Sunday, September 11, 2011

Our Trip Back to Illinois

I was not looking forward to spending 40+ hours in the car ("you mean 'van' Mom" ... Eliza corrects me every time I say "car" in reference to our large new vehicle) at 32 weeks pregnant.  We planned to stop in Utah to visit family and do some Utah errands, then head on to northern Wyoming to visit Mike's brother's family, then stop in mid-Iowa to visit our favorite cheap motel in mid-Iowa (not coincidentally called the Mid-Iowa Motel).  Each day's drive was 10-12 hours or so, which broke the trip up nicely.  It went much better than I feared.  The kids were great little travelers and I didn't do so bad myself!

In Utah I wanted to go to the amazing Family History Library and look up a few things that I've been stumped on for a while.  I had some marriage records to look up that I had hoped would give information about the couple's parents, but unfortunately didn't.  Mike took the kids next door to the Church Art and History Museum.  They had a blast in the kids section.  Mike didn't take many pictures, but he did get some video footage of Eliza learning a traditional Mexican dance with costume and all.  He says the video doesn't do it justice (and it doesn't help that Caleb is hanging on his arm), but I think it's pretty darn cute!


While in the museum they sought out the children's art exhibit and looked for our friends' artwork.

 Sophia's temple picture is the third from the left in the middle row.

 Dillon's earth picture is the last one in the middle row.

 We walked around temple square a little bit.


Eliza and Caleb got to play with their Illinois friends, Audrey and Auston, while Mike and I went to the Mt. Timpanogos temple.  They sure miss them!  We spent the night at Tim and Jen's house and loved staying up late to play games and hang out with them.

Our next stop was Sheridan, Wyoming, where Mike's brother Dan just moved.  Our kids are close in age and had so much fun playing together.  There was no warm-up time required-- the kids were best friends right away.  We spent some time at a park near their house that had a fun splash fountain.





 Mike should have worn his swim trunks!

 When the fountains got old, dropping things down this drain was a hit.


We really wish these guys lived closer!  Thanks for hosting us in Sheridan!

We didn't get any pictures of our night at the Mid-Iowa Motel, but it was pretty great!

2 comments:

Lisa said...

I couldn't watch your video. It said it was private :(

stephasauri said...

I think it's fixed now :)