Elizabeth's blog...
We got back home from our 2,800 mile adventure last night. What a trip! It was filled with so much magic...long drives in beautiful scenery, geological wonders, cool, crisp air, and ended with some terrifying weather. In some ways, it feels like a dream. There is so much I want to write to remember this trip. Feel free to read it all, or just skip to the pictures! All of our pictures are in the picture album under "Family Pictures" in the right hand column.
Day 1:
With the car all packed the night before, we woke up at 5 to get ready, and make sure we weren't forgetting anything. We headed out of Waco a little after 6 a.m. We decided to take Bryon's car, since it was a hybrid and gets excellent gas mileage. I must say that I am not used to the kids being so close to me in the car, and a times, the energy in the back seat was to immense to fill our little Honda! But it was worth it when we could drive 7 hours before filling up our tank!
Anyway, our first stop was in Amarillo, 7 hours away. I had been in contact with two dear friends from my teen years in Abilene. These two were my favorite friends in Abilene, and I haven't really seen them in 17 years. One of these girls lives in Amarillo, so I was so happy to see her! Jere' and I shared a love for the piano and choir. We shared the same piano teacher and played in the same ensemble festival that Matthew will play in next weekend. Jere', Emily (read further), and I were so close my two years at Abilene High. It was so hard leaving them when I moved to Waco. We stopped at Pei Wei and had a great lunch. Our kids were so cute together. Jere' looks exactly like she did when I moved, and I was surprised when she didn't come in wearing her Guess jeans!
After a nice visit, we headed for our next stop in Pueblo, Colorado, 5 hours away. Anyone concerned about the overpopulation of the earth needs to take that drive. We could probably give every resident of Calcutta and Hong Kong 40 acres and a mule in that area, and still have room to spare!
We made it into New Mexico late afternoon that day, the first of the states that the boys hadn't been to before. The drive was beautiful, but clouded with the irritation of the speed limit. There was almost nothing for miles around when we encountered the "safety corridor". There were times we had to drive 45 and 55 miles per hour on this stretch despite the fact that there wasn't another car on the road. They did warn that they had airplanes overhead that would give tickets should you violate the laws in the safety corridor. Grrrr!!
At long last, we spotted the Rocky Mountain ahead. What a breathtaking and welcomed sight! We stopped in Raton, New Mexico for a quick snack and took in the cool, dry air. What a gift! We then went through the Raton pass into Colorado. The boys loved seeing the mountains. Lauren and I loved every minute of it. After being on the road for 14 hours, we were thrilled to be in our hotel room in Pueblo.
Day 2:
After a long day in the car on Sunday, we were ready for a little fun! We left Pueblo early, then headed for Colorado Springs. We could have spent another day there, but made the most of our day. Our first stop was Garden of the Gods. We had such a great time here! The weather was gorgeous...cool,dry, blue skies. We went on a tour, then took a hike around the gardens. It was good to walk around. That is Pike's Peak in the distance.
Then we headed to Pikes Peak. We decided not to drive to the top, as the thought of hugging the side of a mountain with my precious cargo seemed too risky to me. Instead, we spent some time at Santa's workshop at the family owned North Pole at the base of Pike's Peak.
After a fun morning, we headed to Denver to see my other dear friend from Abilene. It was so nice for my two sweet friends to live on our route! The boys went crazy for Emily, and I hardly had a moment to speak to her, since they were talking her up the entire time! We picked up exactly where we left off 17 years ago. Old friends are such a blessing, and it is so much fun being with people that knew you during the awkward, green eye shadow, mall bangs, perms, and stone wash era! We promised each other that it wouldn't be another 17 years before we got together again. That would put us in our 50s!
After a nice visit, we headed to Wyoming. The boys finally conked out around the Wyoming border.
For. the. first. time. the. entire. trip.
I have been blessed with wonderful boys, who, apparently, think sleep is overrated!
The minute we entered Wyoming, Lauren and I were in awe. There are no words to describe our beautiful drive. We later found out from an employee at our hotel, that Wyoming hasn't looked this beautiful in years. It was green from border to border. What we witnessed was green, freshly mowed looking fields smattered with quaint homes and farm animals. I was talking to my dad on the phone, when I noticed that rain was on the way. I hung up just in time to enter a hail storm! That was slightly frightening since we were in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to take shelter. We just waited it out on the side of the road.
