August 23

It's been a long but mostly uneventful travel day. (Mostly.)

Since Adam accompanied Abby to Wheaton late last summer at the beginning of her junior year, I had the honor of going along for the ride this go-round. So we all got up early and loaded up the car for the ride to the airport; Isaac had a date to take the SAT this morning so he stayed behind, so Adam and Brady saw us off.

Our first leg of travel took us to Denver, where we dashed from one end of the C-terminal to the other to catch our connector to Chicago. We lucked out with some pretty great seats near the front of the plane, and enjoyed a second event-less flight. 

We arrived at Midway on time, and although  Abby's single checked bag came out lickety split, we went outside to find the longest rental car line I'd ever seen. No problem, though; the driver crammed as many of us as possible inside, slid the doors shut with a swish and a clunk, and off we went. 

The only eventfulness of the day followed as my credit card was declined at the rental car counter; the gal there suggested I call the member services line and after a brief conversation and lots of verbal purchase verifications, the block they'd helpfully placed on my account due to my "suspicious recent purchase history" was removed. We went outside to retrieve our car and I was greatly amused to find that it was a Kia Soul, which happened to be the exact same kind of car that we rented when I was here with her two years ago at the start of her sophomore year. Go figure!

From there we drove toward Wheaton, checked into our hotel, and headed to Culver's for some cheeseburgers, pretzel bites, and cheese curds. I indulged in ice cream while Abby took a pass, but a little later, she asked if we could go to Crumbl, so I bought her the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie she'd been wanting to taste. We closed out our busy day with trips to Walmart (for ibuprofen and notebooks) and Target (for concealer and eyeliner) -- aka Walmarget.

And now we're back at the hotel. It's been a long day for sure. But it's been good to have time with my best girl. And I'm happy to be here with her as she prepares to start her senior year.