Dr. Casey!

Aunt Casey graduated on Mother's Day with her doctorate in Physical Therapy! Congratulations Casey!!!

The girls and I flew up to Wisconsin so that we could be with her on her momentous occasion. It was a great flight... Izzy fell asleep before we reached cruising altitude, and Abby crawled into my lap, squirmed a little, and then slept until we started to descend 2 hours later. Perfect. The trip BACK to Texas...not so great....

While in Illinois, we got to be reunited with Flat Stanley for a picture!!!! Which was, of course, exciting for the girls, but not as exciting as getting to meet Alexa and Liana, Mark's and Tessa's sisters, who came home from Ethiopia almost a year ago. The whole family came over for a fun-filled evening... and Kathy and I realized that we've been friends for 17 years. Whoa.

The girls gave Casey lots of attention in honor of her accomplishment, with hugs, smiles, and giggles all around. We had a great time at Casey's graduation party, where the girls begged cake, pie, and chips from the guests' plates.

The girls did pretty well this trip with the adjustment to a new place, even taking pretty good naps. Izzy woke up around 4:30 or 5 each day crying, so I acquiesced and let her sleep the rest of the night with me... thankfully, that habit disappeared as soon as we got home! Chicki and GPa have stairs, so that was an adventure, but one the girls wanted to take over and over and over... they're fairly skilled now, but I'm still VERY nervous about them falling.

For some reason, I did not take very many pictures this trip. We did get to do a lot of fun things... we went to my favorite, the Shedd Aquarium to see the Belugas! That was a big hit, although the girls got pretty tired after the show. We visited the local nature preserve museums and got to watch a crow squawk and lots of turtles swim around. All in all, a great trip!!!