Fortunately, there was no damage to the car, and we headed to our hotel destination, Wheatland, WY. Oh, Wheatland. If there was a Starbucks within a 4 hour radius of this place, we would move here. Many of you have heard of Texas Friendly, but nothing compares to Wyoming Friendly. People went out of their way to be nice to us, and we felt very much at home.
Day 3:
Now for the day we had all been waiting for. We headed out super early and headed north in the eastern part of Wyoming. First stop would be Devils Tower, 4 hours away. The lady working at our hotel gave us an alternate route which was just as fast, but more beautiful. In the spirit of adventure, we took her advise, and were blessed with an amazing drive. While looking out at the views, we saw pronghorn everywhere. I read Undaunted Courage a few years ago, which chronicled the adventures of Lewis and Clark. Pronghorn were talked about quite a bit as they were their big source of protein, and something the Corp of Discovery had never seen before.
After 3 1/2 hours of driving, Lauren spotted Devils Tower in the distance. It is so huge, that it was visible 30 minutes before we could get to it! I saw Devils Tower when I was 10, but did not remember how huge it was. I was in absolute awe. Totally speechless. We found out that there is over an acre of space at the top. It was so huge, and so different from the rest of the surroundings, that it almost looked photo shopped in. We took some time there to walk up to it and take pictures. We found it interesting that Devils Tower was also hailed on the night before, and there was still ice all over the ground! Not something we Texans expect in June! Again, we were blessed with cool, dry air.
At some point in the drive, I stopped in to get a coffee. One of the locals there was talking to another about how unbelievable humid it had been yesterday. I, who was having trouble blinking my eyes because they were so dry, laughed out loud.
"Try living in Texas!" I said.
The lady working behind the desk said, "I know. I am from Kansas!" If only she knew!
We had told the boys the past few days that if they were really good, we would take them to Montana to add another state to their "been there" list. Montana was about 30 minutes out of the way, but we had some time to spare. After Devils Tower, we headed to Montana for 10 minutes. Right before the border, we ran into a cattle herd crossing the highway! It was so much fun to watch a grandad cowboy with his twin grandsons herding cattle. The boys were about my boys' age, and it was fun thinking about how different these boys' lives were.
After being escorted out of the cattle herd, we crossed over into Montana, reached our new highway, and then were quickly back into Wyoming. A few minutes later we were in South Dakota!
It was so nice leaving the beautiful, rolling hills of Wyoming to enter the Black Hills of South Dakota. Everything smells piny, and it was fun zipping around on mountainous roads. Our first stop in the Black Hills was to tiny Deadwood, SD. Deadwood is known for being an important town in the wild west. Wild Bill Hickok was assassinated there while playing poker. Calamity Jane also called it home. We got to watch a reenactment of the assassination in the very saloon where it happened. Then we made our way up Boot Hill to see where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were buried. Unfortunately, it started raining, and they were charging an entrance fee into the cemetery, which I thought was absurd, so we took a few pictures outside, then headed to Mt. Rushmore.
We got almost to the entrance when we happened to see Bighorn sheep on the side of the road. We loved the unusual wildlife on the trip!
Mt. Rushmore was everything I had hoped for for Matthew and more. Again, this was the one place he had been dying to see, and his idea for a reward for reaching his reading goal. It was almost like he entered the Emerald City at this point. He was in awe and so grateful. We heard lots of thank yous, and were given numerous hugs, which made the trip so worth it! We ate in the cafeteria that part of North by Northwest was filmed in. This was also the restaurant that we ate at 23 years ago when we first visited Mt. Rushmore. We then took an audio tour walk up to the base of the monument, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. After we finished the tour, it was getting dark. We went to our car and changed into sweats. It was in the 50s that night. We watched a movie about the presidents and watched the monument lit.
This was a great day, and we ended it at a wonderful hotel that I would highly recommend to anyone. I hope to stay there again on our next trip, when Mary Beth can go.
Day 4:
We woke up Wednesday morning, and headed down to breakfast. We were greeted by Belgium waffle makers, and loved every bite of our waffles! We, at this point, were sad that it was time to start heading south. Lauren and I agreed that we stayed the perfect amount of time. Better to leave before we were ready, than to have stayed too long.
Our first stop this day was to the Crazy Horse monument. This was the dream of one man to build a huge monument honoring the revered Lakota leader. The sculptor refused federal funding, and all of the work in the beginning was done by him, then eventually 7 of his 10 children. The scale of this thing is enormous. It puts the size of Mt. Rushmore to shame. The model in the picture below, is 1/34th the size of the one on the mountain! We enjoyed 1 1/2 hours here, then it was time to make the long jaunt to Nebraska.
