PA Trip

Day 1 (6/23) Road-Trip Fever

Trip Summarized in the words of Maverick. "This is the best road trip ever!" 

...2 hours later, "This is the worst day ever." 

...2 hours later, "This is the coolest day ever." 

....2 hours later "I hate this road-trip"

Aside from many stops, one of the biggest was at Lake Charles, LA. It was a nice water front walking area with a small visiting area and a random live crocodile display? It was super random, but I am glad we wondered our way in! We also started our 'picture on a park bench', a reoccurring picture scene throughout our trip.

New Orleans--our first hotel stop of the trip and end of Day 1.
We wandered around a little and located the recommended dine-in cajun restaurant: Mulates. Awesome southern food, live music & dancing, and super busy. Lehi had alligator and I had the jambalaya, with a shared cajun shrimp appetizer; none disappointed. The boys pretty much ate Lehi's side of fries but we did get Maverick to try alligator. He wasn't a fan, but he was also tired and grumpy. Afterwards, we walked over towards the water and enjoyed the time out of the car.

Just eating some gator.

The hotel was nightmare. I am 99% sure Maverick thought we moved and were going to live there forever. He would say things like, "look mom, I don't think you need your phone anymore!" (while pointing to the one on the night stand) and  "Mom! We can put all our clothes in this closet!" Both boys were bouncing off the walls and NOT wanting to sleep.
Naturally, I had some work to do for the online classes I teach, so Lehi did his best to wrangle in the boys while I rapidly completed my to-do list. At one point, Maverick came up to me and said, "Mom, you are the bestest, hardest worker. Thank you for working. I am sorry sometimes I push the buttons on your computer and taught Lincoln that bad thing."

Day 2  (6/24) "Are we There yet?"

Summary in the words of Maverick at the end of the day: "I miss my own bed."

It was a put-you-head-down and power through the majority of the drive type of day. Nothing too exciting to report. Maverick was very happy about the hotel breakfast and told me all about his system for eating. "Mom. I take a bite of egg, then cereal, then juice, and then egg again!"

We made some longer stops along the way, like a gas station Subway in Alabama where we let the boys roam free for a good 45 minutes. They were a little wired, but the Subway workers gave them a couple of toys to help entertain them. Lehi also ran into a gentleman while getting drinks who said, "Man, why you wear that up in here?"while pointing to his Eagle's hat. He told him he was a Patriot's fan and it was "too soon, man." He was so funny.

Country Inn and Suits was hands down my favorite hotel we stayed at. It was so clean and the rooms were really big. They also had biscuits and gravy for breakfast, which is one of my favorites. It was the only hotel to serve them and they were amazing and I was so happy.

Day 3 Washington D.C.(6/25)

We had to drive a few hours before arriving in Washington D. C. We plotted our course of action and resolved we wanted to try out a dessert place before leaving, and decided on cupcakes. During that time, Maverick threw a (new) piece of beef jerky after rejecting his initial piece because it was too big, which resulted in us tell him he lost his future cupcake. A lot of pouting and a few minutes later, he told me, "Mom. I love you. That earn back my cupcake."
The proceeded..."Dad, I love you..."
We shut that down quickly, explaining that we loved him too, but that didn't mean he got a cupcake back. He would have to be good the whole rest of the day if he wanted to have one later with the rest of us. (Which he really was and was able to pick out a cupcake).

We explored all the major monuments; but first spent 45 minutes trying to find parking. Oh my lanta that city is crazy. But we found perfect parking near the Smithsonian and Washington Monument, so our patience paid off. Lehi and I would trade off who carried Lincoln and who pushed Maverick in the umbrella stroller at each monument. The boys were so good for how hot it was and how much we walked. One of my favorite monuments was the Korean War Memorial; it was so powerful, they all were, but that one really spoke to me and gave me all sorts of feels. Maverick made the Vietnam Memorial extra special when he asked us to read the names to him--so we read one name from each section of the wall. What an awesome experience and opportunity to reflect on all the sacrifices made on behalf of this beautiful country.

Freedom Wall; each start represents 100 American lives lost

The state where our family started (sorry Linc, you joined us in Texas) ;) 

You could sit with your feet in the water but not stand. This was a pretty amazing experience.

Lehi and the boys.

Korean War Memorial 

These are fresh flowers from Korea as a thank you at the Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument from Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial; Maverick asked us to read one name on each section to him.

