Hello everyone! I hope you are staying warm and cozy, wherever you are in the world right now. In Reno, we had our first official snowfall of the year this morning which was exciting to wake up to. I am going to recap my fall break trip in this blog post. I traveled back home to Arlington Heights, Illinois from Wednesday, October 9th-Sunday, October 13th. I spent a lot of time with family and friends and had a great long weekend home.
Like I said above, I left the morning of Wednesday, October 9th and was lucky enough to have a direct flight to O'Hare! This doesn't happen often flying from Reno. I landed about 1pm and my mom picked me up from the airport! It was so nice being reunited with her. We drove over to Mount Prospect for lunch and a mani-pedi.
After our Mani-Pedi's, we spent some time shopping at TJ Maxx before finally going home where I got to see our dog, Boone, my dad, and Lucy! On Wednesday night, my mom and Lucy usually go over to our family friend's house to watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette so I joined them this week! It was so fun and nice to catch up with everyone.
On Thursday, I did some grad school work and visited my mom at her work!
One of the reasons I came home was to finally see Lucy Lynn do her thing at a Prospect football game! Lucy is on the Poms dance team and performs at most games. She is now a senior and I have yet to see her do this in her four years at Prospect! The game was on Thursday night and I went with my mom, my friend, Jenny, and some of our family friends! We had so much fun and Lucy did a beautiful job. It's so much fun watching her do what she loves.
On Friday, my mom had taken the day off to spend time with me (I'm so lucky :) so we decided to spend part of the day in Long Grove, Illinois. Long Grove is a historic village with lots of cute shops and restaurants. We shopped around, bought some Christmas gifts, drank some wine, and ate some good food! It was incredible getting this time with my amazing mom.
Later in the day, we went back to Prospect because Lucy had made it to the finals with her ultimate frisbee team! It was so fun to watch Lucy and her friends play.
The next day was Saturday and this was the other big reason I made the trip home this weekend! Like Lucy, my brother, Wes is also a senior but he attends the University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign. For the last three years, he has been a student equipment manager on the football team. I have been wanting to go to a game since he started to watch and support him but this was the first weekend I was able to make it! Lucky for me, this turned out to me a whole family affair! My sister, Kendall, decided to make the drive home from La Crosse, Wisconsin where she is currently living. U of I is a 2.5 hour drive from Arlington Heights so my my mom, dad, Lucy, Kendall, and I loaded up in our van and drove down to U of I at 7am. We were meeting Wes along with several other families whose kids go to U of I for a tailgate party! This was actually the first tailgate I had ever been to and we had so much fun.
After the tailgate, we headed into the football game! U of I was playing Purdue and it ended up being such a fun but very close game! U of I pulled out the win but only after overtime! After they won, fans stormed the field and I joined them to find Wesley George on the field!
After the game, we went out for some dinner and drinks! It was a perfect day and made me so proud of my brother!
The next morning, we woke up in our hotel room, quickly visited Wes in his apartment, went shopping for some spirit wear, and then drove back to Arlington Heights. Once home, there was just enough time for my dad to pick up Lou Malnati's (my favorite deepdish pizza from home) before I had to leave for the airport. Overall, it was an amazing long weekend at home. I am so grateful for this time I got to have with my family and I can't wait to see them during winter break!