After driving for many hours, we stopped at Chimney Rock in the panhandle of Nebraska. This was an important landmark on many trails heading west, most notably, the Oregon Trail. We all pretended that we were pioneers in our Honda hybrid looking out for Chimney Rock. We took a few photo ops, then it was time to drive to York, NE.
Not long after leaving Chimney Rock, we encountered some nasty weather. Pouring down rain followed by a bad lightening storm. The lightening was dangerously close to our car. After getting out of that storm, and hearing that York was getting pounded, we decided to stay in Kearney, NE. My brother had looked up the area on the internet and found that there were many nice hotels in the area.
We pulled in around 9 p.m. and saw that most every hotel parking lot was filled with cars. Really? Kearney, NE on a Wednesday night? After hearing our first 3 hotels were filled, we stopped at a hotel that was a little older than the rest. The lady at the desk had one room left...a king sized suite with two rooms and a large jacuzzi tub. Only $170! I told her no thank you. We were getting up at 5, and didn't want to pay that much for a room. I had just about decided to drive another 50 miles when she agreed to take $30 off the price. That, I could swallow a little better. When I asked what was going on in town, she said that there were a huge tornado there last week (I remembered watching the footage on the Today show, although not remembering what town it was in) and the town was filled with insurance adjusters.
The kids loved this room, and thought it looked like my grandmother's apartment. I enjoyed soaking in the jacuzzi. I had been missing my nightly soak! After getting the boys to bed, Lauren and I turned on the weather. Glorious. Two monster storms were colliding right in Kearney. I watched in horror as the rain and winds pounded the parking lot. The parking lot light was swaying back and forth. It looked like the footage they show of hurricanes. A tornado was spotted 3 miles from our hotel. We were up well after midnight very fearful.
Day 5:
The next morning, many of the insurance adjusters came into the hotel, swearing after looking at their cars. We decided to take a look at Bryon's car. It had dents all over it. I read last night that there was golf ball to billiard ball sized hail right where we were. This sort of reminded me of those great 80s travel movies where the car gets more and more damaged as the vacation goes on. At this rate, we would be lucky if the car made it home. This event was the only ding in the entire trip. Sorry, I was just dying to use that pun!
I did cry as I told Bryon what happened. He was sweet about it, and was just glad we were all safe, but I wasn't looking forward to the Bryon/car reunion.
I have got to say, that this was my least favorite day of the trip. We left Nebraska with gusting winds of 45 mph.
This didn't let up one bit during the 800 MILES THAT WE DROVE YESTERDAY. Who knew a weather system could be so big? Our little hybrid was blown all over the place, and I have quite the sore neck to show for it today.
Once we finally hit Waco last night, it was all joy and elation. Lauren was so excited about seeing James and Josh, and I couldn't wait to see Mary Beth, who was with Mom and Dad. Bryon was out of town at a conference. My sweet parents drove half way to Houston to pick up Mary Beth, who was with my in laws, so I would have to drive anymore today. No "thank yous" were big enough for that gesture!
We enjoyed breath taking beauty for 5 days straight, but somehow, nothing was more beautiful than our little city at sunset.
The trip was a memory I will always cherish. We felt so many prayers for our safety, and never had a scary moment during the trip, excluding Mother Nature's wrath the night before.
Here is what I learned on the the trip:
1. The "is it a hotel or motel" question from the boys can get old after 4 nights.
2. My boys can talk for 5 days straight and never run out of things to say to each other.
3. I have the greatest sister in the world. We too can talk for 5 days straight and never run out of things to say.
4. I can't answer, "So what is the U.S.S.R. and what happened to it? What is it now?" question on 4 hours of sleep.
5. It isn't fun driving in wind for 12 hours.
6. My boys can go from laughing, to fighting, to laughing again in 30 seconds.
7. I love road trips.
8. It is possible to listen to 300 songs on an iPod in a single day.
9. The beauty of God's world will never cease to amaze me.
10. Central Kansas ain't as pretty as South Dakota.
11. My hair looks better in arid conditions.
12. I am ready to go back to the Black Hills!
13. Sometimes it is fun to do something way out of the ordinary.
14. It is possible to ask your child to please put his hand down while giving the peace sign or bunny ears during the taking of over 300 pictures.
