Carter's first day of 1st grade...

Before...

of course Henri needed to be in the picture...

After, he seems pleased...

Summer vacation road trip

So I felt a little jipped of my summer vacation since we'd had crappy weather in WA and I'd spent a lot of time packing and (about to be) unpacking the house. So I told Paul I wanted a road trip on the way home. After seeing midwest friends, we headed to destinations of Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone and seeing what we could see in between.  Lo and behold, we ran into the Corn Palace in Mitchell...

It's decorated with... corn.

It's decorated on the inside of the area with... corn...

It was a great bathroom and milkshake break!

We saw some beautiful scenery as we crossed South Dakota...

What do you do when it's hot? Go on a cave tour of course? We went to Rushmore cave. The price was right, the time in the caves was right and they ran later than the Jewel Cave tours.

Carter paniced a little when he saw how dark it was, then really got into it...

Then we finally made it to Mt. Rushmore. The kids were pretty impressed.  We saw the heads, then got to the artist's studio just in time to see the model and we walked up to the base.

The little kids couldn't quite make it through the nightly lighting ceremony so we headed out to try and make some headway towards Yellowstone while the kids slept, plus, we didn't have reservations for the night in the park.

1.5 hours we drove in the dark in Custer National Park. Hairpin turns, single lane tunnels. Paul remarked, "I bet it's beautiful." I added, "yeah, in the daytime."  We lost markings on the road and only passed 4 other cars. We finally made it to civilization (well, a sign for it anyways) and found we'd gone a total of 7 miles.

As soon as we found I-90 again, we got a hotel!

Then we headed to Yellowstone.  People have asked how the kids did. Well, they did great, actually... here's how we ride.. lots of snacks, DS & Zune movies (Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 is the current favorite) oh, and a power converter to charge everything....

Once we hit Yellowstone, I told the boys no electronics, to enjoy the beauty around us...

Somehow I had forgotten how much the boys (esp Carter) talk.  I was almost glad to be out of Yellowstone and plug them back in.....

We got to see the teeny tiny chipmunks and a bunch of Bison...

We had 5 hours in the park. After stopping off to talk to a ranger and get a map, we decided Old Faithful and the Paint Pots boardwalk would be the best use of our time...

We saw geyers surrounding old Faithful while we waited for her to blow...

Then we got a seat to wait for Old Faithful. They boys complained. Until they saw it and thought it was cool.  What have we learned on this trip?  Patience and waiting for stuff mom says is cool... Paul had never seen them before and said it was much bigger than he imagined.

Then we rushed to the Paint pots

Then we drove on to Missoula, MT, got there about 2am and slept.

We took a snack break just outside WA state the last day.

We were glad to be out of the car. I've noticed from spending so much time together, we are all getting along a lot better now that we are home. Something I didn't really expect, but am glad for.

On the road... again...

As this swirl of emotion was going on, we started driving again.  My father-in-law was headed to MI anyways, so he drove the first 4 hours, then I drove another 2 hours to visit my friend Jenn and her family for dinner.  No pictures, unfortunately I couldn't find my camera in the big repacking...  we changed into pajamas and drove another 2 hours to Chicago where we'd spend the weekend with my college friends.

I still hadn't found my camera, but we went on to spend the day at Shedd Aquarium. It is HUGE and amazing.  The kids' favorite part was a special exhibit on jellyfish.  Who knew there were so many kinds? Henri's favorites were ones that are upside down and algae grows on their tenticles.  He even turned himself upside down to show off to them. Valerie loved watching the dolphin come right in front of her in the tank.

On our way to Shedd, we stopped off at a motorcycle themed cafe for breakfast.  The boys loved the theme, including the sign to the bathrooms, my lovely 1st grader can read "mom, what does 'piss this way' mean?"  the boys charmed a couple next to us who had 3 kids between the two of them and they were on the last few days of a week without the kids. Henri ate off her plate and sat on her lap, Carter talked her into a backrub.

The kids and I met Kari's boyfriend who entertained them with his dog and balloon animals. 

We then moved over to Melissa's so I could see the home they bought gutted and brought up to a beautiful living space.  We picked up Paul at the airport and headed to the Kohl's children's museum. Luckily, Melissa did have her  camera. 

Then we headed to Dairy Queen

Then Paul promptly passed out after being up all night previously franticly unpacking boxes so I wouldn't have to come home to a packed up house...

The next morning, we headed off to our friends near Minneapolis...

My ex-husband and Drew worked together in the military and Andrea and I are scrapbooking addicts.
Paul enjoyed hanging out in the garage with the guys and wondered, "how come we don't have neighbors like that?"

We trashed their playroom...

The girls hung out...

We had hot dogs... 

We tried to take a picture with 5 children...

Drew tried to trade Valerie for his two kids...

Then we cleaned up...

That concluded the visiting portion of our trip.

In the great north...

While we with his family, Henri learned all sorts of new skills...

We found a house we liked, had an inspection done and were negotiating an offer on our house in WA, then Paul flew back to WA to go back to work.

While we were waiting for all this to happen, we took a trip to Zooz....

We fed giraffes, which I think was one of the most disgusting things I've ever experienced.  It wrapped it's tongue around my and Henri's hands and was scratchy and slimy. I'm never doing it again!

Not only were the "regular" animals entertaining, but Henri enjoyed the caterpillars tickling him...

We finally had found sun and were settling in.

Carter & Henri loved spending time with the girls in the pool and playing DS...

Henri had a big fall as he'll tell you "a big bump on the sidewalk"

Then there were lots of phone calls between Paul and I. Paul started having a change of heart. He wanted to stay in WA.  I was now the one arguing we should move to Ontario!  In the end, we agreed to head back to WA.  Paul called the real estate agents and explained we would not be moving.  We packed up our stuff back into the station wagon, minus about 3 suitcases we'll get on a future trip. 

It was a very emotional week. To have everything change, was very confusing and I felt a bit like I'd fallen down Alice's rabbit hole.  But, off we went to repack...