Day 11 Of Our Roadtrip!

Wait a minute....what happened to days 7, 8, 9 and 10!!! I thought you might be thinking something along those lines. Basically....they are still being drafted and I haven't had the time to get them finished. Today was such a great day that I wanted to get it recorded! Today, the reason we are on this roadtrip was fulfilled!! Mark's nephew, Porter, was baptized!! He was glowing all day! It was really fun to watch! When he came up out of the water he shivered and said 'cold' which we all chuckled at. But, I turned to Christian and asked if he saw and he looked at me and said 'I don't want to be baptized mom.' He had such a concerned look on his face. I little surprised by this statement I simply told him he had 4 years to think about it. Mark asked him why and he said 'I don't want water in my ears!' We told him he would be fine and then he asked 'Will the water be cold?' We chuckled!! I told him I would call the day before and make sure it wouldn't be cold! It was a rather comical conversation!!! Any way, we are very proud of Porter and his decision of being baptized!

Porter and his dad, Tim! 

Sadly, because we came here I missed my niece, Madelyn's, baptism today. I am also very proud of her for her decision and wish I could have been in both places to share in their special moments!!! After the baptism we took Mark's nieces, Abby, Libby and Whitney, along with Christian to Mount Vernon!! Mount Vernon is the home of President George Washington. It is 8,000 gorgeous achres of quiet, peaceful, beautiful land!!

My close up picture of the beautiful home!  Seriously, no picture does the place justice!!  It's so large that you can't get it all in one picture unless it's from a helicopter!

A shot without zooming in! 

I LOVE Mount Vernon!! It is such a beautiful place! This is my second time there! Our first time was around Thanksgiving 2008 and we were in for a special treat!! The mansion has three stories but they only give a tour of the bottom two except the month of George and Marsha's wedding anniversary when they allow you to tour the third level. It just happens that their wedding anniversary is in November so we were able to see the 3rd level! Well, 230 years ago today was the battle of Yorktown which was the final and decisive battle of the revolutionary war! Because of this, they had a military camp set up and they had lots of people dressed as people from 1781 soldiers and women! It was pretty fun!!

The military camp they recreated.

Christian having his picture taken with a soldier!

They also did a reenactment of General Washington strategizing with General Rochembeau of France! The funniest part was watching Mark!! It was like watching a kid in a candy store! He loves history, especially when it involves George Washington! The man who was being George Washington was rather good at it! He never broke character!

General George Washington talking to the crowd about his decision for the battle in Yorktown.

They also had the men line up after this reenactment and act as if they were marching into the battle at Yorktown.

The soldiers lined up getting ready to march.

They were loading their guns to take test shot to make sure they were working properly before the march.  Of course, it wasn't real bullets....just making sure you were aware!  ;)

It was lots of fun to be there and see these things! I'm not a huge history buff so I wasn't as giddy as Mark but I enjoy seeing the history.

Mark and Christian getting their picture taken with 'General Washington'!  Seriously...kid in a candy store...look at that smile!!!

We headed back for dinner and some birthday cake and icecream! Today is so happens to be Porters birthday as well and it is also Mark's sister, Michelle's!! Mark and I went and bought two cakes and I was determined that we would put 44 candles on Michelle's cake and I swear I almost lit the house on fire!! 

This is a picture of 44 candles melting the frosting off the top of a birthday cake!!  It was pretty awesome!!!

It was such a great day! Sadly, tomorrow is our last day in Virginia. Monday we begin the final week of our trip back home....but, it will be a good one! 

Day 6 Of Our Roadtrip! Kirtland!!

