The drive to Pittsburgh

Wednesday July 3rd we woke up early and said our goodbyes.  It had bee a whirlwind couple of days and we were up late cleaning and packing the car .  It was heart breaking leaving Grandma and Grandpa behind, Heidi broke down within the first 30 seconds "I just want to be with Grandma!" which of course had me in tears 2 seconds later.  She did calm down a bit though when we established that Pittsburgh had both food and beds.

The first stop was Cheyenne Wyoming!  A drive that should have taken 8 hours, took us 12.  We only stopped to pee on the side of the road 4 times, and drove off with things on the hood of the car twice.  We were VERY glad to arrive at Grandma Sanderson's house where my mother had decided to meet us for the 4th of July!

 The next day we enjoyed as a family, and had a picnic at the park.  Then we drove out of town to pick up some fireworks!

 Nearby the firework stand was the Terry Bison Ranch and so we made a quick detour to see the buffalo, llamas, camels, tiny horses, donkeys, pigs, ostrich and other animals.  We got home, had a great dinner and then broke out the sparklers, snakes, smoke bombs and poppers.  It was hilarious.  The girls stood about 30 feet away as Tyler lit the snakes and smoke bombs- I've never seen two kids more terrified of something so harmless.

 The 5th of July was Nebraska.  The day started out once again with tears as we left more Grandma's behind as we traveled East.  I'll admit I was surprised at Nebraska, it had a lot more green to offer than I remembered.  We did slightly better at the stopping this day, but it all caught up to us in the end.

 The kids seemed to have a better game plan than the adults, and had organized a stopping schedule so that every hour or so, someone would have to pee, eat, barf or poop.  We got to tour lots of random places along highway exit ramps.
  Nebraska also marked the point at which I developed a sudden and terrible UTI.  After an unexpected 2 hours in Lincoln looking for a insta-care, waiting at an insta-care, and getting antibiotics, we decided to hunker down for the night.  Apparently Lincoln is pretty popular because it took forever to find a hotel not sold out. It was a fairly traumatic day.

 On the 6th we crossed into Missouri.  We loved Missouri for various reasons.  Number 1 was that we found the most amazing hotdog place in Independence.  Best Hotdogs Ever.  Alex was even talking about them 2 days later (Updog).  After hotdogs we stopped by Liberty Jail and then made our way to West Plains to see my Aunt, Uncle and cousins!
   I need to get some pictures from my cousin, we had so much for at their house!  They treated us like royalty, and the kids love them so much that we barely saw the girls at all for the 2 days we were there! I will have to devote an entire post to that stay.  Church, yummy food, laughing, paddle boats, MULE rides, fireflies, armadillos, humidity, movie on the ceiling. It was fun.

 We left Missouri's beautiful rolling hills for Tennesse after a day and a half, and were excited to arrive at Tyler's brother's home.  I LOVED the nursery and had to take a picture- the whole room is pinterest worthy.  The whole house is really.  The kids ran wild with their older cousins- we went swimming, they played lego's and a million other games.  Alex was heartbroken to leave, but consoled by the fact that her sweet older cousin gave her a Kindergarten workbook to teach her all she needs to know for school.  It was precious.

 While the older girls played with the older boys, Quinn and Madison became best friends.  Quinn can wrap giant toes over Madison's feet.

 And even though Madison is 6 weeks older, Quinn towers over her by a good 2 inches.

 Us Momma's ooohed and ahhhhed and baby talked these little ones all day, I suppose next time they see each other they will be a bit more interested in each other.

 Although Quinn is the baby basketball player of the two,

 Madison totally won the baby race.

 I love this picture.  Each child is doing the exact same thing by age... The oldest two- obeying and looking after the youngest.  The middle children- goofing off in their own worlds.  The youngest- not looking at the camera, subject to the will of the oldest.

 Heidi totally rocking her new cowgirl boots in Kentucky.  Oh, and the humidity- it ate your face it was so awful in Tennessee!  It was just terrible!  I was so happy to discover that it's so much better in Pittsburgh!  And we had the best southern BBQ and banana pudding with Sam and Natalie- it was a great stop.

 After Tennessee headed up!  Mammoth Cave is in Kentucky and we were excited to stop.  Only to find that the tours were 2 hours long and that wasn't going to fly!  So we ventured down to the opening to enjoy the cold air and explore a bit.

 I was content to continue on our way at that point, but the girls were begging to go in a cave, so we found nearby Diamond Cave and went on a tour there instead.  The kids did great and had a fun time, while Tyler and I thought about cave food and earthquakes the whole time.

 We had KFC in Kentucky, survived a freak downpour, and made it to Ohio for the night!  Here we had what turned out to be the first of a weeks worth of cereal for dinner nights.

Thursday we arrived!  We found our home (barely surviving traffic, more on that later) picked up the keys and some groceries and then played Boxcar children that night- eating and sleeping on the floor all together.  The kids have already made friends with the neighbors and we are very happy!