ROADTRIP!

Recently we embarked on a great adventure. We drove to Utah for Kevin's cousin, Erica's wedding. Up until the day before I was really unsure if I would be going. I just wasn't sure if Emmitt would handle the drive well or not. Its a long way for a little guy! Ultimately I decided being without my family for the weekend would be less fun than tolerating 26 hours in the car together, so we were all in!

So with my significant "trip anxiety" I prepared (perhaps over prepared) for the drive. Each child had a clipboard with the following letter:

Welcome Makenna

to our Great Big Long Super Fun Best Ever Family Road Trip.

I am Gordy the Gopher and I am here to tell you all about your mission. Yes that’s right you have a mission. Didn’t anybody tell you? Well your mission is…

YOU have to get from Here AllLLLLL the way to Utah. Yes wow Holy Cow! That is a LONG way! Not only do you have to get there but you have to do it without

falling apart,

melting down,

losing your marbles

or making your parents CRAAAZZZY!

But don’t worry you can do it. I’ll help!

First things first, there are three parts to a successful road trip

1. Food 2. Entertainment 3. Peace

1. FOOD

Your mom has meals and snacks to keep you happy. Use your manners when you ask for something and enjoy the fun snacks we will have. Let me tell you also about the Super Surprise Snack Bag. It has yummy snacks that you can earn with good behavior on the trip.

Entertainment

I have put together paper games, coloring pages, and worksheets for you to help pass the time. You can also watch movies, rest, play with a favorite toy, play ds, leapster or listen to an ipod. NEVER NEVER SAY YOU ARE BORED!!!

Peace

Without peace in the car our road trip will be NO FUN for anyone. Peace means: no teasing, no whining, No yelling, no fighting, and keep your hands to yourself. Keep it quiet in the car by using headphones when you are watching a movie or playing a game unless everyone in the car agrees to watch and listen with you. Leave people alone that want to rest.

I know you guys will have no problem keeping the peace in your car. For you it will be a “peace of cake!” (get it?)

NOW remember- be good. I know Its hard to travel for so long. Us Gophers spend a lot of time on the road so I know you can do it. I’ll be watching you. Keep an eye out your window… theres a good chance you’ll spot me and my super spy friends along the way.

p.s. tell your dad to watch out and try not to squish us… we really hate that!

OK NOW a note from mom:

I have reward tokens I will give you when I see you playing nicely, resting quietly, keeping busy, helping each other or showing other good behaviors. When you get three tokens you can trade them for a snack from the Super Surprise Snack Bag or a something else from my MYSTERY BAG.

Then behind the above letter was a variety of road trip activities like a checklist for the cites along the ways (which really helped them to eliminate the "Are we there yet" question), a license plate finder map, worksheets, coloring pages etc etc. The Mystery bag and Super Surprise Snack bags were a great hit. The kids anxiously acquired tokens and redeemed them along the way. The mystery bag had mostly dollar store type trinkets and the Super Surprise Snack Bag had things like fruit snacks and little debbies. It all worked great. I never once heard the dreaded "Im bored." Not once. The kids were soooooo good! Of course we also had ipods, dvd players and d.s.'s which were wonderful life savers as well. Emmitt struggled a bit being in the car so long but I think one years old is probably the hardest age to spend that long holding still. He doesn't watch any shows yet and so keeping him happy was a bit harder. But all in all I don't think I could've asked for better behavior from a baby his age. He was a sweetheart.So the driving "plan" was to leave straight after the kids got out of school and drive until midnight, get a hotel in Laramie, get some good hours of sleep and then after breakfast drive until we got there. This plan didnt really work as well as I had hoped- only for the fact that Emmitt wasnt really into "sleeping" at the hotel. In a room full of his parents and siblings- who can blame him? This first picture of Emmitt below was taken in the hotel room bathroom where I was trying to keep him quiet so everyone else could catch a few more zzzzzz's. I think Kevin and I got a good 3 or maybe even 4 very disjointed hours of sleep... which is great if you consider our alternative plan which was to drive straight through the night. The other two pictures are of the girls when we arrived at the hotel. Since their newborn days I haven't seen them awake at that hour so I just had to take a picture. Their tired faces are so cute!

Well then off we went- on the road again. We drove at a leisurely pace with a long rest stop and still got to our destination by about noon. It was great. Here are the happy travelers!We had a great time while in Utah. We stayed with Kevin's aunt Diana and uncle Henry- who were so very hospitable to our big crew. We loved our chance to visit with Oma and Opa as well and spend some time with Kevins cousins. Heres a picture from when we all roasted marshmallows together:


















The wedding was wonderful. Here are some pictures:Bride and Groom eating cake!
Beautiful bride holding Emmitt.
Here we were waiting for the wedding to begin.
My family.Emmitt, Kyson, Brayden and Kaden. (second cousins and oh so handsome!)

They had so much fun together. Wish they could hang out more often :/

Brayden.

Brielle

Makenna- (and it should be noted that she was thrilled to be the lucky girl that caught the bouquet- and no she had no idea what it meant to be the one to "catch the bouquet").

On our last evening in Utah before heading on our long trek home we were lucky enough to see my cousins Ginger and Amy and her clan. It was a real treat!

not a great picture I know but its all of Amy's kids and my kids... second cousins

Well on Monday we loaded up back in the car and drove ALL DAY LONG to get home. With a couple of long stops we didnt make it home until 11:30 at night. As I drove the kids to school the next morning I asked them what they thought of their big long drive and they shocked me by saying how fun it was. What great kids I am blessed with!