Today was our final day of travel before arriving in Virginia!  So bitter-sweet!  Okay, just SWEET!!!  Paige had a rough night which had both Mark and I up for an hour in the night.  We slept in longer then we wanted to but we still wanted to hit some of the sites at Kirtland, Ohio!  We started at the Kirtland Temple.  It was really neat to hear about the history of the temple and to be able to go inside and see what magnificant workmanship was put in to it!!  It was weird to go through a temple and not feel the same spirit that is felt when going through the dedicated temples. It was like walking through a museum and not a House of the Lord.  But, it was still amazing to see and hear of all the stories!  From the Kirtland Temple we went to the Newel K. Whitney store!  This is where Joseph Smith lived while in Kirtland!  WOW!  The spirit in the store was much more present and noticeable compared to walking through the temple!  It was 80% original and was so cool!  Before you take a tour of the store you start at the visitors center and watch a movie about the history.  I didn't realize how special the store was to begin with.  I thought it was just another stop Mark wanted to make because it was about the pioneers!!  I should have known better!!  (Granted, I was tired and just wanted to be in Virginia by this point)  This was one of my favorite spots so far on the trip!  When I get more time I will add pictures so you can see it!!  From here we did a straight shot for 7 hours to Virginia.  We made it safe and sound and are SO happy to be here!!! 

Day 5 Of Our Roadtrip

Day 5.  I can't believe we have been on vacation for 5 days.  It feels like weeks depending on the moment!!1  ;)  We have now driven threw 8 states and we have 3, maybe 4 more to drive threw before we are in Virginia.  I can't wait to get there!!  Today was another not so great day for me.  I didn't sleep well and so I was really moody!  We are talkin' 'claws coming out' moody!  It carried over from last night and just simmered all day.  Today we basically spent driving to Kirtland, Ohio.  I made an unwise choice this morning and let Christian take pictures with my camera while we were packing everything up to put back in the van and now I can't get it to work *palm/forehead*!  Brilliant Gina....brilliant.  Thankfully Pearl is going to let us use her camera for the rest of the vacation!  The best decision I made today was ordering the Chicken Bellagio at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner!!!  It was SO good!!!  I think I put on 5 pounds in the 30 minutes of eating it!!  Well, that doesn't excite me after I think about it....crap!  Tomorrow is it!!  We will be in Virginia tomorrow night as long as nothing happens to us!!!  I'll keep you posted! 

Day 4 Of Our Roadtrip!!! CHICAGO!!!!

Chicago!

Today was AWESOME!!! It was so fun getting out and actually going in to the city! There is SO much to do in Chicago that I'm really bummed we were only able to be here for 1 day! We started our morning out by going to the Shed Aquarium! It was pretty cool. We went to the dolphin show which wasn't like the show at Sea World. The kids had a harder time sitting through this. But, it was still cute.

We checked out the Baluga whales! They were very active. The best was the under water viewing!! They would come right up to the glass and Paige would get all excited! It was quite amazing how they have the aquarium layed out!! It puts Utah's aquarium to shame (which really isn't that hard to do). They had so many interactive kid sections!! Christian loved the submarine.

Christian playing on the kid subamarine!

He also loved the sharks!! They had an awesome tank of sharks! I would hate to be in there if the glass ever broke...which has always been a fear of mine when walking in an aquarium like this one or like the one at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas! Lame, I know!!! We finally had a day without rain so after the sharks we had a bite to eat outside!! It was such a gorgeous day!!

This is by far the best weather we have had so far on the trip!  It was such a gorgeous day!!

From the aquarium we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry! No THAT place was AWESOME!!!! We seriously could have spent ALL day there!!! They had so much to see and do!

I got to walk on the moon!!

So did Christian!!

Paige didn't really want to....but we made her!

Mark was particularly happy about this part of our day until....the one thing he wanted to do more than anything was sold out. They have the original U-505 submarine from WWII and they let you go in and take a tour of it. This was going to be the highlight of Chicago for Mark but we didn't realize that it was something that they only had a limited number of tickets for. He was so bummed. It was pretty awesome to see!! 

The U-505 submarine!

They had to have built around it because it was HUGE! Christian loved the car section of the museum (surprise, surprise) and insisted that I take a picture of him by each car!! It was quite funny!

