Road Trip Day 3

We drove through the night and hit the Washington border around 5 a.m. with the time change, which is when the kids woke up.  I couldn’t believe how bright it was outside at the time of day.  I had the privilege of watching the sunrise in the Idaho mountains right before this, which was breathtaking, but I was driving at that time, so I couldn’t take any pictures.

The kids were getting antsy after driving for 22 hours at this point (10 a.m. – 8 a.m.), so I gave them more presents to open and play with.

I love seeing the farms set against the mountains…definitely different from home.

At first I didn’t understand why Washington is called the Evergreen State, but then I figured it out.

29 hours of driving straight and we got there at 1 p.m. their time. Total driving time with stops: 34 hours!   We went for lunch altogether at Bayou on Bay and ate in the upstairs part of the restaurant.  It’s not a great picture because the lighting was bad, but it’s the only one I have.

The 5 of us took naps in the afternoon and then Art + Jenene had us over for supper, which was SO nice of them.  I REALLY didn’t want to have to go grocery shopping right after the long day(s) we had.  Their friends Wayne and Sosan were over, too, as they live right next door in the same building.

Thus concludes our first day in Washington.  We were very happy to be out of the van!  Oh, and the kids only watched 2 dvd’s the whole way there!  Haley cried for the last hour between Seattle and Bellingham, but other than that she did amazingly well.  I would say it was a miraculous drive there with all 3 kids!

Road Trip Day 2 Part 2

We continued on our journey and stopped at Denny’s for lunch.  Haley was reminding us that she’s almost a 1-year-old.

We drove over the Missouri River

There were many gorgeous ponds along the way

We randomly saw this sight along the highway and went to go check it out

Yep, we got to see the world’s largest buffalo AND the world’s largest holstein in the same day!  What more could you ask for?!

We had to drive on switchbacks up a hill to get to it.  It was extremely hot outside that day, so I made sure I drank a lot.

The view from Salem Sue

Random sight along the highway

We stopped at Painted Canyon Overlook which is in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and I was blown away by the beauty of it.  It offers a spectacular view of the Badlands.  Pictures don’t do it justice.  We woke Haley up from her nap to stop here and it was totally worth it!

I went to the Dollar Store before our trip and bought a whole bunch of toys and wrapped them up for the kids.  I gave them to Kiera + Blake periodically as they started to go bonkers in the van.

Glory streaming down from heaven

We went to the Cracker Barrel for supper in Billings, Montana.  I think they have the best gift shop!

Then we proceeded to drive through the night.  Oh, and nighttime started at the same time we entered the mountains, so it was a tense drive for us.  I drove from 9-11 p.m., Jared drove ‘til 4:30 a.m., I took over until 6 a.m., but then we had a time change, so it was actually 5 a.m. and that’s when the kids woke up for the day.  They slept almost all night, which was an answer to prayer.  My kids are troopers and we experienced God’s grace many, many times during our trip!  Pictures of Washington to come…

Road Trip Day 1 and Day 2 Part 1

On Friday, July 6, Jared got off work early and we packed up and hit the road at 4:45 p.m.  We stopped a couple of hours later to eat ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and we went to one store where I bought some jeans.  The sunset that evening was beautiful as usual.

We stopped at Jamestown, North Dakota for the night, which is about 5 1/2 hours away.  After breakfast the next morning, we hit the road for a loooooong day and night of driving. 

Before we drove far, we stopped to explore Jamestown.  We went to Frontier Village which I found very interesting.  I like all of the “old west” buildings.

Inside the blacksmith shop

Inside the barber shop

The scenery in that area is pretty.  I love hills and trees!

It’s not called the “Buffalo City” for no reason.

Yep, we got to see the World’s Biggest Buffalo!  The kids were quite excited to see that, even before we left on our trip.  Ok, who am I kidding, Jared + I thought that was pretty exciting, too!

Yep, it’s REALLY BIG!!  Stay tuned for more pictures of BIG things…

Kiera Gets Her Ears Pierced

Kiera had been asking me for a while if she could get her ear’s pierced.  I told her she could before she started Kindergarten.  She kept asking, so then I decided she could a couple of months early.  I found a place that had 2 people pierce the ears simultaneously and I bought Kiera some numbing cream that I put on one hour before.  I chose medical plastic earrings for her instead of stainless steel because I can’t wear earrings with nickel in them, so I figured Kiera probably shouldn’t either.  One of the girls there asked Kiera beforehand if she was excited and Kiera said, “Ya,” but you totally couldn’t tell.

Marking her ears very carefully…that took way longer than the piercing part.

All done!

At first, she looked like she was going to cry, but then she decided she would be brave and just kept a straight face and didn’t say a thing.  I remember getting my ears pierced at age 4 and I reacted exactly the same way! 

She has pink studs just like I got at her age!  She was so excited to show them to her friends and family after!  I was waiting for the day that Kiera would want to have her ears pierced and I really like them. :)