Boys on a bench 

 After the memorials, we realized that the museums were closing ain about 40 minutes, so we picked American History and made the most of it! Lehi and I could have easily spent an entire day between them all, but I am not sure Mav & Lincoln could have.

The Bat-mobile; first thing to see when we walked in. Score.

The people giggling in the background of this picture is a result of Maverick; he was so excited and kept asking Lehi if it was a real-life pirate ship.

His stance shows his excitement. The kid loves trains.

This train had a whistle...that was loud

We were pretty hungry and had a decent drive to get us close to Philly, so we decided to try another recommended place to eat, Pizzeria Paradiso. It was so so good. The boys were hyper and a little crazy, but we didn't expect much else. At one point, they were dueling with their butter knives and forks so I told Mav he needed to set a good example for Lincoln. Without missing a beat, Maverick said, "Ok, Linc! Forks only!"
They then argued over who got the piece of paper (you know, the crumpled up straw wrapper). And Maverick said in a tempting and persuasive voice, "Liiincoln. I give you the keys if you give me that paper...." I told him to stop and he responded, "I was only tricking him, Mom."

We waited in a small line to pick our cupcakes and promised the boys we would eat them when we got to the hotel for the evening. It was a darling shop with so many flavor options, it was hard to pick! I also fell in love with George-town a bit. It still held that small town feel, despite only being a few miles outside of a major city. It had an unspoken charm. I could have spent the whole day exploring all of those cute shops!

Not the cupcake shop. But captures how cute this town is

This is the cupcake shop

The unicorn was Maverick's, not mine, in case anyone was wondering. 

Lehi told me we would be taking a short detour home, which left us winding through back-roads that had both gorgeous scenery and homes. The boys slowly bobbed off to sleep, which let us to enjoying the quiet and chatting together. When we arrived closer to the destination, traffic really started to pick up on those small roads. At one point, a cop was behind Lehi, which made him a little nervous because there were a lot of intersections with varying stop sign numbers, short lights, and lots of cars/chaos. Well, he completely stopped at a green light, which quickly turned yellow and then red. The cop honked his horn. Lehi was confused and didn't even realize it was green. He said he was waiting the cross-walk countdown and thought it would be yellow by the time he got there. Nope. Still bright green, hun.

Our little detour was the Washing D.C. Temple. Unfortunately, the pairing of construction with a Monday night meant the grounds were close, but it was so peaceful and beautiful, even from a little bit of a distance. The setting reminded me a lot of the Portland Temple--tucked away in a lot of green, forest land.

At the hotel, we decided to be good parents and try to get out for the kids to burn off all that freshly acquired energy from their power naps in the car. So we all got changed into bathing suits and headed to the outdoor hotel pool. Ya'll. We have accumulated to Texas weather. It was not very warm outside (because it was like 7:00 in the evening) and the water was freezing. In a short amount of time, Lincoln was shivering and we decided to call it, since we ended up being just cold and wet. We ate our cupcakes on the tile floor of the hotel room and then got ready for bed. We followed the usual sleeping arrangements, Lincoln in my queen bed, Maverick in Lehi's queen bed. The picture below is a pretty prefect representation of how restful my sleep tended to be. Thank goodness the kid is crib trained.

Day 4 (6/26) PHILLY, PHILLY 

Naturally, when getting ready for a day in Philadelphia, we pulled out all of our Eagles fan gear. When getting boys dressed, Lincoln said Eee-gles. The kid says maybe 3 words on a regular bases. My jaw dropped and Lehi was giddy with excitement. In the meantime, I tried to help Maverick understand the difference between a penny and a quarter, which was a losing battle before it even started. Hotel breakfast (again, no biscuits and gravy, just a plate of disappointment for me) and off to the road for a few more hours. There were a few highlights on the drive there:

1. Mav passing his penny to me with his toes

2. Lincoln karate chopping my hand with his PJ Mask book when getting him fruit snacks

3. Lehi telling Maverick, "I think angel Moroni is an Eagle's fan, that's why he is in Philly." After telling Maverick we would be seeing another temple today.

4. Mav" "There is a bug outside my window!"
    Lehi: "It's ok, it's a Philly bug."
    Mav: "Philly bugs don't bite?"
    Lehi: "Yes. Philly bugs are nice bugs and don't bite."

5. Starting to drive into Philadelphia
    Mav: "Is this where Santa lives?"
    Lehi: "Maybe, Santa is an Eagle's fan, too."

