Our Great Trek Out West

Finally getting back to the blog. I'll be playing catch up for a while. This summer I took the kids on a road trip out west for a family reunion and to visit other friends and family along the way. The whole trip took 25 days. Sean couldn't come for all of it because of work and school, but he flew out for 5 days in the middle. Here's the first leg of the trip.

I gave each kid a laminated map of our trip.  Lily put hers up in the window to help navigate.

Lily Navigating from the back seat

Our first stop was New Jersey to see friends we hadn't seen in a year and to pick up my sister Kyla.  We stopped at our old neighbors and it was just like we never left.  They are so wonderful.  A trip to the Nagle's wouldn't be complete without feeding the goats.

Feeding the goats

We also had ice cream sundaes for lunch.  The kids were pretty excited about that.

Ice Cream Sundaes!!!!

And then we went swimming because everyone was MELTING in the heat!!!!!  It was SO nice to see the Nagles.   We wish they were still our neighbors.

Swimming to escape the heat!

The Nagle's had a Christmas tradition with a pickle ornament.  I had never heard of it, but I guess it's a pretty common pickle.  Anyway, the pickle is the last ornament on the tree and every night it changes it's spot.  The first person to find the pickle each day will have good luck that day.  My kids LOVED to find the pickle at their house.  In fact they kept that pickle out most the year and my kids would go over and hunt for it often.  Well, to our surprise, the Nagles gave the pickle to us as a gift as we were leaving.  The kids were so excited to have the pickle and we are excited to add it to our Christmas tradition.  That pickle sure was tricky on the road trip.  It was always in a new place every time we left the car and came back!

The pickle

Next we went to see the Barnes.  We had such little time that this is the only picture I got.  The girls had such a fun time playing with their friends and I had fun holding their new baby and visiting with them.

Sara and Aly

Next on the list was to pick up Aunt Kyla so she could join us on our road trip!!!

Kyla and the pickle

Aunt Kyla also brought her little dog Virginia.  Virginia was a fantastic traveling dog.   She made such good company and entertainment for the kids.

Virginia

Most mornings we tried to be out by 4:30 or 5 in the morning to start the long drive for the day.  Here are the kids bright eyed and bushy tailed

5:00 AM Start time

After New Jersey, we stopped in Ohio so the kids could meet one set of great grandparents.  We met at a park for lunch and had a lovely picnic.  They are serious about picnics.  They even brought their camp stove to cook hot dogs for the kids and had a fantastic spread of food.  It was so wonderful seeing them after so many years.  Hopefully we can make it back and visit the historical society they are a part of.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Price

Saint Louis was on our way and instead of going around it we went through it so we could see the arch.  So glad we did.  Totally worth it!

St. Louis Arch

In Kansas we found this skinny little stray Chihuahua at a huge truck stop.  We couldn't just leave him there to get run over so we went to the hotel across the street to ask if they knew anywhere we might be able to bring him.  The lady told us about a vet's office in a little town 5 miles down the road.  So we drove down there and even though they had just closed they took the dog in.  It was so nice.  I was grateful to have Virginia in the car with us, because she provided some much needed consoling to Sara who had bonded with the little Chihuahua in the 25 minutes he was with us.

The dog we rescued in Kansas

Finally we arrived in Denver!!!!!!  Denver post coming soon!