15. Two stay at home moms enjoy the change of scenery probably more than most.
16. It is possible to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
17. The spirit of my father was very present in the car as I told the boys, "Stop playing games and look out the window! When we were your age, we fought to see who would sit by the window!" Well, that and, "Stop kicking my seat!" ;)
We feel so blessed by God for our amazing adventure, and keeping everyone safe.
Day 1:
With the car all packed the night before, we woke up at 5 to get ready, and make sure we weren't forgetting anything. We headed out of Waco a little after 6 a.m. We decided to take Bryon's car, since it was a hybrid and gets excellent gas mileage. I must say that I am not used to the kids being so close to me in the car, and a times, the energy in the back seat was to immense to fill our little Honda! But it was worth it when we could drive 7 hours before filling up our tank!
Anyway, our first stop was in Amarillo, 7 hours away. I had been in contact with two dear friends from my teen years in Abilene. These two were my favorite friends in Abilene, and I haven't really seen them in 17 years. One of these girls lives in Amarillo, so I was so happy to see her! Jere' and I shared a love for the piano and choir. We shared the same piano teacher and played in the same ensemble festival that Matthew will play in next weekend. Jere', Emily (read further), and I were so close my two years at Abilene High. It was so hard leaving them when I moved to Waco. We stopped at Pei Wei and had a great lunch. Our kids were so cute together. Jere' looks exactly like she did when I moved, and I was surprised when she didn't come in wearing her Guess jeans!
After a nice visit, we headed for our next stop in Pueblo, Colorado, 5 hours away. Anyone concerned about the overpopulation of the earth needs to take that drive. We could probably give every resident of Calcutta and Hong Kong 40 acres and a mule in that area, and still have room to spare!
We made it into New Mexico late afternoon that day, the first of the states that the boys hadn't been to before. The drive was beautiful, but clouded with the irritation of the speed limit. There was almost nothing for miles around when we encountered the "safety corridor". There were times we had to drive 45 and 55 miles per hour on this stretch despite the fact that there wasn't another car on the road. They did warn that they had airplanes overhead that would give tickets should you violate the laws in the safety corridor. Grrrr!!
At long last, we spotted the Rocky Mountain ahead. What a breathtaking and welcomed sight! We stopped in Raton, New Mexico for a quick snack and took in the cool, dry air. What a gift! We then went through the Raton pass into Colorado. The boys loved seeing the mountains. Lauren and I loved every minute of it. After being on the road for 14 hours, we were thrilled to be in our hotel room in Pueblo.
Day 2:
After a long day in the car on Sunday, we were ready for a little fun! We left Pueblo early, then headed for Colorado Springs. We could have spent another day there, but made the most of our day. Our first stop was Garden of the Gods. We had such a great time here! The weather was gorgeous...cool,dry, blue skies. We went on a tour, then took a hike around the gardens. It was good to walk around. That is Pike's Peak in the distance.
Then we headed to Pikes Peak. We decided not to drive to the top, as the thought of hugging the side of a mountain with my precious cargo seemed too risky to me. Instead, we spent some time at Santa's workshop at the family owned North Pole at the base of Pike's Peak.
After a fun morning, we headed to Denver to see my other dear friend from Abilene. It was so nice for my two sweet friends to live on our route! The boys went crazy for Emily, and I hardly had a moment to speak to her, since they were talking her up the entire time! We picked up exactly where we left off 17 years ago. Old friends are such a blessing, and it is so much fun being with people that knew you during the awkward, green eye shadow, mall bangs, perms, and stone wash era! We promised each other that it wouldn't be another 17 years before we got together again. That would put us in our 50s!
After a nice visit, we headed to Wyoming. The boys finally conked out around the Wyoming border.
For. the. first. time. the. entire. trip.
I have been blessed with wonderful boys, who, apparently, think sleep is overrated!
The minute we entered Wyoming, Lauren and I were in awe. There are no words to describe our beautiful drive. We later found out from an employee at our hotel, that Wyoming hasn't looked this beautiful in years. It was green from border to border. What we witnessed was green, freshly mowed looking fields smattered with quaint homes and farm animals. I was talking to my dad on the phone, when I noticed that rain was on the way. I hung up just in time to enter a hail storm! That was slightly frightening since we were in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to take shelter. We just waited it out on the side of the road.
Fortunately, there was no damage to the car, and we headed to our hotel destination, Wheatland, WY. Oh, Wheatland. If there was a Starbucks within a 4 hour radius of this place, we would move here. Many of you have heard of Texas Friendly, but nothing compares to Wyoming Friendly. People went out of their way to be nice to us, and we felt very much at home.
