Road Trip

Last Friday night we decided to get out of town in honor of Kyle's spring break. We had plans to be in Vegas the next day for Louie's football game, and we thought as long as we were going that far, we might as well go somewhere farther. Kentucky sounded like fun, so we threw together some bags and headed east on Saturday. When we left, we didn't even have directions to get there, but after a few phone calls (thanks Ryan), we figured it out. The trip was incredible. Both Kyle and I love traveling, and little Noah seems to have inherited that. He was amazing during the 30 hour car ride. He kept busy playing (stickers, coloring, reading),
taking in all the beautiful scenery and pondering the meaning of life,
and sleeping, of course.

Also we couldn't have made it without a portable DVD player and his favorite movies Happy Feet and Cars.

When we stopped for breaks, he would get out and run around,

and then get back into his car seat without a single complaint.

We drove all through the night on Saturday and then most of Sunday night too. That was pretty intense! We pulled over to sleep on the side of the road for an hour on Saturday, and other than that, we just caffeinated ourselves and hoped for the best.

(Kari taught me this trick)

If we did not have to stop so many times to pee, we would have definitely made the trip in under 30 hours. Next time we're all going to wear diapers like Noah.

We wanted to surprise my family, so they had no idea we were coming. We just showed up at their house at 4:00 in the morning on Monday. The look on their faces was priceless! Grandma just about had a coronary. Whoever went and woke her up said "there is kind of an emergency, I need you to come out here" so you can imagine what she looked like when she came out to the family room, and then when she saw us standing there. It is so nice going home to Kentucky, we are definitely surrounded by a lot of love there. And as always we enjoyed our time with the Piepers. The drive to them was worth it and we'll do it again sometime!

Unfortunately in our packing frenzy we left the camera battery charger at home, so we didn't get many pictures. The scenery was beautiful! But now at least I have pictures in my head to go with all the states we saw (12 in all). There really are some beautiful places in the US. The deserts of Arizona and New Mexico were surprisingly beautiful. We drove through golden fields in Texas and saw some crazy dairy farms. Oklahoma had some nice green farmland scattered throughout, but watch out for those toll roads and police officers. Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois all had lots of forestland and open fields. Kentucky's skeletons of trees broken in the ice storm were pretty wild. I slept through Kansas. Colorado's mountains, with all their wildlife, were amazing. And even coming home we were impressed with the sights right here in St. George, Utah.

I have always wanted to travel the world, but during this trip I realized that there is enough to see right around here. So until I'm rich and able to take my world travels, I will be content with cross country car trips.

Getting our kicks on Route 66