Traveling Days

Here are some pics of the 6 days we traveled. 

At a rest stop somewhere in WY getting out & running around. 

There was a family from Utah that we ping ponged back & forth with this day. 

Saw them at all the stops we made. 

My sweet 3 crammed in the back on the first day. 

It was so tight that I cut my arm every time I buckled them in. 

I need to invest in seat belt extenders. 

Laurie came with us the trip to Utah. We left her in Provo with Perry as he was already there.

 It was so great having a 3rd driver. 

I spent a good chunk of the time sleeping in the captain's chair in the back.  

The other time Laurie entertained my kids & I didn't have to do a thing. 

Actually, it kinda spoiled me for the rest of the trip. 

Jared as he's not driving. 

He would rather drive than pass things back to the kids or yell at them to knock it off. 

Our sweet Ellie. I don't remember what caused all the colors on her face. 

She did really good for the most part. 

Just a couple hours of crying & maybe 2 tantrums not wanting to get back into the car. 

A couple pics of Grandpa's driveway. 

Ellie as she's running from us, not wanting to get in the car. 

Traveling on day 2.  Oh the wind. It was terrible! 

Things would fly out of car. We'd all get ready to get in, say 1  2  3  then open the doors & get in fast so nothing flew out. 

It knocked us over, whipped our hair, moved our car all around 

on the road. Flat open spaces.......... I don't like them so much. 

Cramming 3 kids in a hotel bed. 

The first time we ever stayed in a hotel as a family. 

The kid's first time ever I'm sure. It was pretty fancy. 

They had a great water park. 

This was where Nate decided to take off his life jacket & swim on his own. 

They had slides, we swam till 10 pm. It was nice. 

When I was growing up, my family always stopped at McDonald's. There were only 2 kids so it wasn't very expensive.  

I remember collecting happy meal toys the whole road trip. 

It was fun to try to get them all, no matter how lame they were. Jared, not so much. He can't stand the place. 

For that reason, & the fact the 4 kids is too much money to spend on a crappy meal, we never go there. 

So as we were planning this trip, I told the kids we would stop at McDonald's at least one time & get happy meals. 

They were excited for months. Grant even wrote a paper on it at school. 

How he was so excited for summer to come cause mom was going to Mc Donald's! 

We did stop a few times. Ate too much junk. 

But the playgrounds were good for the kids. 

At a gas station literally in the middle of nowhere. 

There was not a single thing around this station but this dinosaur and a tiny trailer. 

And whatever those things are in the background. 

After this shot, I drove for 3 hours without seeing a single car going our direction. 

A few going the other way. It was lonely....... But I had a good book to listen to. 

As I was driving the last little bit to Kirsti's, Jared watched his father's day movie. 

The new Sherlock Holmes. Yes, that's Ellie watching it too. 

I know, good parenting right? It actually kept her pretty entertained. 

Me driving a fat chunk of time while people slept. 

Out of the whole 60 hours, I drove maybe 10. Jared is so amazing. 

As we were leaving to come home, we waved goodbye to good gas prices. 

And on home it was. Lots of candy for the kids. 

We listened to Percy Jackson books 1 & 2, part of 3. 

Jared listened to 2 books, one of which was Hunger games, he loved it! 

And I got to listen to a few myself. The kids watched maybe 5 movies.  

All in all, it was a great time spent as a family. 

No fighting from the adults, minimal from the kids.  

Maybe we'll do it again next year!