After brainwashing our child, the only logical path would be for the first stop to be the Lincoln Financial Stadium. Some of you may be wondering if that is where Lincoln got his name...we will leave that unanswered. We were not sure if we were allowed in...but there were some cars in the parking lot, so we parked and wondered around. We stumbled into the Pro Shop, which is extremely dangerous for this family. Maverick has his arms full of stuff that "he needed" and Lincoln carried around a $25 water bottle the whole time we were browsing. They both left with a hat and nothing more. The damage wasn't as bad as we expected, but we were also planning on coming back for a tour at another point on our trip, so we didn't go too crazy. Unfortunately, that return trip did not happen, but we did not know that at the time.

Penny in the toes

Momma's new hat

All of the tours for the day were sold out, and I am not sure how the boys would have done on them anyways. Certainly something to purchase ahead of time when they are older and we visit again. We did visit the Liberty Bell and experience a good taste of Philly through playing in the park, eating at Jim's Cheese-steaks, ice cream at Frozen, and seeing the gorgeous temple. Jim's is a super small place, you actually go through the kitchen area to a set of super steep stairs to eat in the dining area above where you order. When we walked through the kitchen, you could see huge chunks of steak being sliced up for the sandwiches. So stinking good. I think I prefer Pat's/Geno's, but it was better than anything you can find out West!

Mav's first authentic cheese-steak

Frozen was a pretty awesome experience. They mix the ice CREAM all up, add your toppings, put it on a freezing plate, and roll it up for your cup. It was so delicious, too. They even added sprinkles in for free!

....then we were stupid enough to meander over to an interesting looking candy store which was full of garbage and absolutely not worth our time. We came out empty-handed, which is saying something when you have two toddlers in tow. We did, however, receive a nice $40 parking ticket for being 3 minutes over our time. Stupid candy store cost us 40 bucks!!

 We finally arrived to our final destination, after 4 days of traveling; Papi & Gigi's house. The boys did a water bottle fill-up when they got there, which consisted of picking out a water bottle and filling it to the brim with candy. This was supposed to last them a week---Lehi ended up hiding them after about 24 hours because they were pounding candy. Lincoln had to unwrap all of the candy before putting it in his bottle, at least to start with. Papi finally convinced him to leave the wrappers on.

We had dinner with their ward at the Crossroads for wing night. They were pretty packed and not ready for such a crowd, based on the staffing. The boys and I spent a lot of time outside, which is understandable considering the amount of sitting they had been doing. The wings were delicious and the waitress (Lisa) was so so sweet. She let Maverick take the check/payment to the back (but told him he needed to check with his parents first before coming with a stranger). As he was skipping along with her, we heard her say, "Adam, this is Maverick. Adam is our cook." and then a deep voice said, "Hi Maverick!" Lisa then talked him through how to give Papi back his receipt and card. He then proceeded to help Lisa tuned on the backyard lights and wanted to hang out with her the rest of the night. Unfortunately, we had to leave, so his job training was short lived.

Maverick and Lincoln also got to check out a ward members' motorcycle. He let them sit on it and pretend to steer. Maverick always shouts when he sees a motorcycle on the road, so you can imagine how excited he was to be able to sit on one.

Bedtime was rough; another new environment but we tried to keep a decent routine similar to the one at home, like reading books before bed. Lehi snapped this picture of Lincoln, he loves his hat.

Day 5 (6/27) Recovery Wednesday 

We needed a day to recovery from all the driving and exploring. We stayed local and visited Lehi's old elementary stomping grounds, a local comic book store (because Lehi has a comic book Wednesday tradition he couldn't break), grocery shopping for lunch, catch-up on laundry, and time with grandparents. Papi came home with a fishing pole for Maverick, but they needed to wait for the rain to let up before going out. 

While playing with the boys, Papi asked, "Who wants a knuckle sandwich??" to which Lincoln rapidly responded by raising his hand straight in the air and shouting. "MEEEE!" 

When Lincoln drops his bink under a pallet, Dad goes digging.

Herr's Potato Chips

Ready to go fishin'

Day 6 (6/28) Scranton 

We drove down to Scranton to see the trains but instead found a lot of rain. We were outside for a few minutes before it started to come down, so we enjoyed the view from inside for awhile. We did some shopping, spent too much money a Gertrude Hawk (Lehi says Gertrude is his mistress), and took the day nice and slow.

