Day 4

Fun in Millennium Park



 

The first day without traveling!  It felt so good to sleep somewhere I knew, and to not have to wake up early.  And we not only got to eat real food from a real kitchen but we got to eat one of Jesse's amazing breakfast creations!  And best of all we didn't have to get in a car!!  Not even for a minute.  We walked to the beach, we walked to the coffee shop, we walked to the train station, and when we got down town we walked all around the sights and sounds(the Jazz festival was going on).

 





This is the day we got to go down town and visit Millennium Park ... but first this little cutie needed a bath in the worlds coolest tub.

 



Sage Roberts!

Aspen was so excited that she got to show her sisters the "face walls" that stand as book ends of a large splash pad.  These faces are really cool because they are actually videos not pictures of people that the show on these giant screens.  It is always fun to watch for them to blink or smile.  And of course the highlight of this particular splash pad is the huge water spout that comes from the mouth of the faces.  The only problem is all the kids fight to be directly under the water flow.  Aspen was sad that no one would let her in.

Yes, that is my girls dancing in the middle of the splash pad. No, it wasn't safe but they sure had fun.

 Next stop was the  Chicago Bean for some very touristy pictures.

 The last stop was a visit to the Millennium Fountain.  It was such a windy day that we could feel the mist from the fountain before we could even see it,  quite a plus since it was such a hot day.
They were several street musicians on the platform including a drumming duo that were rather talented and provided us with some unexpected entertainment.  They even started to make too much money so they covered their collection bucket so no one could see how much had already been given.  I know that the locals probably don't even notice most of the street performers but they are a treat for my family who don't get to hear them every day.

Jocelyn, Tressa, and Maia

Of course we had to get some ice cream while spending a hot summer day at the park.

 

 

And yet again Aspen is the last one awake.  She even out lasted the dogs!

Day 3

To Chicago

 

The next morning while at the hotel breakfast we met a Baptist Minister from Chicago and found out why there where no spots open at Devil's Lake.  His church had rented out the entire campground for the weekend, and he was at the hotel with his family simply because he didn't like to camp or go with out TV.  I love meeting friendly and interesting people on vacations. We got to have a look around Wisconsin Dells as we waited for the cheese shop to open so that Jon could get some squeaky cheese while we were in the cheese capitol of America.  I was quite impressed with this unknown vacation spot.  The town is able to keep the small town/nature feel while still having more options to do in a week then could be accommodated.  There were water parks, amusement parks, river boat rides, and the typical vacation town shopping areas.  They even had a Ripley's Believe it of Not Museum which happened to have a car parked on the wall outside.  Aspen was very curious about it and had to go investigate with her sisters as to how the car was suspended, and was very excited as she exclaimed "I know how the did it.  It's Super Glue!"

 

Wisconsin Cheese-heads for Uncle Bruce

My favorite part of this stop though was the river and enjoyed walking along it for as long as I was allowed before we had to hit the road again.

 

The HUG ME tree!

 I wish we had started to take pictures of the odd statues and decorations we had passed while driving.  The giant cheese man  and the replica of Egyptian sculpture were cool but not nearly as fun as the skeleton man walking on T-Rex skeleton on a leash.

The last state sign-for a few days at least.

 

Yay!  We finally reached Chicago and my brothers family and were treated first thing with a walk to the dog beach so that the kids and Chalea and Cayanne could play. 



Day 2

Day two was spent driving.

And we did a lot of it. 

Crossing the plains

I had to take a picture of the windmills because my kids love them, all because they have an awesome
Uncle Will.  Uncle Will was with us in a car trip to Denver a few years ago and took the opportunity to teach Tressa about windmills.  He told her that the windmills create all of the wind and that the ones that aren't turning....well its there day off.  We let her believe it for a little while before we told her he was just teasing her.  So now she loves to tell other kids the story of the windmills and they all love to see the windmill forests when we get a chance.

Minnesota!

 Somehow we always end up with a picture of Aspen wide awake while her sisters are snoozing on our family vacations.  But these have got to be my favorite by far!




As you follow the sequence of pictures you will see Aspen noticing her sisters sleeping, then pulling Josie's head down onto her shoulder, and last of all her sweet smile after helping her sister out.



 
 What you don't see in the picture story is Josie's fit over Tressa sleeping on her shoulder when she woke up.  I don't think sleeping in the car suits her though. She was insistent that she was never asleep even after we showed her these pictures. She got so worked up that we gave up on trying to explain so she would stop crying and calm down.  And this same thing happened three more times during our trip.  Poor girl!


