First Road trip.... Day 1&2

So first I should apologize. I don't find blogger to be that user friendly when it comes to text/picture layout. The fact that I like things to be just right also gets in the way of just getting on with the post...so...I will try to do my best and keep this in some kind of organized format. Well back in July, Kevin and I decided to take a road trip to Springfield, MO for Scott Turkington's wedding (Joy's brother). Springfield is a mere 922 miles south of here and being the adventurous (read this as poor and bored) types we are we decide we could pack up the kids and drive on down. How cool we thought! In AK we could drive for 900+ miles and still be in AK (right?) Anyway you get my point. So we figured we would, for our sanity and the safety and well being of our children, divide the distance in half (or there about) and drive about 460 miles per day. That meant 2 days down, 2 days there, and 2 days back. (All kidding aside, it did turn out to be one of the best experiences we have yet to share as a family). You also realize that I have now been home for about 9 days and the initial trauma has become fuzzy. (As it does after childbirth...you know what I mean). So we started out 13 miles from the Canadian border about 8:30 am. Kevin had an appt in Grand Forks at 10 for about an hour, I ran some errands then we headed on. Here is the picture of us hitting SD some 275 miles later.

Half way for day 1!

Okay so this picture above is out of order. This was actually taken the morning of our second day of driving in Sioux City, Iowa. I just thought the OLD buildings in the industrial part of town were cool!

Okay so here we are at the first rest stop in South Dakota. Probably only about 10 miles from the last one we stopped at. lol. No the kids did well, but only because we have taught the boys to use empty water bottles and Olivia travels in a Pull-up. Okay well Gavin is a bit crabby as you see here. He had $2 that his Grandma Noni sent him and it was burning a hole in his pocket. There were of course vending machines in this rest stop and he bought some jolly ranchers (good choice because they last a long time and he could share). Well then he had one lonely dollar that must have wanted to find refuge in the vending machine, but this dollar had never met "the meanest mom ever" and was forced to continue tormenting Gavin. If you look closely you can see the "said" dollar in his hands. So I kept taking this same shot hoping to get one that was postable. Not happening as you will see below. If it wasn't one it was another plagued by "the meanest mom ever."

He's wondering why the other two are being nice to me and not scowling as I say "ready!"

Hold on...I think a bit of a smile is peeping through. Olivia still doesn't get the whole bunny ears thing.

Oh yeah, wait. I am still mad at that lady.

It's hard to keep a straight/mad face when Olivia is around. Funny Girl.

So we continued on our way through SD and spent the night in Sioux City, IA, right on the border by NE. The morning of the second day we visited Council Bluffs IA. It is the place where the Mormon Trail, Oregon Trail and Lewis and Clark all converged. Winter Quarters is also in Sioux City. We stopped at the visitors center and had a picnic. The kids liked it and we were able to see the historic exhibit inside. It was all about the pioneers, the Native Americans and other historic facts about the area.

Payton succeeded in catching this HUGE grasshopper then it didn't want to hop away.

This was the outdoor monument

We drove on the second night to Springfield, MO and got in about 10 pm. Not too bad for 2 days of driving. On to my second post and the adventures we had in MO. xoxo Kirsten.