Day 6 and 7, On to Kentucky

We are getting pretty good at this packing up thing, and Kyler loves it every time. Today we are heading from St. Louis, to Kentucky. About 4 1/2 hours. One they was we cross into Indiana for a short while

And then on into Kentucky. It was a really beautiful state. Of course everything was gray and dead as we drove by, but I could just picture it in the spring, it would have been breath taking.

We were headed to Mammoth Caves National park, and on the way, our car hit the 30,000 mile mark. If we still had our Mazda, we would have hit 100,000.

I really miss my Mazda. I was excited to see it turn 100,000. But this car has been a blessing for us. I don't know how we would have gotten everything here if we were still in the small car. Hopefully I can avoid the crazy drivers out there and see this car turn 100,000...almost there.

Kyler has learned that he hates his car seat, he fights tooth and nail when it's time to go somewhere. When we packed up for this trip, he screamed for almost an hour, there was nothing I could do to calm him down. He finally fell asleep, and Brian said a prayer that he might get some of the sleep that he needs. After the prayer he made a comment like "wouldn't it be cool if he slept the whole way there". Ya right I thought. Oh ye of little faith! He did! He slept for almost 3 1/2 hours! It was incredible. Thank heavens for the power of prayer and great husbands!

When we got to Mammoth Caves National Park, we went to the picnic area for lunch. There were so many trees I so wished we could have been there during the spring. A herd of 7 deer joined us. Kyler was mystified. We were the only ones there, so it was kind of magical. Then we headed back to the hotel to just hang out. Kyler and Brian were so cute on the bed watching cartoons. We ordered pizza in the room and all went to bed early.

The next morning we packed everything in the car and headed into the park for our Cave tour. We took the New Entrance tour, which includes the Frozen Niagara tour. It was about 2 hours and Kyler was perfect! There were about 15 people on the tour with us, the Ranger said in the summer they usually have 150, so it was fun to have a small group and get a more intimate approach to the caves.

We are fans of National Parks. I think it would be great to visit all the national parks. This park is different from what we are used to because it is all under ground. This tour starts out by going down a lot of steps. At the lowest point we were about 250 feet below the ground. I am glad Kyler did so well.

Then we set our sights for Cumming Georgia, to visit Phillip and Jamie (Brian's Brother and fam). It was supposed to be a 5 1/2 hour drive but right as we started a Semi lost it's contents all over the highway. We ended up going only 5 miles in an hour and a half. Kyler slept most of that time, so when we actually got on the way he was already to be done. I kept him busy with food and movies for the most part, but after we stopped for dinner he had had it. We were about 45 min from Phillip and Jamie's when he started to cry. There was nothing I could do to console him. He cried for half an hour and then threw up all over himself. Joy. We pulled over to clean him up and get the gunk out of his car seat. I didn't have anything to dress him in, so Brian just wrapped him in a blanket and tried to calm him down while I cleaned up. Then a cop pulled up behind us. He was just making sure we were all right. We told him our story and then he was on his way. A few seconds later another cop pulled up. This one stuck around till we were all packed up again and on our way. Thank heavens Phillip and Jamie's house ended up being just around the corner, I'm not sure we would have survived much longer.

I was sooo frustrated. Kyler was so tired but refused to fall asleep, a 5 1/2 hour drive took us 7, the weather was terrible (it was raining) so I was stressed with driving, and then Kyler decides to throw up just to top it all off. I wanted to blast the music on the radio but Tiffany wanted it off, she couldn't handle more noise. We were starting to get mad at eachother just because we were so frustrated. It is a good thing we are done driving for a while. It has been great to travel with Tiffany, we make such a good team. But after more than 32 hours in the car we were all ready to be done.

Phillip and Jamie were wonderful. They were the safe haven from the strom that we so desperately needed. They were great to help us unpack and get the car cleaned up the rest of the way from Kyler. Thanks to them for all their help.

It's been great to be here. Kyler has had a blast playing with his cousins, and Brian and I have had some time to rest and recuperate. It will be fun playing with Phillip and Jamie and their family while we are in North Carolina. We have several fun trips planned.

Day 5, St. Louis

The day started with a yummy breakfast. I love that hotels these days have these cool waffle makers that make it safe and easy for guest to make their own warm breakfast. We only had 4 hours of driving ahead of us. The drive was uneventful, Kyler did sleep for an hour and 20 min which made things a lot more manageable. We stopped for the day in St. Louis, we heard a lot of good things about the zoo and the arch so we planned to spend the afternoon looking around.

The Zoo is free, as long as you can find someplace to park, if not..it costs $11 to park. It was a little chilly outside, but the sun was out, and we were like the only ones there. Most of the time we were the only ones looking at the exhibits. It was kind of nice. When you enter they have this statue of the sea lions. Kyler loved it.