We like eating at parks while on road-trips since it gets us out of the car and into fresh air for a bit, and it doesn't hurt that we have young kids who still like to play on them.  I have discovered that I prefer the small town forgotten parks best though.  No where else do you still find teeter-tooters, marry-go-rounds, and the old style fast metal slides.

Fun at a small town park!

Wisconsin

Back in the car kids!

This night we were going to stay at a place called Devils Lake near Wisconsin Dells.  Well unfortunately we did not know that Wisconsin Dells is actually a huge family vacation spot, and the water park capital of the world. So the popular Devil's Lake campground was full and we ended up having to find a place to stay on the fly.  We tried one other camp ground area but found that it was $50 after entrance and camping fees and that the bugs were thicker then the air in this humid place so we ended up crashing at a hotel and grabbing some fast food for dinner.  I was disappointed but the kids were ecstatic and Jon was loving the AC.



The Great American Road Trip of 2012

Day 1

I am blessed to have two of the most amazing brothers in the world who unfortunately live half way across the country from us.  So this year we decided that we would take our first real "road trip"  as a family and go visit them both...Jesse in Chicago and Dan in Clarksville, TN.

We planned for a year on what route to take, which car to take (comfort vs. expense...expense won), what to see, and arranged every ones schedules so that we could make our adventure a reality. And on June 7th 2012 my pack-master husband magically got all of our bags and camping gear into our Civic's small trunk and we were on our way. 

Wyoming-#1

 First stop---our first state sign!

By half way through Wyoming Jon was the only one still awake which left him with the decision of whether or not to stop and wake us all up when he passed Martin's Cove.  It took him a minute or two to even realise what the place was after he passed and then another to decide whether to wake us and go back.  I was thrilled that he did.  As we pulled in, we were stopped by a Sister Missionary who was so sweet yet overly helpful.  She insisted on detailing every location and trail on the map.  While there we had lunch in their beautiful picnic area, that is until we warned of snakes falling out of the trees by another Senior Missionary.  We only had about an hour to spare so we had to be picky about what we saw and did.  We ended up watching the video about the Willie and Martin Handcart Company before taking the girls out to pull the real handcarts they had on site.  They tried the kid one and then got Daddy to pull them around a short trail in the large one.  And in an effort to get them to appreciate what the pioneers really went through I decided to tell them that Daddy had unfortunately died and that they now had to pull the cart themselves (with Daddy in it for weight).  The lesson didn't work to well. The trail was one of packed gravel and the cart was light making it all to easy to pull it around together and even alone. Luckily they got off trail on accident at one point and got to feel the true challenge of pulling a cart through unpaved terrain, and they barely were able to pull it the short distance. Then the girls insisted we go to the blacksmith shop so they could get a "desert diamond",which turned out to be a ring made out of a horse shoe nail.

We never did see a sign for South Dakota, so we took a picture by this abandoned fireworks shed.

South Dakota #2

 As we entered the Black Hills National Forest I fell in love.  Most people think of paradise as a sunny beach by clear blue water, but I dream of mountains and pines.  We rolled down our windows as we entered the cool mountain roads and the smell of the forest was absolute heaven.  Add that to the quite old fashioned tourist towns and I was soon dreaming of retiring here.

I should have taken note of the name of this small lake but as usual I didn't think of it till to late.  We came upon our second unplanned stop about 15 minutes away from the Mt. Rushmore National Monument.  A mountain road running over a lake surrounded by white rock and pine forest, all covered in a thin fog.  It was absolutely mesmerizing! 

The air was crisp and cool and the ground still held traces of snow and hail.  The girls enjoyed running through the woods and Jon and I relaxed while enjoying the beautiful lake.

Finally, at dusk we arrived at Mt. Rushmore.  Very cool to see again and the girls thought it was pretty awesome to be at a location they here about so much.  But at the same time sad to know that this monument is just a mountain that has been carved up.

Jon picked the perfect time to arrive.  We were able to do the Presidential Walk and read about each of the men on the mountain and to take a lot of pictures before going to the amphitheater facing the monument for their sunset service.  This program made this visit worth while.  The video talked about everything involving this monuments construction.  And my girls learned a lot about the artist, the workers, and the four presidents as well as why each was chosen by the artist in the first place.  Our favorite part was when the service men/women and their families from the audience were asked down to be appreciated during the national anthem. During which they displayed a huge flag and illuminated the monument for the evening.  It was really a very moving and patriotic experience.