Christian standing in front of the 1914 Ford Model T, "Tin Lizzie"!

 

Mark and Christian on a John Deere!  This tractor was HUGE!!!!

After several hours there we decided to see if by chance we would be able to get on to a ship to tour the river. We were originally going to reserve our tickets but it never happened....a VERY long story! Unfortunately it was too late for us to do it and the kids were worn out. I think we are going to have to plan another family vacation where it will be just in Chicago!! Next time I really want to do the Segway tour!!! They stopped by us while we were waiting for the trolley and the guy was freakin' hilarious!!!! I should have just pushed someone of their Segway and taken it because no one was laughing at this guy!! I wasn't a part of the group but he kept talking to me because I was answering his questions and laughing at his jokes! Come on people....get a sense of humor!!! Anyway....next time!! To end the day we ordered a Chicago deep dish pizza from Gino's East which is supposed to be the best! Don't hate me but.....it was alright! I didn't hate it....but I didn't love it!! Tomorrow will bring another day of driving as we head to Kirtland, Ohio!

Day 3 Of Our Roadtrip

After I blogged about Day 2 I hopped in to bed and listened to the coolest thunderstorm!  I officially know what it means by Garth Brooks song "The Thunder Rolls"!  It would never stop thundering!  There would be a big crash and than it would consistently...roll!!  I don't know how else to explain it!!  Very awesome!!  The sucky part is it kept raining all day.  2 days of rain so far and more in the forecast *stink eye*!!!  Well, today we went to Winter Quarters in Omaha, Nebraska.  It was nice to hear about the pioneers and their faith and sacrifice.  It was a little hard to enjoy it and feel the spirit because Christian was having a day.  I had my day yesterday and he was being grouchy today which is never good.  The fun part for the kids was they had little covered wagons with wood blocks in the shape of things that the pioneers would pack and they would try to pack it in the wagon. 

We could NOT pull Paige away from it!!  She loved it!  She was very good at it too, much better at packing then Christian was!!  They had lots of interactive things for the kids to see and touch so I went crazy with the picture taking! 

This was to show how the pioneers calculated how many miles they traveled.  They would have to count every time the cloth would hit the ground (it's on the left of the wheel in the picture) and for every 300 and something times would total 1 mile.  I don't remember the exact number.  It was pretty cool!  Another pioneer made a device that would count for them which is behind the wheel in the blue compartment.  Christian was going crazy trying to turn it to get it to count! 

They had clothes available for the kids to dress up like cowboys and pioneers!  Paige wasn't very fond of the bonnet!!!  The look is quite funny though!!

Christian picked the straw hat!!  I don't think he would have like the bonnet either!!  ;)

This was a size of an actual handcart they had that you could push to see what it felt like!!  Christian would have done well as a pioneer!!  He pushed it all on his own!!

Here we all are standing in front of the Salt Lake Temple!!  Don't we look like a happy bunch!

After the tour we went to the cemetery across the street to find one of Pearl's ancestors.  The Winter Quarters Temple is right next to the cemetery so we took the kids there to take some pictures. 

My favorite picture is one of Christian.  He was flicking the flowers so the water would fall off and he was looking at Mark while he was doing it!  It's the look that says 'I probably shouldn't be doing this but I'm going to watch you and see if you yell at me to stop instead of deciding to stop on my own'!  It's a look I see quite often!! 

The picture doesn't quite grasp the moment....but, it was the perfect look when I took it!!

After lunch we took Christian to a train museum that Marcia told us about!  Christian loved it!!  His favorite part using one of the penny machines that smashes the penny and puts a picture on it!  Of course, we can't find the penny now but he was so excited to get it!!

Christian standing on the photo prop used for H. W. Bush on his campaign.

Christian at the train museum!