And then around the corner are the real sea lions, I totally thought it was another statue. They were just sunning themselves on the rock.

Kyler loved the Polar bear, it kept sticking it's head up and looking right at us. Everything seemed so close, it was nice not to have bars or glass.

The Penguin exhibit was the best. Man can those things swim, and they can stop on a dime. They were so fun to watch. The St. Louis Zoo has the largest penguin exhibit in the nation. I was watching one really closely and realized to soon I was to close, yup, I got drenched. Brian couldn't stop laughing.

The zoo was great. Many of the animals were on vacation. They take a lot of their animals to different zoos for the winter. But it was still fun to see the ones that were here and it was great that we were one of the few people there. Also, as Tiffany said, the penguin exhibit was great. It was the best I have ever seen. You can get close enough to touch them, if you dare to get bit. - Brian

Then we headed over to the St. Louis Arch. It was really impressive. We got there late so we didn't get to take the ride to the top, but that's ok. We enjoyed taking pictures. Here are our favorites.

Then we headed to our hotel in Illinois. It just happened to be close and a good price. And we got to add another state to our list.

Kyler now knows that when we enter a hotel lobby, somewhere are these fun carts that he gets to ride on. He had so much fun helping Daddy unload the car..yet again.

More family fun time! We headed for the pool. This was a really nice facility, probably the nicest we've stayed in. The pool wasn't real warm though, so we'd spend a few minutes in the hot tub and then play on the pool chairs. Kyler was SO good. He was an angel all day. I have to remember in the moments that he's a screaming terror, it's only because he doesn't know whats going on, and he really just wants to play.

Day 4...the long drive through Kansas :(

Day four we loaded up early because we had a 9 hour drive ahead of us. We started out optimistic. Kyler had fun playing with his new lap top (we got it at a toy store that was going out of business) for a whole 5 min and that's when we knew this drive was going to last forever.

We heard that the drive to Kansas was not to be envied. We read a shirt in a gas station that we thought summed it up pretty well. It went something like this...

We drove through Kansas and saw some wheat. We drove some more and saw a cow. Then we saw some more wheat. After some more driving we saw a telephone pole. After which we saw a cow in some wheat next to a telephone pole...Next time I''m flying.

Yup...that pretty much sums it up. The only thing that broke up the monotony was lunch. Our friends Rachel and Cole were always talking about their favorite taco place in South Dakota. Taco Johns. We just happened to find one and couldn't pass up the opportunity. We love and miss you Rachel and Cole!!!

I don't have a picture of the Missouri state sign because it comes somewhere in mess of freeway, and it was really late, and we were all ready to be done. But we did it. We got through Kansas in a day. We got to the hotel and took Kyler swimming because the poor kid and been through a lot. He deserved some fun. Then we all hit the sack, so glad our longest day was over.

Ya know...It might have been pretty if it were green. But since it is winter everything is dead and brown. It is a little disorienting driving through Kansas. I am used to having mountains to get my directions from. But in Kansas, if we would make a turn I would lose track of what way we were facing. I am glad we are out of there. ---Brian

Day 3 of our Trip Across the Country

Day 3 was SO fun! All play and no traveling, and boy were we glad we had this day. Day four is a l..o...n...g...day. Anyway, we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon and monkey bread (it's like cinnamon rolls on steroids), thanks to Ken and Amy, then we packed lunches and loaded in the car. Our first stop was Seven Falls. It was a bit cold, but the sun was warm.
Seven falls is a series of waterfalls that you see from a series of really long steep stair cases. I think we did over 500 stairs that day. This is Ken and Amy's family headed up the stairs.

All of us at the top of one of the view points. The falls were frozen, so they weren't real spectacular from far away, but up close they were really neat because you could see the water running underneath.

Jill, Tanner, and Kyler. Jill did so good, she climbed almost all those stairs all by herself.

After we enjoyed a quick lunch in the sun by the falls, we loaded up in the car again and headed to Garden of the Gods. It's like a mini Moab in Colorado Springs. This is there version of balancing rock. We got out and let the kids run around, Kyler loved every minute of it. He was running so fast, Brian was having a hard time holding on to him.

We walked around the park, and the kids were all so good. There was this one rock that had a small crevas that a small child could walk all the way through. Tanner and Jill were doing it so Kyler decided he wanted to try, I helped him as far as I could go, and Brian reached for him as far as he could from the other side, but that still left a few steps he'd have to do on his own. He started toward Brian but then got scared and I thought for sure he was going to get stuck, but he finally grabbed Brian and everything was ok. Needless to say we were both too busy to get a picture :)

We came home tired and hungry. Kyler was sporting a fever again...103, so I fed him early and put him down to bed. He's still had the fever off and on (I'm typing this on day 5), but we've kept the motrin handy, and he's been ok...teething maybe??? who knows. Then we had a wonderful dinner, Salad, fruit smoothies, and homemade pizza...with the best pizza dough ever :) We shipped the rest of the kids off to bed, and stayed up laughing at Kens stories. It was a great day. We so would have loved to spend more time with the Pollary family. They were so wonderful to us we were sad to leave. Hopefully our paths will meet again soon.