Day 3:
Now for the day we had all been waiting for. We headed out super early and headed north in the eastern part of Wyoming. First stop would be Devils Tower, 4 hours away. The lady working at our hotel gave us an alternate route which was just as fast, but more beautiful. In the spirit of adventure, we took her advise, and were blessed with an amazing drive. While looking out at the views, we saw pronghorn everywhere. I read Undaunted Courage a few years ago, which chronicled the adventures of Lewis and Clark. Pronghorn were talked about quite a bit as they were their big source of protein, and something the Corp of Discovery had never seen before.
After 3 1/2 hours of driving, Lauren spotted Devils Tower in the distance. It is so huge, that it was visible 30 minutes before we could get to it! I saw Devils Tower when I was 10, but did not remember how huge it was. I was in absolute awe. Totally speechless. We found out that there is over an acre of space at the top. It was so huge, and so different from the rest of the surroundings, that it almost looked photo shopped in. We took some time there to walk up to it and take pictures. We found it interesting that Devils Tower was also hailed on the night before, and there was still ice all over the ground! Not something we Texans expect in June! Again, we were blessed with cool, dry air.
At some point in the drive, I stopped in to get a coffee. One of the locals there was talking to another about how unbelievable humid it had been yesterday. I, who was having trouble blinking my eyes because they were so dry, laughed out loud.
"Try living in Texas!" I said.
The lady working behind the desk said, "I know. I am from Kansas!" If only she knew!
We had told the boys the past few days that if they were really good, we would take them to Montana to add another state to their "been there" list. Montana was about 30 minutes out of the way, but we had some time to spare. After Devils Tower, we headed to Montana for 10 minutes. Right before the border, we ran into a cattle herd crossing the highway! It was so much fun to watch a grandad cowboy with his twin grandsons herding cattle. The boys were about my boys' age, and it was fun thinking about how different these boys' lives were.
After being escorted out of the cattle herd, we crossed over into Montana, reached our new highway, and then were quickly back into Wyoming. A few minutes later we were in South Dakota!
It was so nice leaving the beautiful, rolling hills of Wyoming to enter the Black Hills of South Dakota. Everything smells piny, and it was fun zipping around on mountainous roads. Our first stop in the Black Hills was to tiny Deadwood, SD. Deadwood is known for being an important town in the wild west. Wild Bill Hickok was assassinated there while playing poker. Calamity Jane also called it home. We got to watch a reenactment of the assassination in the very saloon where it happened. Then we made our way up Boot Hill to see where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were buried. Unfortunately, it started raining, and they were charging an entrance fee into the cemetery, which I thought was absurd, so we took a few pictures outside, then headed to Mt. Rushmore.
We got almost to the entrance when we happened to see Bighorn sheep on the side of the road. We loved the unusual wildlife on the trip!
Mt. Rushmore was everything I had hoped for for Matthew and more. Again, this was the one place he had been dying to see, and his idea for a reward for reaching his reading goal. It was almost like he entered the Emerald City at this point. He was in awe and so grateful. We heard lots of thank yous, and were given numerous hugs, which made the trip so worth it! We ate in the cafeteria that part of North by Northwest was filmed in. This was also the restaurant that we ate at 23 years ago when we first visited Mt. Rushmore. We then took an audio tour walk up to the base of the monument, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. After we finished the tour, it was getting dark. We went to our car and changed into sweats. It was in the 50s that night. We watched a movie about the presidents and watched the monument lit.
This was a great day, and we ended it at a wonderful hotel that I would highly recommend to anyone. I hope to stay there again on our next trip, when Mary Beth can go.
Day 4:
We woke up Wednesday morning, and headed down to breakfast. We were greeted by Belgium waffle makers, and loved every bite of our waffles! We, at this point, were sad that it was time to start heading south. Lauren and I agreed that we stayed the perfect amount of time. Better to leave before we were ready, than to have stayed too long.
Our first stop this day was to the Crazy Horse monument. This was the dream of one man to build a huge monument honoring the revered Lakota leader. The sculptor refused federal funding, and all of the work in the beginning was done by him, then eventually 7 of his 10 children. The scale of this thing is enormous. It puts the size of Mt. Rushmore to shame. The model in the picture below, is 1/34th the size of the one on the mountain! We enjoyed 1 1/2 hours here, then it was time to make the long jaunt to Nebraska.
