We are Home!

We safely arrived home on Wednesday, after a 14 hour day in the car. We did have to stop for about an hour due to a wicked looking storm. The wind was so strong, many cars were exiting the freeway.
4800 miles, 26 days, 11 states(North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming), 6 different beds, lots of sun and the only car problem we had was a dead battery. Fortunately it happened at my sisters, so it did not leave us stranded. Bought a new battery and had no more problems. We all stayed healthy and not a one of us ended up with a sunburn. (The cheapest gas I found was 2.39 in Chillicothe, Missouri!)
In North Dakota, which seemed like a long time ago, stayed with an good friend. Here is a picture of B just after he rolled down a grassy hill. I love this photo cause it is his nature grin, not the cheesy posed kind he loves to use.

In Wisconsin stayed with some friends who have 2 boys that are close in age to B and J. They use to go to church with us...here is a photo at the playground.

They loved all staying in one room, playing in the backyard and park and eating rootbeer floats.
We also had a short dinner stop with some other friends who we have almost known since moving to MT. They also have two small boys. We ate burgers and hotdogs and then headed to another park. Here are the two youngest
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A night on the road in Indiana and finally arriving in Ohio. We saw my oldest niece graduate from high school, another niece run in two track meets, a third niece play soccer and my fourth niece play softball (they are a very active, busy family). We spent lots of days at the pool and I got out several times by myself to go shopping. We hit the beach (Lake Erie), ate lots of ice cream and just hung out. The day before we left, I took my four nieces and the three boys to the beach for donuts. It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, just about had the beach to ourselves, we all ran around and took some goofy pictures....




After we left Ohio (my camera never made it out of the car again), we headed to Illinois and stayed 2 days with a family I use to nanny for in North Dakota. The boys had a ball playing with the legos and the barbies/Ken dolls and their big convertible cars. (We have no GI Joes, barbies/Ken so it is interesting to see how much J enjoys playing with these when he can). They had a pool and a huge yard for the boys to run around. Was fun catching up with them and seeing how the 4 girls have grown. The oldest was 6 when I lived with them and the youngest was 18 months. Now they are a junior in college and 15 (the middle twin girls were not home that weekend).
We had a short breakfast stop with a cousin in Springfield before making the long haul to our next stop in South Dakota. Saw some friends that hopefully we will make it back to their wedding in September. Nate has the coolest yard, where the fence line was 2 rows of pine trees. The boys loved playing hide and go seek and running wild. I had hoped to stop at Mt Rushmore when we left but all the boys were sleeping and I had forgotten that it is not right on the highway. So, hopefully we can plan that stop in when we go back for the wedding.
All in all a great trip. The boys did really well, they loved seeing all the family and friends. They have made some friends back in Ohio so will have boys to play with on subsequent trips out there. Lots of sun. All three of the boys did really well in the different pools. B actually went down the long twisty slide several times and loved it. He did jump off the diving board at our friends in Illinois, so his comfort level in the water is much improved. We arrived back home to weather in the 50s, which was a nice change to all the humidity we had in Ohio.
JR sure was glad to have us back, chaos and all.