 For dinner we went to 'Hamburg Inn' in Iowa!  It's where all of the presidential candidates stop to eat at when they are campaigning in Iowa.  I can tell why too because that was one very delicious hamburger!!  Mmmmmm!!!  The best part was trying to find this place.  We ended up at the college campus so we got out to see if it was around there and ended up asking someone!  Let's just say he had enjoyed too many 'sandwhiches' (for any of you that have seen How I Met Your Mother)!!  He was 'puffin' the majic dragon' if you know what I mean!  It was hilarious!!  We eventually found a couple that hadn't been 'snacking' on the 'sandwhiches' that were able to point us in the right direction!! 

This is President Reagan's table!

Paige coming to the realization that we still have a long drive ahead of us!  She was such a trooper!! 

After 6 1/2 hours on the road we made it to Chicago, Illinois which we will be having lots of fun at tomorrow!!! Can't wait!!! So, good night as I need my rest!!!

Day 2 of our Roadtrip

You know what I hate?  Urine on a toilet seat that you need to use!  TMI, right?!  It grosses me out like nothing else and if there is something we aren't lacking on a roadtrip it's having to use public toilets!  That basically sums up my days adventures!  It was pretty crappy.  I woke up in a pretty bad mood and combined with lack of sleep it sure made for a long day for everyone.  We were in the car all day so I tried to sleep but I'm sitting next to the loudest of the kids who likes to yell "MOM" any time she can't see my face so going to sleep was difficult.  I did manage to get a couple of naps in and would have loved to have just slept the whole time but, I am a mom and have to fullfill my mom duties!  We made it safely to our hotel in Council Bluff, Iowa and it's pretty run down.  I hate hotels....especially when you are on a budget.  I always think about the scene on Ocean's 13 when the inspector finds all of these things in the hotel and I stand in the middle of the room and think....what really is crawling around here.  Gross, right?!  It makes me itch just thinking about it!  Tomorrow I will hopefully have more to talk about other than pee and bed bugs!  ;)  We have some fun things planned for tomorrow so let's hope this woman wakes up with a smile!  The positive note for today was we did receive Mark's wallet!! 

Christian and Paige standing by a Buaffalo Statue

Paige and Christian enjoying their chocolate milk at lunch!

Al's Oasis in Chamberlain, SD is where we ate lunch.  I love country look they gave the buildings!  If only I had thought to pack my cowgirl boots!

By Mark:

Poor Gina did have a rough day in the back with the kids. However, even though it was a long ride, it was nice. I had my mother in the front with me and since my Grandfather (her father) died about 16 years before I was born, I had her tell me stories about him. I learned all kinds of things I never knew, like the fact that he worked for the railroad early in his married life. If was enjoyable spending the long hours of the drive getting aquanted with the man whose name I was given. 

Day 1 Of Our Roadtrip

 Day 1 was a winner I tell ya! Packing the van took forever last night so we were pretty surprised we left on schedule!! Things were going great until...we hit Ogden. You read that right...Ogden! mark took a wrong turn and so we had a small detour before we hit the Ogden Canyon. We were on our way again and things were looking up until, an hour in to our drive up the winding canyon road, Christian lost his cookies. It was actually Apple Jacks but still...it was gross! It even came out his nose the poor kid (I know, you really didn't want that visual!!)!! I think that is the first time he has really ever thrown up that I can remember. We pulled over and cleaned him and the car and prayed that this was the end of any carsickness (which is highly unlikely since we were only 1 hour in to a road trip that would be a grand total of 72 hours of driving)!!! 

Poor kid!

Paige is demonstrating how crazy we were getting by putting bread on her head....but, come to think of it, she does that at home too without being in the car for 5 hours!!  :)

We made it to our first destination which was Penny's Diner in Rawlins, WY for some delicious lunch!! My question is this; why would anyone ever want to live in Rawlins, WY? It was so windy and is always windy. It would be impossible to ever have a good hair day outside of your home living there! But, the restaurant did have yummy hamburgers! We went to pay for our check when, low and behold, Mark had left his wallet at home! *palm to forehead* Thank goodness for awesome neighbors!! We are having it shipped overnight to our hotel in Iowa!! Seriously Savannah, you are a life saver!! The ride was pretty smooth after that! We made it to Mount Rushmore at 7:30pm and watched the lighting ceremony.