After driving for many hours, we stopped at Chimney Rock in the panhandle of Nebraska. This was an important landmark on many trails heading west, most notably, the Oregon Trail. We all pretended that we were pioneers in our Honda hybrid looking out for Chimney Rock. We took a few photo ops, then it was time to drive to York, NE.
Not long after leaving Chimney Rock, we encountered some nasty weather. Pouring down rain followed by a bad lightening storm. The lightening was dangerously close to our car. After getting out of that storm, and hearing that York was getting pounded, we decided to stay in Kearney, NE. My brother had looked up the area on the internet and found that there were many nice hotels in the area.
We pulled in around 9 p.m. and saw that most every hotel parking lot was filled with cars. Really? Kearney, NE on a Wednesday night? After hearing our first 3 hotels were filled, we stopped at a hotel that was a little older than the rest. The lady at the desk had one room left...a king sized suite with two rooms and a large jacuzzi tub. Only $170! I told her no thank you. We were getting up at 5, and didn't want to pay that much for a room. I had just about decided to drive another 50 miles when she agreed to take $30 off the price. That, I could swallow a little better. When I asked what was going on in town, she said that there were a huge tornado there last week (I remembered watching the footage on the Today show, although not remembering what town it was in) and the town was filled with insurance adjusters.
The kids loved this room, and thought it looked like my grandmother's apartment. I enjoyed soaking in the jacuzzi. I had been missing my nightly soak! After getting the boys to bed, Lauren and I turned on the weather. Glorious. Two monster storms were colliding right in Kearney. I watched in horror as the rain and winds pounded the parking lot. The parking lot light was swaying back and forth. It looked like the footage they show of hurricanes. A tornado was spotted 3 miles from our hotel. We were up well after midnight very fearful.
Day 5:
The next morning, many of the insurance adjusters came into the hotel, swearing after looking at their cars. We decided to take a look at Bryon's car. It had dents all over it. I read last night that there was golf ball to billiard ball sized hail right where we were. This sort of reminded me of those great 80s travel movies where the car gets more and more damaged as the vacation goes on. At this rate, we would be lucky if the car made it home. This event was the only ding in the entire trip. Sorry, I was just dying to use that pun!
I did cry as I told Bryon what happened. He was sweet about it, and was just glad we were all safe, but I wasn't looking forward to the Bryon/car reunion.
I have got to say, that this was my least favorite day of the trip. We left Nebraska with gusting winds of 45 mph.
This didn't let up one bit during the 800 MILES THAT WE DROVE YESTERDAY. Who knew a weather system could be so big? Our little hybrid was blown all over the place, and I have quite the sore neck to show for it today.
Once we finally hit Waco last night, it was all joy and elation. Lauren was so excited about seeing James and Josh, and I couldn't wait to see Mary Beth, who was with Mom and Dad. Bryon was out of town at a conference. My sweet parents drove half way to Houston to pick up Mary Beth, who was with my in laws, so I would have to drive anymore today. No "thank yous" were big enough for that gesture!
We enjoyed breath taking beauty for 5 days straight, but somehow, nothing was more beautiful than our little city at sunset.
The trip was a memory I will always cherish. We felt so many prayers for our safety, and never had a scary moment during the trip, excluding Mother Nature's wrath the night before.
Here is what I learned on the the trip:
1. The "is it a hotel or motel" question from the boys can get old after 4 nights.
2. My boys can talk for 5 days straight and never run out of things to say to each other.
3. I have the greatest sister in the world. We too can talk for 5 days straight and never run out of things to say.
4. I can't answer, "So what is the U.S.S.R. and what happened to it? What is it now?" question on 4 hours of sleep.
5. It isn't fun driving in wind for 12 hours.
6. My boys can go from laughing, to fighting, to laughing again in 30 seconds.
7. I love road trips.
8. It is possible to listen to 300 songs on an iPod in a single day.
9. The beauty of God's world will never cease to amaze me.
10. Central Kansas ain't as pretty as South Dakota.
11. My hair looks better in arid conditions.
12. I am ready to go back to the Black Hills!
13. Sometimes it is fun to do something way out of the ordinary.
14. It is possible to ask your child to please put his hand down while giving the peace sign or bunny ears during the taking of over 300 pictures.
15. Two stay at home moms enjoy the change of scenery probably more than most.
16. It is possible to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
17. The spirit of my father was very present in the car as I told the boys, "Stop playing games and look out the window! When we were your age, we fought to see who would sit by the window!" Well, that and, "Stop kicking my seat!" ;)
We feel so blessed by God for our amazing adventure, and keeping everyone safe.
