On the Road Again

We set off on Wednesday morning heading to Kansas for our Thanksgiving celebration with Daddy's family. This is typically a 6 hour trip and we were prepared for it to take a little longer because we had Emily. But, I am quite confident that no one expected it to be THAT long!!

Picture it, we drove away from our house at 9AM packed to the gills in Grandpa's Expedition. (I kept saying how I wanted to take a picture of the car from the outside because we had extended storage hanging off the back I but never did.) Grandpa was driving, Daddy was riding shotgun, Emily was behind Grandpa, Mama was in the "hump" seat (middle), Nana was pressed up against the window, and Great Grandma Velda was in the economy seats, aka third row. Yes folks, there were 5 adults, one enormous carseat, and a carload of stuff. I will help you picture it...

Now that I look at it we don't look so cramped...at least not for only a 6 hour drive. ;)

For the first hour we were happily driving along, doing a crossword, and chatting before we made a stop to stretch our legs...

then we were back in the car for another hour on our way to lunch. Emily needed some entertainment at this point, so I set up her private Nemo viewing area. As the only rear facing person, she was the only one to enjoy the movie.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat (too bad the waiter didn't get the "quick" memo)...

and when we got back in the car the REAL fun began - stopped TRAFFIC! Of course it was about 30 minutes after Emily fell asleep and as feared, she woke up. Bummer! Good thing Daddy and Grandpa figured out an alternate route - so even if she wasn't sleeping at least we were moving! We didn't see a highway again for a LOOONG time. However, we did see a lot of this...

and some of this.

We also saw many historical markers like this...

before it was time for Emily to have some dinner. Yes, you read that right - we were still driving when Emily was due for dinner. Good thing we had some of her staples. She ate while she watched the ???th episode of Elmo's World (thanks Laura!).

We had a lot of bonding time together along the Chisholm Trail - laughing all the way. You know the kid of laughter that you have just to keep from crying?! :) I thought it was a good time for some more pictures...

as you can see, there weren't very many participants by this point -but Emily was ready to smile!

And I knew some drama would get them smiling again...

(please note the sun setting behind me)

In the delirium we made some guesses at what time we would finally arrive. When Great Grandma made her guess we were all sick thinking, "I HOPE she isn't right!!" Guess what... she was. We arrived right at 6:00 and in all of the excitement I didn't get an arrival picture - DARN! We were out of the car as fast as possible and Emily was REALLY excited to get out and play with her cousins!!

So, now it is Thanksgiving day and we are all thankful to BE HERE! ;) We are also thankful for much, much more - yesterday's trip included... after all, life is made of memories!

We only wonder... how long was the back-up on the freeway?