Maverick was playing trains with Gigi and decided to drive it across her head--which would have been fine it it wasn't automatic with turning wheels. Pretty quick, there was a nice collection of her hair strung around the wheels. We were able to get it all untangled, although it took me awhile to realize how to turn the darn thing off! We then told Maverick he couldn't drive the trains by people's heads from then on. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but by then I am sure that train would have been up to her scalp.

Great Grandma wanted to take us to dinner, so off to Texas Roadhouse we went. Maverick liked to call her Great, Great Grandma, which we attribute to her being so awesome. He was so sweet, holding her hand and making sure she always had her cane. He really connected with her and would light up every time we saw her from then on. During dinner, he spent practically the whole time cracking peanuts and saving them for Grandma.

When we were pulling out of the parking lot, Maverick said, "I'm not buckled all the way!" Lehi told him he would go really slow until he was all finished. After a click or two Maverick declared, "Ok, go medium, Dad." and the the final click, "Go fast, Dad!!"

Sometimes at night, I will ask Maverick what his favorite part of the day was. It is always fun to reflect on what we did through the eyes of a child and what stood out to him. He told me, "dinner with my great, great, grandma!"

Since getting the boys (particularly Lincoln) to sleep was a 1-2 hour process, we tried a new approach. After the normal routine, we tried to leave Maverick upstairs and take Lincoln downstairs with us. But Maverick was too scared to be alone. So we gave him a walkie talkie that he had brought with us on the trip (we let the boys each pick a few toys to bring, this is not an item we are in the habit of taking on a road trip). We thought we were quite clever, until Maverick chimed in "hey guys" every few minutes though the walkie. It was a fail, but epic in concept.

Day 7 (6/29) Maverick's First Fish

We started off the morning by visiting Lehi's high school and the area he grew up in. We stopped into Preston Market to grab some subs and snacks for lunch and headed home. (By far one of the greatest disappointments for Lehi this trip is the blessed Steve and Irene Sub shop was closed from storm damage; Preston Market was our next best option). At one point, I teasingly told Lehi his back was looking good/muscly and which he paused, struggled for a second, and then started laughing and said, " Wait. I don't know how to flex my back." I was rolling.

After a quick lunch we headed to the Lake house to join (great) great grandma. Maverick absolutely adores her. She is quick to love and quick to spoil, a perfect combination. It was a warm day, but the water was way too cool for us Texas warm-bloods to get in and swim. The boys spent most of the time throwing rocks into the lake and scrubbing down chairs with some soapy water. I am not sure why they decided to spend the time doing this, but they were laughing and loving every minute.

Papi met us at the lake house with the fishing boat and supplies for Maverick's first trip. Maverick was on cloud 9. He listened to all of Papi's instructions and they were off! We heard a conversation from a distance that was a great summary of the adventure they were about to embark on:

Bill:"Maverick. You were the worm keeper, where are the worms?"
Mav: "I don't know."
Bill: "You're a bad worm keeper."
Lehi yelling from the dock, "They are in that side cup holder!"
Bill: " Ok, you are a good keeper now."

A few minutes later, Maverick's line started getting pulled.
Winding in his bobbin, "I want to see my bite!"
Bill: "He ate your worm!"
Mav: "That's not nice!!!!

Maverick caught his first fish and Bill brought the boat in so we could talk to him and see his catch. As they were approaching the dock, we realized Maverick was humming the Star Wars theme song with all the pride his little self could muster.

I said, "Maverick you caught your first fish! How do you feel?"
Maverick: "I feel so proud of myself!!!"

Papi explained the fish he caught was a Blue Gill; it sounds like Blue Girl when Mav says it.

After another catch, Maverick started instructing Papi how to fish. Apparently after 2 catches, he started to get a little overconfident and was an expert fisherman. He told Bill they needed to go to a different spot. Bill laughed and said, "You just caught two fish in the same area, why would you want to move?"

During all of this, Lincoln was beyond exhausted and waited not-so-patiently, by the car (see picture). Lehi and I brought him home so Maverick could do some more fishing with Papi. The boy was in heaven.

Day 8 Saturday (6/30) Hike & an Unanticipated Pool Day 

Pennsylvania is way to beautiful not to go on a hike. This was a big "to-do" for me on our trip.Gina and Bill gave us some recommendations for places to go. We headed out to Salt Springs National Park. It did not disappoint. They boys did so well on the hike, which was a lot steeper than we anticipated. We crossed a little creek at the half-way, which turned into a pit stop for the boys to throw rocks into it. We took a combination of like 5 trails, so we have no idea how long the hike was, but it was awesome. We looped back towards the trail head and let the boys play in the creek for a little longer.

