So...was it worth it?

This weekend was a 3-day weekend, thanks to President's Day!  So we thought...might as well make a quick trip back home to Indiana!  We thought it would be great to hang out with friends and family, as this would be our only chance to visit home this whole semester.  So...on Friday after classes, we headed out.  

We got a little bit of a late start, and we realized we would be arriving in our hometown around 1:00 in the morning!  Sigh.  I admit I didn't have the greatest attitude as we started our drive, thinking is this really worth it?  Driving all this way just to spend 2 days in Indiana before we turn around and drive all the way back?

Thankfully, Nathan (once again) helped to pull me out of my negativity, reminding me to think about truth, and not dwell on lies.  That man is good for me :)  So we ended up having a great drive (although it felt loooong).

So...the question is:  Was it worth it?

The answer?  Yes, yes...a thousand times yes!

We had a whirlwind weekend...packed with so many plans.  It was busy, but so good.  We accomplished a lot in just 2 days:

• I had breakfast out with 2 of my best friends--at Grounds and Grains, one of my fave places!
• We visited Nathan's parents--his dad just had surgery so it was great to see him!
• We had a very fun time at our good friends' house for lunch and the afternoon...Kaine was able to spend a few hours with his best friends, Carter and Hudson.  We value those times so much!
• We celebrated our sweet Halle's birthday.  (The actual day is coming up on March 3, but we thought we would celebrate with the great-grandparents while we were in town).  That was a very fun evening!
• We had great fellowship at our home church!  It is always great to be home, and have good conversations at church.
• Nathan got together with a couple of different guys and had great times connecting with them.
• I took our kiddos to visit my dear grandma.  
• We had a night out with our awesome friends, without kids!  What a fun evening.
• I'm sure there is more that I forgot to mention...

Sadly, I don't have pictures of most of those events, but here are a few!

So...Missouri's snow has officially melted.  I, for one, am glad about that.  However...Indiana is a whole different story!  I couldn't believe the piles of snow everywhere.  All I can say is...my poor dad :)  He hates the snow!

Nathan's dad took a picture of me while we were visiting at their house...here I am with my most favorite Walmart purchase ever!

Can't believe Halle will soon be six...We had such a fun time celebrating our girl!

It was so great to see my grandma Leona.  She will soon be 99 years old, and her health has been going downhill :(  Her mind is still sharp, though, and it was so great to visit with her!  I love my grandma.

(our kids always like to play with the gadgets that she has lying around)  :)

On Sunday night, we made a spontaneous decision to get our kids out of bed around 10:30 and drive through the night back to Missouri!  There was freezing rain/ice in the forecast and we wanted to beat the weather.  We are sooo glad that we did!  We made record time (no traffic!!) and our kids slept solidly the whole way.  We arrived back here at our apartment around 6:00 this morning, and we just put our kids in their beds here and they fell back asleep!  Driving through the night is the way to go.

What a crazy, fun, busy weekend!  Thanks, mom and dad for keeping us!  And thanks to everyone we were able to connect with.  We treasure these times so much.