Well before I finish up the last of these pics I better squeeze these two in...they were from one of the days on the way down. We've got traveling down to a science. Whenever we stopped for lunch I would drop Noni and the girls off at a park or if nothing else a grassy area where they could stretch their legs. Then I would get gas and food, and we would let them eat once we got back on the road so they didn't have to waste any out-of-the-car time with sitting and eating. Noni grabbed these pictures at one such stop.
When we left our Montana friends we only had three hours on the road so that was a nice short day. It's kind of hard to see but I had to take a picture of the insane amount of bugs on our windshield...and this was after being spotlessly cleaned at the previous stop just an hour and twenty minutes before!
One way to distract Peaches when she got tired of the car was to tell her that we were going swimming when we arrived so now any time she sees a pool she says, "Swimming tonight!"
Not that she did much swimming, but she liked to sit on stairs and splash in the water. :)
Last night in a hotel room! This trip made me realize that it really wouldn't be the end of the world if we all have to live in the basement of the Farmhouse while we finish the upstairs...if we have to. :P
Our last day on the road was eight and half hours driving time, but it felt looooong when we all just wanted to be done and home!
One hilarious thing about the trip was Peaches is in the phase of loud exclamations. Any time she saw a plane, "AIR-PATE!" or train, "CHOO CHOO TRAIN!" or semi, "BIG TRUCK!" she had to yell out and announce it to all of us. If we didn't respond would keep yelling it until someone said, "Yes! We see the big truck!" You can imagine how many "big trucks" we saw on a 4,000 mile road trip! I think she said, "BIG TRUCK!" at least 1,000 times!
Here's a video of her being silly.
On the way down we had stopped at a playground that was being built so we weren't able to play on it. They had finished it on July 26th so we made sure to stop there on our way back through. It was a very neat playground! Peaches loved these blue half-ball things on the ground. She wanted to jump off each one.
Unfortunately it was really hot...that flooring was super nice and squishy, but it seemed to absorb the heat really bad! They had these cool kid-sized zip lining swings that the girls just loved!
Whee!
Hiding in the cave for shade!
Poor baby was SO tired! Long trips are always the hardest on the toddlers.
They had neat musical instruments that were like giant wind chimes.
Daddy had gone for gas and food and because of traffic it took longer than planned. Peaches was wiped out and fell asleep mid-meal.
She shifted and I realized she fell asleep mid-bite! She had a big piece of bread in her mouth! Noni was able to dig it out without waking her up because we were afraid she would choke on it! Funny girl!
She was so ready to be done with the car. Thankfully she doesn't cry very often...she gets what Daddy calls, "Slap Happy". I tried to get a video of her being so super silly, but she was starting to get frustrated at her entrapment and I ended up videoing her getting a little ornery. We sure were thankful to get home! :P
About an hour from home we made one last stop for gas and let the girls get an ice cream bar to celebrate the end of the trip. Some guy was standing there talking to the cashier (maybe the owner??) and paid for our ice cream! SO nice! What a sweet end to the trip!
Last pic before we made it home!!!
It was such a great vacation! I'm so glad we made the effort and went for it even amidst our crazy moving/farmhouse remodel/school-starting-soon schedule. Thanks Noni, for coming with us and doing all you did to make the trip easier! We love you!