This woman has the patience of a saint!

 

 

This kid...refused to walk more than 10 steps on his own at a time.

Then we headed to Uncle Jared & Aunt Amanda's house. We ended up meeting them at a firework stand where we all loaded up on fireworks for the 4th. The cousins were shy at first, but everyone warmed up quickly. We went to their house where Maverick decided he wanted to go play outside. He was putting his shoes back on and headed out the backdoor. I was watching him while putting my shoes on and was very confused when he opened the gate to the pool. Then I saw him jump...INTO THE POOL. The kid not only cannot swim, he is terrified of water (to the extent he screams when you wash his hair because he hates water on his face/head). I yelled, "Lehi, Mav jumped in the pool! He's in the pool!!" while I sprinted to him and jumped in to get him. He landed on the cover (which was on) which kept his head above water. I was in there after him maybe 15 seconds after he jumped. Lehi was right behind me and was pretty surprised when I plowed in the water. I handed Maverick to Lehi and clambered out. After we got him to calm down, I asked him, "Maverick, why did you jump in?" Lehi and I were both completely shocked, considering his track record with water. He told us while sniffling, "I thought it was a trampoline."

It ended up being an unplanned pool day after that. Amanda and Jared found swim trunks for Maverick and Lehi and pulled out all sorts of awesome and fun water toys. They all played hard and the cousins had a ton of fun together. Maverick told was so excited to go back and play with Raelyn and Xavier.

"Mom. I need a picture of Marshmallow to remember him. He is so cute!"

Day 9 (7/1) Restoration Sites 

Sunday we were able to attend church and do a tour of the restoration sites. The tour was a little chaotic with all the kiddos wanting to do their own thing, but it was a perfect Sunday activity and the sisters were so patient. Clearly, we failed at taking a lot of pictures of the sites, but man these kiddos are mighty cute!

Later that evening, Papi was eating ice cream and the boys each grabbed a spoon and joined in.

They might be brothers

Day 10 (7/2) Merli Sarnoski Lake

Something that is so wonderful and adds to the beauty of PA is all the lakes. We packed up some fun "beach" toys and headed to one of the may lakes that were 5 minutes from Carbondale. We would alternate playing in the sandy area to taking the boys into the water. It was shallow for a good distance, so Maverick gained some confidence and proudly reported at the end of the day that he was swimming (which is far from the case, but we were not about to correct & deflate the kid). Lincoln was so funny; whenever I did something he did not like, he would wordlessly march to the edge of the grass, fold his arms, and look down. I deemed it his silent pout. 

 

 

After we took this picture--Me:"well at least we tried."
Lehi: "Yup. With your crazy hair and all. I know you can't see it, but it's all over the place."

Silent pout

Day 11 (7/3) Knobles 

We started off the morning with a Thomas tradition, Dunkin Donuts. The boys approved.

With Lehi being a native to Pennslyvania, most of it's attractions come extremely biased when recommended by him. Knobles lived up to the hype. One of the coolest parts of this amusement park is there is no admission fee and you can pay per ride or pay for an all day pass. Since we knew Lincoln was unable to ride most of them and the record breaking heat the state was experiencing was going to minimize our time spent there, we opted to set a budget, buy the tickets it allowed, and enjoy the park of Lehi's childhood. We tried to give the boys a good variety, especially when you think about all the kiddie rides, 99% of them just go in circles. One that Maverick had never been on before and was esecially anxious to go on was a Ferris wheel. We were all able to pile in and take in the views. Maverick told me "Mom. This was your first time on a Ferris wheel!" and right when I was about to correct him, he stared in on Lehi, "Dad. This is your first time on a Ferris wheel, too! And Lincoln's. And me! How cool is that?" So we let him hold tight to that belief.

Aside from rides with the boys, another major highlight was the Birch Beer we had with our fries. It was so good. Lehi described it perfectly, like a vanilla root beer.

I told ya'll, I have a thing with park benches

Lincoln's Thumbs Up

Little Rebel 

No, we didn't do any water rides, my boys just sweat like crazy and it was stinking hot

This kid was exhausted when we headed out

When we got home, there were all sorts of fun toys waiting for the boys. Papi played outside with Maverick for awhile and tried to get Lincoln to join in on the fun; he is just a stubborn little thing. But a momentous event happened: Lincoln let Gigi carry him to the house. Big deal, ya'll!

