Road Trippin' 2014

Let's go way back ... to about a month ago.  This post is all about our first big drive up north for our annual Heinrich Summer Road Trip!  We left on a Friday afternoon ... amazingly only 15 minutes past our dedicated departure time.  Pretty good, if you ask me!  We were packed To. The. HILT. I'm probably pretty amazing at Tetris, because no one could have gotten all that I did into our car ... PLUS five people!  

Poor Khloe had the sun in her eyes most of the first evening.  She asked to borrow my sunglasses.  Such a cutie! Snuggling tight to her Princesses, of course.

We stopped to get gas and have a potty break just before supper, and as soon as we pulled in to the gas station, Khloe yells, "GWENDY'S HERE, MOM!" Good call ... but no.  It was not the Adams, but it does look exactly like their car.  You can see who we hang out with all of the time ... she knows her vehicle.

Gwendy?

We knew the kids were about to sleep in the car all night long ... cross our fingers.  So, we decided to grab some Subway then go to a rest area to eat and run.  Everyone must've thought we were nutso at the rest stop, because we were the only ones out there ... and we soon figured out why.  BUGS!  It was dusk ... it's the FL/GA border ... and mid-summer.  There were flies, gnats, mosquitoes ... if it had wings, you name it--it was there!  We ate quickly, and then we got out of there!  We dressed the kids in their pajamas ... and headed off for a LONG night.

Now, I say a long night, but really it was only long for two people ... Billy, who drove the 2:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. shift, and Khloe ... who woke up when we changed drivers at 2:30 and stayed awake until around 5:00 a.m.!  Billy thought she would fall back asleep easily, if we put on a movie.  So, he put in Cinderella.  Not only did she watch the whole movie, but she stayed up to chat a while with her Daddy before she crashed.  In her defense, it is not comfy to sleep in those car seats ... but this poor girl nearly had her first all-nighter!

Middle of the night party-girl!

I began my shift with this amazing sunrise in southern Illinois.  I was keeping my eye out for an IHOP!

We did not find an IHOP, but just south of Chicago in Rantoul, IL (just north of Paris ... where my Mom's family is from), we found a little diner that I think half the town was having breakfast in that morning.  

Khloe took this picture of her Daddy at breakfast.

She, also, took this photo of her Bubby.  Not too shabby!

I, creepily, photo-bombed her selfie.

They made the kids these adorable Minnie (Colton's was Mickey--sans the bow) Mouse pancakes.

Soon after ... this girl crashed!  She was snoring SO loudly.

We, mistakenly, drove around the edge of Chicago ... instead of bypassing it using a different route--which was slated to be 15 minutes longer.  Well ... thanks to a LOAD of construction on I-90, it took us way too long ... much longer than an extra 15 minutes ... to get through Chicago.  A million tollways and no exits for potty stops later, we finally arrived in Wisconsin.  

Billy wanted to take us all to the Wisconsin Dells.  He had been there when he was a kid, but I had never been there.  I almost went when I taught 8th grade in MN, but we did something else for their end-of-the-year trip, instead.  Billy talked it up ... he said it was so fun ... probably a lot like Branson (he was just guessing at this point, because he has never been to Branson).  I was pretty excited just to get out of the car for a while.  

When we got there, I realized that his young memories probably made it out to be better than it actually was ... but it was pretty cool, I'll admit.  Not nearly as big as Branson ... or as cool (in my opinion) ... a little run down ... but if we were going for the water parks ... that was the awesome part!  We ended up going to a candy store ... then we mined for rocks and gems ... and we planned on go-karting, but we couldn't find a place that looked nice.  So, we went for pizza, instead.  We had a great time!  What a nice break in our drive!

Khloe LOVED this pony ... she wanted to take it home.

Colton chose blue.

Cuties!

Candy, candy everywhere!

Contemplating what treat to get.

Mining for rocks and gems!

Pizza time at Moosejaw!

We got back on the road, and only had about 3 1/2 hours left to drive.  We got to Cherrie's house around 9:30/9:45-ish. The kids were exhausted and ready for bed ... and so were we!  The drive went a lot better than I had imagined it would go.  Alice slept through the night in her car seat ... and she didn't wake when we stopped for gas or to change drivers.  She cried a little bit, but she actually didn't cry as much as I had anticipated.  Lots of movies were watched ... and we all enjoyed some family road-trip time!