Jul 10, 2018
We made it home. It was 3:30 in the morning, (16+ hour drive) but we made it home safely and we were all excited to get out of the car and sleep in our own beds. Here’s some stats from this summer’s roadtrip.
We drove 3900 miles. 2700 of those were driven without Steve. Sidenote: On average, I’ve put about 8,000 miles a year on my car. This summer roadtrip is half the miles I drive in a year!
We visited 5 states.
We saw 43 license plates. (We missed Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia).
We were gone consecutively for 31 days (Steve joined us when he could) – although we were at girls camp right before which made the trip seem even longer.
We went to four state parks.
We slept on a boat. We slept in beds and on the floor. We slept at friends. We slept in tents. We slept in the car.
The movie of choice this roadtrip was Greatest Showman.
Our roadtrip soundtrack was on repeat for hours and hours and hours. And just when I thought the kids were tired of it and I tried switching it out, they revolted and demanded the roadtrip CD, seems to happen every year.
We visited Costco just once.
One carsick kid.
Washed the car window twice and yet visited countless gas stations. (we had a lot of dead bugs by the end!)
Played three rounds of tennis.
Had snowcones 8 times (thanks to my dad’s snowie machine!)
I listened to a good majority of Atlas Shrugged – Steve’s book of choice two months back – I’m almost done and I’ve really enjoyed it.
In our hours upon hours in the car, Briggs slept for approximately 8 hours – thats it. Oh how I wish I had car sleepers!
We didn’t eat at McDonalds – not even once. We did manage to eat at Subway twice, a local hamburger joint, Chipotle, a local Mexican restaurant and Little Ceasers.
Bedtimes were thrown completely out the window. I can think of one day they actually went to bed at their normal bed time and only a handful of times that they went to bed within an hour of their normal bedtime. It doesn’t help that it was light until 10pm while we were in Idaho.
When we arrived home it was 97 degrees. It was in the middle of the night – I don’t think any of us are quite ready for the Arizona summer that we’ve successfully avoided until now. Excuse us while we slip into swimsuits for the next couple weeks until school starts!
Sep 1, 2016
While we were in Utah this summer we met up with our Wisconsin friends for an evening pool party. It takes a few minutes for the kids to warm up to each other again, the older they grow, longer the warming up takes. But then they’re inseparable again, just like when they were young. Everyone has a buddy their age.
The house we went to swim at was our friends parent’s house and it was more than just a pool. When the kids were done swimming they could roast mallows at the fire pit, play some basketball/tennis or go visit the horses. It might as well be considered a resort!
I’m not a big animal fan, but these horses were beautiful. Perhaps it was the sun set casting a warm light on their shiny hair. Or perhaps it was the perfectly manicured stables that were nice enough I wouldn’t mind living in them. Either way, the boys enjoyed their time admiring and feeding the horses.
We definitely scored in the friend department when we moved to Wisconsin. Grateful we’re able to keep tabs on each other over the years.
Aug 15, 2016
We spent a month this summer living out of suitcases, spending a lot of time in the car visiting family and friends. Little kids in the car for that long isn’t ideal and we made it work with a couple creative solutions with different modes of transportation.
Our first leg was spent in Utah. In the past, Utah has been a pitstop on the way to Idaho. Lunch, gas and some time stretching our legs, an overnight stay if we were lucky. This year, we made a week of it. Steve has two sisters there and my brother just so happen to move there the day we got there. We stayed with Steve’s sister where we laid low for the majority of the time with sick kiddos. No fun at all. But the older kids were able to play with their cousins which is fun even if you don’t leave the house much.
Our third day there, Hallie had a collision at the splash pad with another girl which resulted in her tooth breaking…again. In case you’re counting, this has happened more times than I would like to count. Every time we go to the dentist they tell us the same thing – its a large chunk, she’ll probably have a problem with it until she’s old enough to get veneers and cover the tooth all together. Awesome. Luckily my sister-in-law knew a kind and loving dentist who got Hallie in quickly and saved the day.
We spent our days playing with cousins and we were up late into the night after the kids were in bed at my brother’s new house helping them move in. (sadly not a single picture with them) We were running on fumes for many days!
By the last night we were there, the two youngest were starting to feel a little better and we ventured out to Temple square in downtown SLC. Which just so happens to be the area that both Julie and I got engaged. Although Steve and I were also married there so we love to go visit and bore our kids with our anything-but-average love story! 🙂
We visited the free church museum which had great exhibits for kids to enjoy. We toured the old tabernacle and the conference center. And rode the elevator to top of the Joseph Smith building for the ultimate view. With an evening like that how can you not top it off with a walk to City Creek mall for some Chick-fil-a. It’s a toss up as to whether the nuggets or the elevator were the highlight!
Later that night we were getting the kids ready for bed and packing up a few things to leave the next morning and Hunter came into the room. “I really liked tonight.” We asked a few questions including what his favorite part was, “All of it. I really just liked everything we did tonight. Thanks.” That summed up our last night. There wasn’t crying. There wasn’t fighting. The weather was mild and we were with family we love. It was peaceful.