After a delicious dinner and lots of board games/playing with trains, we convinced Lincoln to give Papi and Gig "squeezes." For some reason, this term resonates with him. He is quick to pretend like he is squishing the life out of you, but a hug? No way. Can't use that term with him. 

Maverick spraying Papi with the dog sprinkler

Lehi and I snuck out later that evening just to spend some time together, child free. Unfortunately, it was filled with lots of fails. Stores lacking items we were seeking (like more Eagle's gear), closed stores, or stores that would only be open for 10 more minutes. We managed to catch a Pro Shop right before they locked their doors and took in all the beautiful midnight green. We came home to both boys sleeping. I swear Gina and Bill have superpowers. They said Maverick went to bed without any problems and Lincoln passed out on the couch a little later.

Day 12: (7/4) The 4th of July 

The morning consisted of the boys enjoying the trampoline in the back yard (before it got too hot), and Maverick going on another fishing trip with Papi. He didn't catch anything this time, but was not the least bit discouraged!

Props to Amanda and Jared for hosting a super fun 4th of July BBQ. There was so much amazing food and things to do! It was a packed house, which just added to the excitement of it all. The kids played in the pool, with water toys on the deck, sand toys, T-ball, rode the four wheeler (Papi played Uber for at least a solid hour taking kids on rides), and shooting, it was about as close to perfect as you could get. Lehi and Jared put on a pretty stellar firework show when it got dark enough. Gigi and Papi brought glow sticks, which was a huge hit with the kids. Lincoln wasn't a fan of the loud noises this year, so I spent a good amount of time watching inside through the window. :) Speaking of Lincoln...he took a pretty good spill down the deck stairs and was rocking some great face & arm wounds for about half the day.

When the fireworks were over and everyone started heading out, Lehi took to the field to try to catch a lightning bug for Maverick to see up close. On our drive up here, we saw a ton lighting up the forests and bushes and it was so beautiful. I was totally in awe. Lehi was confused why I was so impressed and I told him I had never seen a (as we on the West call them) firefly before. After that conversation, Maverick told Lehi he really wanted to catch one. So the last night of our trip, Lehi did his best to make that dream come to life. After awhile, he came running back to the house, clearly holding something in his hands. He told me, "I am pretty sure it is in here, I just grabbed and hoped!" It was, but it was stubborn and refused to light up. But Mav did get to see a lightening bug! We were sad to leave the cousins, but with an upcoming wedding, it was a little easier to tell the boys they would be able to see them in a few months. On the ride home, Maverick kept telling us how much he was going to miss them. 

**Disclaimer: Maverick came to Jared's house with Papi and Gigi a few hours after we got there, so these upcoming pictures of mainly Lincoln is not in any way a representation of who our favorite child is.

Raelyn was so sweet with Lincoln; she even got some of her sunglasses to share with him

Mav shooting for the first time with Papi's help

Lincoln got in on the action, too!

Day 13: (7/5) Headed Home 

Lehi and I had a few last minute trip preparations (refill snacks, fill up the gas tank, vacuum out the car, etc) before starting, so Gina and Bill were kind enough to watch the boys so we could attend to those things quickly. When we came home, Gina said Lincoln disappeared, so she went upstairs to find him sitting on the edge of the bed in Bekah's room, pouting because we had left him. Sounds like a Lincoln move! Goodbyes are never easy, but it is a little easier when the next visit is already scheduled. With lots of hugs (very reluctantly from Maverick) and see-you-laters, we began our long drive home.

We took a short detour to visit the graves of some of Lehi's ancestors, including his grandfather Thomas. The graveyard was tucked back behind this beautiful white church. It was a wonderful setting.

 Lehi and I decided to power through it and drove through the night into the next day. It is a 27 hour drive, it took us 31 with stops. About 2 in the morning, the boys were having a really hard time sleeping, one would wake up crying and as soon as we got him calmed down, the next would start. So we pulled over to a rest stop, got the boys out of their car seats, and let them sleep on us while we tried to sleep, for about an hour. The final hour or so of the drive, the boys were so done. Maverick kept crying and saying "my whole body hurts so bad!" I kept telling him, "Us, too, buddy! We are almost home!" For how long we were in our little Camry, the boys were really good. Let me tell you, it felt so good to get out of that car when we got home. It was one heck of a vacation, and we made the most of it!