This was a really fun day. It was nice to get out and just play. It was fun to see the water behind the ice falls. There were some fun formations of ice. It is too bad the pictures don't do justice to the beauty...I guess pictures rarely do. Garden of the Gods was also fun. It seemed out of place. I am used to state parks like this being somewhat secluded. This one, however, was right in the middle of suburbs. I wouldn't mind living in a neighborhood next to this park.--Brian

Day 2 of our Trip Across the Country

Kyler slept till 7:30 (ahhh!!! angels sing), so we were all awake and ready to start another day. We had cold cereal in the room, packed the car and headed to Denver. The drive through the Rockie Mountains was beautiful, lots of fresh snow, and clear blue skies. I wanted to get a picture, but after I took this one of Kyler I must have misplaced my camera.

It was a beautiful drive. I am glad we had good weather. It would have been a nightmare if we were driving in a storm. We have been blessed with good weather, a good car, and a good kid. He has done well with the driving. Let's hope it stays that way. ---Brian
Don't worry I eventually found it. Here is the Denver sky line.

We met my cousin Ken and his family outside the Denver mint. The Denver mint is the only place west of the Mississippi to make coins that are actually in circulation. We took a tour and learned all kinds of nifty tid bits of information. You can't take ANYTHING in with you, including strollers, purses, phones, camera etc..so I only have a picture of the outside of the building.

The Mint was a fun place to tour. It was fun to learn about and see the process of making coins. It makes me want to be a numistmatist. The day we were there they were making pennies. Did you know it costs 1.8 cents to make a penny. We are losing millions of dollars to produce that little coin. Also the machines can make about 13 coins per second. I havn't done the math again but I think they said it was a million coins each day. Thats Nuts!!! ---Brian

On our way to Colorado Springs, we stopped to see the Denver Temple. It sure reminded me of the Jordan River Temple. The kids got out and ran around for a while. I kept Kyler in his seat because trying to get him back in it after the mint was a fiasco :)

We caught a glimpse of ship rock also.

We ended the day at Ken and Amy's house, with a wonderful home cooked meal, and warm comfortable beds. Amy has been the perfect host, she thought of everything, from a pack and play all set up and ready, extra blankets on the bed, wash cloths, and even shampoo and conditioner in our shower. We haven't wanted for anything. We are excited to post about day 3, we had a great time running around Colorado Springs.

Day One of our Trip Across the Country

Day one felt like fifty all wrapped in one. I didn't think we would EVER get everything out of that place. We took like fifty trips to my Dads house (who's kindly storing all our stuff), and then we still ended up making last minute trips to my Moms, not to mention all the stuff we threw away just because we didn't want to deal with it. Sigh...but it's over, and we are now ON OUR WAY!! WAHOO!!

I am so tired of packing and un-packing and packing again. I tried to pack the crib as a favor to Tiffany...that didn't work out. I barely got everything else in. Now that we are packed the hard part is behind us...only 36 hours of easy driving awaits. ---Brian

Kyler is starting to climb! He always wants to see the doggy outside at grandma and grandpa Smiths house, so we've put a stool by the window so he can look when he want. I think this is what started it. He had a blast playing with his crib bars, up down, up down, up down.


We got everything in the car, and I don't think we could have fit one more ounce of food or anything else we might have needed. Kyler was lucky to find a spot :)

We finally got on the road about 2:00, Kyler did pretty well, he slept for about 45 min, and then had fun playing with his bag of animals he got in Vegas. We entered our first state about 5:00!

We were so excited when we got to Grand Junction. We were originally staying in some budget hotel, but I decided to try out priceline. The budget hotel was going to cost us about 70 dollars, but priceline got us a three star hotel for only 45 bucks! And they had an indoor pool!

Our only disappointment was that the pool ended up being closed. I was so sad, I was looking forward to some fun family time in the pool. Oh well, we had fun running around the room and playing with Kyler in the tub.

This is Kylers room :) We put the pack and play in the entry way and used the comforter from the bed to separate it from the room. It actually worked really well, he didn't even cry when I put him down. He talked to himself for a while and then went right to sleep. And now Brian and I are enjoying catching up on blogs, myfamily, and reading. Ahhhh...this is the life. Tomorrow.....Denver and staying with the Pollary's. Can't wait!