We were on our way early. It is always hard to say goodbye to mom. I see her standing on her deck waving. She is surrounded by green grass and hanging flowers. I see her with toys all over the deck and in the yard. I love her, and she loves my kids.
We drove for 130.5 miles and stopped in Mount Vernon, Illinois. We had McDonald's for breakfast and had the kids play at the playland while I fed the baby. The kids were very entertained by their new goodies from Buddy (Jenna got a Fur-real cat that was awesome, Zac got a transformer mask). Stop 2 was in Kingdom City, Missouri at 413.3 miles. The kids played at an outdoor playland. Trevor bit Zac and left a mark. Zac dumped a bucket on Steve at the playland that had some water in it. We had ham sandwiches and got some cheap gas and were back on the road. After we were back on the road, we thought, "Please nap on this next leg of the trip". Stop 3 was in Independence, MO. We went into BassPro, and I fed the baby. We all walked around in Bass Pro. It was a good stop. Finally, we stopped for the night in Topeka, Kansas to complete our 633.9 mile day.. We went I70 home almost exclusively for this hotel. It's a Holidome with a huge slide. We stopped here on the way to Utah a few years ago, and it was a lot of fun. The pool was so freezing. It literally felt like ice water, but there was also a good sized hot tub that was not that hot, so Trev and Gage and I played in there mostly while the kids went down the slide. Steve and I even went down the slide. It is pretty fun! Trev said in his deep 2 year old voice. "This is awesome. I happy!" For dinner, we ordered pizza. That night was not the best. Gage was feverish and continued to not co-sleep well. Jenna was in bed with Gage and me. At 2:40am he climbed up on Jenna and wanted to play. Trev had some trouble settling in, but ended up sleeping well. I did see him in the wee hours of the morning get up, run to the table and grab something and lay back down. I was too tired to care what it was. I was just relieved that he quickly seemed to go back to sleep. In the morning, we saw that it was a piece of pizza. We really party hard!
Day 2: Started off with McDonald's...can you tell we were getting lazy? and fatter? We were better eaters on the way. Anyway, McDonald's forgot the milk. It rained quite a bit on the first leg.Our first stop was in Salina, Kansas at 119 miles at Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure. We have also stopped here before and had great experiences. It is essentially a Zoo, but better! The weather was great. The Tram was fun. My favorite part were the red kangaroos- all excited and jumping everywhere. Jenna said her favorite was the boa constrictor. Zac said it was the giraffes. Trev said the camels. Steve liked the scary noises the lions were barking at each other. The kids all got stuffed-animal snakes at the gift shop, and I got a visor. I am glad that we budgeted for this stop, and we all had a great time.
On the road again after a few hours. The kids all napped (small miracle). We then stopped at Wakeeny, Kansas after 241.0 miles. We got McDonald's and Gas. Zac had his first Big Mac ever.
Stop 3 was another one of my favorites, in Limon, Colorado. It was a small town with a great playground at an elementary school. Gage ate, the kids played, and we got gas. Back at it, and stop 4 was in Golden, CO. We drove around everywhere sick of fast food and couldn't decide what sounded good. Things were not going so hot as the baby bawled, and we were on the hunt for something to eat. We settled on Wendy's and they forgot something in the order. The kids barely ate, and we even skipped the pool that night! I was up a lot with Gage that night.
Day 3. Almost home! The next morning we had a luxurious breakfast that daddy made us courtesy of the Hampton Inn breakfast nook. We were on the road by 6:51am. Our first stop was Rifle, CO 177.3 miles in to the day. We stopped at a McDonald's playland and let the kids play, and I fed the baby, and we grabbed a few Red Box movies. Our 2nd stop was in Price, Utah- 405 mile in to the day. Hooray- we are close, but had nearly 2 more dreadful hours to go. This is where we all melted down, and the kids stopped listening and started fighting and whining with reckless abandon.. We went in to Walmart and did calisthenics, bought some chips to go with the Subway sandwiches and then spent the rest of the ride home crying off and on. After 488.9 miles, we made it to Orem, Ut in one piece and grateful to be home!
The trip was a success overall. No accidents. No troubles.
We saw 44 state license plates.
We saw raccoon, deer, rabbits, prairie dogs, coyotes, antelope, cows and horses, skunks, squirrels, turkeys, mules, ducks, geese and tons of birds, and other domestic things and all the zoo animals.
We used the GasBuddy app for gas along the way and loved having the technology of the GPS units, especially to find fun places to stop and let the kids stretch. Steve did a great job planning and budgeting for the trip. He thought of everything, and I mean that. He put a lot of time and research into the trip to make it a fun road trip for all of us. Love you Steve, and thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment