Travel Log Part 1

Sunday June 5: Master list is prepped with packing and to-dos to complete before our month long trek. The plan is cleaning and car maintenance on Monday, packing on Tuesday, and food prep on Wednesday. Andrew is sewing a nice hanging case for the kindle so Emily can watch movies. He looks good behind a sewing machine, and sews really well as long as the needle is threaded.

Thursday, June 9: Drove 4.5 hours without stopping. Kids did great. Nathan needed help so Andrew did some crazy maneuvers to switch places with the cooler in the backseat while I was driving 75mph on the highway. Emily jumped right in with her agenda at grandma Moose’a house. Played on the swing set, got the piano and toys from down stairs, painted toe and finger nails with aunt Christine (she ended up painting her own and then offered to paint mine giving me a choice of two slightly different pinks and asked me if it tickled my toes. Also discovered that she thinks all four little toes are “pinky toes”), watched a movie with Grandma Moose, helped with the packing efforts, and made her bed with a big stack of books on the bottom shelf of her nightstand which her official set up every trip. Nathan moved all around and discovered curtains and was having the time of his life waving them around and chewing on them. We finished preparations for the two day journey ahead.

Friday June 10: On the road at 6:45 CT. Stopped once in Newton Iowa and then the kids took a nap and we made our next stop in Lincoln NE aroundnoon. Our AC wasn’t really working so we found a Walmart to run around in and cool down. We grabbed three containers of raspberries, one for each of us, and enjoyed the refreshing treat at the adjoining McDonalds. When we got back in the car the AC was acting like its usual self for which we were very grateful. Listened to music. Andrew pointed put a huge wagon and I thought he was joking because we were listening to a song about pioneers, but no joke. Made one more stop and landed in Ogallalla around 4:30 ET. We walked to Walmart and got a bunch of microwaveable options for a picnic dinner in our hotel room. When my mom and Christine arrived we joined them at Wendy’s for their dinner and to catch up with our lifetime friends, the Witts, who also are traveling out to Utah. The kids went to bed without problems – Emily sang/talked herself to sleep but stayed asleep and Nathan didn’t get up more than usual.

Saturday June 11: 12:15am I wake up feeling really sick. I spend the rest of the night throwing up and with diarrhea.  Miraculously the kids slept through my million trips to the bathroom.

Got breakfast at 6am and on the road by 6:40. Made a stop around 9 in Cheyenne WY. Emily was in rock heaven. The landscape was full of all sorts of sizes of rocks and she made one her baby that she ended up putting to bed on the drainage ditch. She put a pile of tiny rocks next to it so it would have a big pile of books too. Around 11 Andrew pulled onto an on ramp and I fed Nathan. Our last stop was at noon for gas and then I drove the last 4.5 hours to Provo. Nathan grew up a couple of times – full body and car seat – but was doing well once we got him out. Emily watched about 2-3 hours of movies, totaling her screen time for the three days at a max of 4 hours. Not bad for a 24 hour drive.

We got to Grandma Blomquists home and played outside in the rain for a few minutes before heading inside. Emily is right at home with the dolls, kitchen things, and strollers. Aunt Melinda and Katie stopped by and then Christine and mom arrived with Brian. Dinner, unpacked and cleaned up.