On the Road (Again)

We left early-ish in the morning from Kentucky bound for Kansas City again to stay with Alan and Brandi, this time with Daddy in tow!  And obviously Jace sensed that it was an option to be fussier and more demanding and have mom sit in the back by him most of the way!  We decided we would stop at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis for lunch- about 5 steps out of the car, Hailee puked all over her and me.  Awesome.  At least it was not in the car this time!  I was hopeful that it was just like when we started out on our trip from Spokane, but this time, she clearly didn't feel well.  She was fevery and lethargic and didn't want to eat... just lay in the grass in the shade...

Jace didn't care- he had a great time being out of his carseat and practicing his walking skilz by pushing the stroller:

Once back in the car, Hailee threw up again at one point, but then slept most of the way to Kansas City and woke up fairly happy and seemingly fine!  We took everyone out to a Brazilian churrascaria, the boys were very excited to eat at such a 'fancy' restaurant and shockingly, were rather civilized.

We stayed one night at Alan and Brandi's- and during the night Dallin threw up.  He and Eli had fevers the next day in the car but no one else threw up, thankfully!  We stopped at the world headquarters of Cabela's in Sydney, Nebraska- apparently they've taken a lot of the animal displays down that Daddy remembered them having in the past, but it was still pretty cool-

We stayed the night in Sydney, got a.w.f.u.l. Chinese food that should have made us sick (but didn't!!) and then drove the rest of the way to our next stop...

Kentucky Fun

I think I felt about the same level of relief finally getting to Kentucky as I did after giving birth!  I was so relieved that we made it in one piece and that it was relatively painless *grin*

It took no time for my kids to adjust and start having fun.  The first several days we just hung out and enjoyed cousins!  Since Sarah and Adam were in the process of moving to Atlanta, Sarah and her kids stayed at mom's so we got to visit lots with them-  Bring on the cousins!

Jace quickly warmed up to this sippy cup drawer and felt right at home... he practiced his walking SO much at Grandma's- it was so fun for the family there to get to watch him with that- at one point he took 5 steps for everyone, and he was obviously pleased with himself and the show he had put on.  He still crawls around a lot, but is taking steps more and more.

Nathan flew in on the 3rd of July- we were all glad to see him!  Laura and Tony and Adelaide flew in the same day- we were only missing Christi and Bob's family and Emily- and they were missed greatly!

We celebrated the 4th of July at Aaron and Amie's house with a barbecue and fireworks-

Someone broke out a pogo stick and there was some pretty fierce competition-

 After the fireworks, the kids watched movie...

But then the dad's interrupted them to watch something very important, I'm sure...

There was lots of water fun... so what if the pool was tiny and freezing cold??

 

One of the highlights of the trip for sure...

Jace is not yet walking, but stands alone an awful lot!

At the end of this super fun day, we celebrated Jace's birthday- maybe to make up for the crappy day he had in his car seat all day on his actual birthday?  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of him eating his cake- which is the best video ever!  After crying dramatically because everyone was singing to him, he threw his cake on the ground repeatedly until he got a taste... then he dug in- he's got personality, that's for sure!!

 And there's always plenty of otter pops at Grandma's!

Gotta have some rides in Papa's latest project before we go!

The only thing that we didn't like about Kentucky was leaving *sigh*

Road Trip!! (And HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACE!!)

Seriously, I guess I'm crazy... because when I started throwing around the idea of driving to Kentucky this summer with the kids, pretty much everyone said it wasn't a good idea.  Except that airline tickets are a fortune right now... x7 people?  Ya, even more.  Plus, then we'd have to rent a car once there... and big suv's or vans aren't cheap to rent either.  And we hadn't been to Kentucky in over 18 months.  No one there had ever even met Jace (including grandma and papa!!).  I wasn't about to make the trek and only stay for a few days, and Nathan couldn't take off enough time to stay for several weeks.  So I knew the only way to make it work and my kids to get to see their cousins was for me to put on my big girl panties and drive.  I had places to stay along the way, so I wouldn't have to check into hotels by myself, and I could take my time getting there... it just meant longer driving days so that we could have time to play at our stops.  With lots of distractions and even more snacks, the kids did really well despite the 12 and 13 hour days in the car- and the best part is, I know every year will just get easier as my kids get older... yes, I plan on doing it every year!

Our first stop was in Casper, Wyoming at Jack and Jami's house.  We left at 4:30 in the morning, hopeful that at least Jace would sleep for the first few hours... it partly worked, he barely woke up when I put him in his carseat.  We were only about 20 minutes from home when Eli calmly informed me from the backseat that Hailee was throwing up... I really questioned this because she wasn't crying, I didn't hear any gagging or heaving or coughing- but he insisted that she had.  Since she wasn't protesting and Jace was sleeping, and we were off to an otherwise good start, I decided to just keep going... I wondered if maybe she was just spitting the water from her sippy cup out of her mouth... anyway, after a few hours, somewhere in Montana the boys had to go potty so we stopped at a rest stop.  Sure enough, Hailee had totally puked- enough that it required a complete change of clothes!  She had eaten several snacks since and kept them all down just fine, so the only thing I could figure was that she drank a bunch of water on an empty stomach and it just came back up?   Whatever it was, I was just very thankful that it was a one time event.  My dad watched me on glympse as I flew through Montana at 80+ mph.  It was kinda fun *grin*  I listened to a {lame} book on tape and after several more stops and 12 1/2 total hours in the car, we made it to Casper!  We spent two days there catching up and playing (and I washed Hailee's carseat of course!)  Hailee loved playing with their dolls and kitchen... awww, maybe there's hope for her being girly?

We had a picnic and then hiked up to a cool (COLD) waterfall- 

 The next day of driving just happened to be Jace's birthday!  Happy birthday little man, you get to be strapped in your carseat all day!  He wasn't so happy about that, but did well overall... it was definitely more rough than the first day though.  Since he was having a more difficult time and now was technically one year old, I turned his car seat forward facing at one point, hoping that it would make him happier... it worked very momentarily.  Our final destination that day was at Alan and Brandi's house in Kansas City, Missouri... I had lots of fun places plotted out to stop if we needed to, and we stopped at almost every place!  He was so happy when he was out of his car seat and able to stretch his legs and crawl... sadly, these are the only pictures I have of him on his birthday:

I didn't really want any of him crying in his carseat I guess.  Because we made so many stops, (and because the speed limit dropped dramatically when we got into Missouri!) it ended up being a mighty long day for all of us.

At Alan and Brandi's we went to a splash pad and playground... and did a whole lot of jumping on their trampoline...

And after a third day of driving (which was by far the worst -and thankfully the shortest- day!) we made it to Kentucky!