsin!! Addy had a great appointment with Dr. Schroth but I will go into more detail below! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers while we were away. Instead of doing a REALLY long blog I’m going to do 2 or 3 mini blogs (on the way to Madison, Madison & appointment, on the way home).

On the way to Madison…
Saturday:

We left Roanoke sometime between 9:45-10am and headed towards Indianapolis IN. We stopped for lunch in Barboursville, WV to give Addy a break from her car seat and she ended up falling asleep while we were out! Attempting to get her back in the car seat without waking her up was a failure but she seemed to be ok and not to grumpy! 25 minutes after arriving in Ohio James was pulled over for speeding…not the way we wanted to start our trip to Wisconsin but at least the ticket wasn’t too expensive!! For some reason our GPS took us off the Interstate and on to an Ohio country road full of hills, and turns which wasn’t too fun for Tracy and I in the back! We stopped one more time and finally made it to Indianapolis between 6:30-7:00. Our hotel was in the perfect location; down the road from a huge mall and LOTS of restaurants and right near the Zoo and the Colts Stadium. James, my mom and I headed down to the restaurants while Tracy stayed back in the room with Addy to put her to bed. We ate at Ram Restaurant & Brewery which was sooo good!!

Charleston, WV 

Ohio (flashing lights) 

Cincinnati, OH 

we got a little excited driving through Cincinnati because we recognized a lot of the buildings.  If you remember we went to Cincinnati for the SMA conference right after Addy's diagnosis June 2009.

just hanging out... 

taking a VERY short nap... 

the navigators...

Sunday:

We spent Sunday in Indianapolis to give us all a break from driving. In the morning we took Addy to the zoo and had a great time. For lunch we ate at the hotel (they had a TGI Friday’s) and then went back to the room to put Addy down for a nap. James, my mom and I went over to the mall to look around (I promise we didn’t force Tracy to stay with Addy each time…she wanted to) and had dinner at P.F. Changs. We went back to the hotel around 7 and decided once we cooled down we would take Addy out for a walk. She decided she was too tired so I gave her a bath and her and I stayed back in the Hotel and James, Tracy and my mom went for a LONG walk! By the time they got back Addy was sound asleep!!

checking out the jelly fish! 

she LOVED the sea lions!! 

and the penguins! 

waving to the polar bear (he was sleeping and when we came up to the window he woke up and looked back at Addy...it was so sweet) 

I think she could have stayed and looked at the Walrus all day! 

waiting for the Dolphin show to start...checking out the map with Daddy to see where we are going next! 

Meerkats 

Grammy feeding the Giraffe 

Lions napping on the rock 

On July 20 a baby Elephant was born weighing 280 lbs.  The zoo crew's said that they had brought the baby elephant out on Saturday (which we went to the zoo on Sunday).  Wish we could have seen the baby elephant 

The Blimp!  The Brickyard was going on Sunday while we were there...we tried to get close to the speedway but that definitely didn't happen!! 

downtown Indianapolis 

JW Marriott (blue building)...our hotel is the tan building in front (Courtyard).   

Colts stadium...HUGE 

walking towards the Mall (the blue glass bridge is actually a walkway over the road...connected to the mall) 

a really neat old Theatre... 

FBI mobile command ceter outside of government buildings

Monday:

We left Indianapolis around 10am and headed towards Madison. Our main mission getting there was to avoid Chicago and well…that didn’t happen!! The wonderful GPS lead us right to it but thankfully it was in the middle of the afternoon and not 5:00 traffic (I would HATE to see that place around 5:00 because the middle of the afternoon was TERRIBLE)! Before we got to Chicago we hit a lot of construction going through Indiana! We also got stuck in a really bad wreck but thankfully we hit the detour exit ramp quickly so we didn’t have to sit in traffic too long. The drive to Madison from Indianapolis was interesting. We saw lots of Wind Turbine Farms along I-65, tons of HUGE farms and A LOT of corn fields! We arrived in Madison around 5:30 (central time), unloaded the car and set up Addy’s equipment. We were going to take Addy to the pool but it wasn’t heated so it was too cold for Addy. James, Tracy and my mom went to dinner and I stayed back with Addy to get her ready for bed. Once they got back James and I went down to the pool/hot tub for a little while while Nana and Grammy stayed in the room with Addy.

wind turbine farms...they are all over Indiana and Illinois 

driving into Chicago 

we drove right past the White Sox field 

more shots of Chicago 

Willis Tower aka Sears Tower...it was HUGE 

taking a break from the long car ride 

back stretch!!

I will do another blog post with the rest of the trip!  My mom took A LOT more pictures then I did so hopefully some day I can get her camera and get her pictures!