Mount Rushmore after the lighting ceremony.

Of course, Mark and I had to earn the 'Parents of the Year' award while we were there!! We lovingly allowed our children to run around in their shorts and t-shirts in 56 degree weather with a cold breeze, after a rainstorm, for about an hour! Mainly because I forgot to pack jackets for everyone except Christian but we used his to cover his seat that had been thrown up on. Best part was Christian was bare foot the WHOLE time!! Yup!! We are big winners. 

After earning the 'parents of the year' awards we finally bought jackets after being there for an hour.  I put mine on Christian so he could wear it while we walked to the car....seriously!! 

Let's pray they won't get sick!! Never the less, we made it to the hotel! Mark, Christian, Monte and Pearl are out grabbing a bite to eat while Paige sleeps peacefully!! Me...I'm enjoying some peace and quiet! I enjoy reminiscing about the events of the day and when I do think about them it already feels like it has been weeks since they took place! My favorite part was, of course, Mount Rushmore!! What an AMAZING piece of art work! Although, I have to say, I expected it to be A LOT bigger. Maybe because it is carved in to a mountain and when I think of a mountain I think of Utah mountains!! I didn't think it would be huge...but bigger than it was. Still, it was amazing to see. My regret was not getting there earlier so that we could hike closer to it and actually explain to Christian the purpose and history behind it! Who knows if he would have understood it any way. When I think about it...I don't think I even know the purpose and history behind it. Oh well!! Tomorrow is going to be another day filled with driving. I'm just crossing my fingers for a smoother ride!! But then again...that would take out all of the adventure!!! :)

This is 1 of the 4 beautiful rainbows we saw on our last 30 minute drive to Mount Rushmore.  Christian was so excited!

By Mark:

Gina is giving me the change to add in my thoughts from each day. Except for the few forgettable moments, the day was fun. I wish I would have researched more the sites that we would be passing along our trail as a couple of them would have been fun to stop at. We went by Martin's Cove the site of the famous Sweetwater River crossing of the Willie & Martin Hand Cart companies, and Independance Rock, which was a favorite stopping point of pioneers on both the Mormon and Oregon Trails. We saw both from the car but it would have been fun to get out and learn more about those locations. Martin's Cove would have been especially fun since my Great Great Uncle was one of the three young men who carried the Hand Cart survivors across the frozen river.

My highlight of the day was Mt. Rushmore. I agree with Gina that I thought it would be bigger. But it was neat to see and it was nice to be there at the lighting ceremony. It was an excellent ceremony where both the Declaration of Independance and the Gettysburg Address were read. An expecially poignant part was when the Forest Ranger drew parrallels to the final sentence of the Gettysburg address to us in our day as we draw near to the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. Referring to the dead at Gettysburg, Lincoln stated ".... that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." As the Ranger stated, I think those words ring true to us today. For a short time after 9/11, I think we did have a renewed resolve towards our nation and to each other as an American People, but that resolve has wained. I think it important that we not wait for the next major disaster to remind ourselves of how fragile our liberty and indepenence is.

13 Hours and Counting!!

After cleaning and packing all day (which I'm still no where close to being done with) I can honestly say....I'm exhausted!!! Tomorrow we set off for an adventure like never before!! A roadtrip with our two kids! I'm not talking about a simple 5 hour trip. We are talking a 5 day trip....and that is just to get there!! Luckily we will have Mark's parents with us so hopefully the kids will bug them too!!! :) I must get back to packing and cleaning but keep checking back and I will keep you posted on all of the awesome things we are doing!!!! So, let's raise our Dr. Pepper and drink to our 13 hours left of sanity!!! ;) *clink*