Road Trip

Road Trip, yes. But not the one like the movie...this was a little more tame, but just as crazy.

Tom was not able to come with us on this planned-for-three-months-trip because of some work obligations, so the boys and I hopped in the car and drove to Fargo. Simple, right? (Thank you Jenn for all the fantastic ideas for the long car trip. They helped tremendously.)
The day we left I took the kids to the beach in the morning. They ran around and played in the sand and then we ate lunch. I then loaded everyone into the van and we left from the beach for Minneapolis. I thought that wearing them out would get them to sleep extra long in the car....wrong-o! Although Gus slept THE ENTIRE WAY, the older two did not. They each slept for about 45 minutes. Which was not fantastic. However, I had a basket full of coloring books, snacks, snakes, books, and surprises. Which helped a ton! They played and watched movies the whole way. We spent the night at King's (Thanks Kristin!) and got up the next morning and drove to Fargo. For some reason the drive to Fargo seemed longer than the drive to Minneapolis. It rained the whole time we drove to Minneapolis and an hour before we got to Minneapolis there was a tornado. It also rained the whole way to Fargo. Not just a tiny drizzle either - downpours. Yikes! But we were just fine and it sounds like so was everyone in the cities.

We picked up Sara and her "friend" Mark on Friday. I say "friend" because my mom and dad used to introduce our boyfriends to family and friends as, "special friends." Like people didn't know what they were! Mark's a good catch and was so great with the boys. That's him with Porter on the slide. What I love about this picture is how freaked Jack looks. He was so excited to go down the slide, but when we got done all he said was, "Me no go down slide again. Me scared!"

It seems that much of our trip revolved around food. Surprise, surprise. Which of course I didn't mind. We went up to Grand Forks and ate at Blue Moose and grabbed Red Pepper to go. We also got Chippers and visited campus.

Cousin Emily got married on Saturday and she looked beautiful, I'm sure the ceremony was great - you would have to ask Porter, since he got to see it. Lou and I were outside with Gus and Jack because apparently Jack is two and can't sit still for longer than two seconds without screaming about being sad a song is over or having to go pee-pee.

Then we went to Bismarck for a few days to see Grandma Margaret and show Mark where Sara grew up. We got to go to Country House Deli (So yummy!) and Captain Meriwethers, which sadly, wasn't as delicious as I remembered it. Saw Ed Shafer at breakfast one morning and had supper with the whole clan at the Pecks. Had two pleasant visits with Grandma and went to the Dakota Zoo and the Amusement Park. Jack was a little bit afraid of all of grandma's stuff. He said, "Me don't like that Grandma." But warmed up to her and she even got kisses and hugs from both boys.

The highlight for the boys was going down the water slide at the hotel. Which was actually quite big and fast as far as indoor slides go. Porter could not get enough of it. They also loved the animal train at the amusement park and the "Big Slide". Seeing them get excited over things like that made the whole week for me. I just wish Tom could have been there to see that.

GUS was a rock star. More about him in the next post.

I love this photo of Porter and Jack in the bears because we have the same exact photo from when we were kids. Dakota Zoo rocks.

This picture is everything that Jack is. Sneaky, adorable, devilish and 2. It is a perfect picture of him.

It was a good trip. Long and exhausting but good. We tackled the entire ride from Fargo to Oconomowoc on the way back in one day. The boys did great. Stopped at a rest stop in Maple Grove and they ran around while I fed Gus. Then we stopped in a little town called Tomah at Dairy Queen and the boys shared their first Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard. We survived and they were great the whole time!