Cross Country Days 1 & 2

We loaded up the truck and trailer and headed west.  Whew what a lot of driving!  I spent a lot of time getting fun things ready for Rhone to try and make the trip a success and enjoyable.  I packed everyones clothes for each day together so we would have less to haul in and outta the hotel.  I packed a snack bag for each day in the truck.  We had a tote in the back with refills (diapers, burp clothes, spare clothes, ect) for Sylvie.  I printed some tickets off for Rhone for each day.  He was able to redeem them for prizes that I had been stowing away for months.  The tickets worked great, I would request a certain # or color and then once he gave it to me he would get a prize.  He could earn an extra ticket if he went potty at a pit stop or loose them if he whined or yelled from the back seat.  I did not want Rhone to just watch movies all day, so I was hoping that my hard work would pay off and it did!  Rhone watched at most 2 movies in the truck in one day.  I am gonna call that a huge success. 

 Our goal for day 1 was Cleveland.  We hit rain and traffic and were pulling the trailer so things moved a little slow, but we made our goal.  We decided it would be better to get to the west side of town to avoid morning traffic.  We found a (sorta sketchy) hotel right near Lake Eerie.  It worked out nice to get out and take a walk before bed.  We walked through some amazingly beautiful neighborhoods and got a view of the lake and the skyline.  We were all set to head out early the next morning, when Sylvie had a MONSTER poop which totally covered my clothes (a new skirt I was wearing for the first time) and the hotel bed.  We already had everything loaded up in the truck so Ben had to head back out and grab the suitcase so I could change clothes.  Traveling with kids is always exciting!

   

All loaded in the truck and ready to leave our house (which by the way, I totally miss)

Cleveland, OH

Lake Eerie is behind us. Rhone is showing off his magnifying glass (one of his prizes).

Sylvie had to spend night 1 in a suitcase (the hotel didn't have any more cribs and ours was packed away in the trailer).  Super classy right.

Our day 2 goal was Chicago.  It was a shorter drive so we would have time to do some sight seeing in Chicago.  We knew our time was limited, so we settled on the Navy Pier for our sight seeing.  It worked out perfect because we drove right through down town and saw lots of fun things anyway.  Rhone was able to run wild in the children's museum.  He was so excited looking at everything it took him a while to just settle down and play.  We grabbed some food at the beer garden and listed to live music before we took a boat cruise out in Lake Michigan.  Ben and Rhone finished the night with a ride on the huge Ferris wheel while Sylvie ate.  Rhone was tired and kept saying he was ready to go back home to Delaware- it only took 2 days for the adventure to loose its fun, poor guy.  We stayed at a really nice hotel and had the most delicious breakfast the next morning.  Oh and big thanks to Chicago, the children's museum was free for military and Ben's boat ride was also free for military, parking was not though.  It was more than I paid anywhere on the East Coast

We only managed to get signs from a few states.

Buckingham Fountain in Chicago.  We also drove right past Soldier Stadium.

Sylvie at the children's museum

Rhone and Ben climbing through the pirate ship

Playing in the architecture corner

Using pvc pipe to move water around

Rhone making a flying machine.  You put them on a pulley and cranked it to the top and then timed how long it flew for.

Whippin' up a meal after a trip to the grocery store.

Mr. Muscles in the circus exhibit

On Lake Michigan

Beautiful view of Chicago

Ferris Wheel riders.  I love Rhone's excitement!

View from the Ferris Wheel

Me and the kids.  The Ferris Wheel is 150 ft high!

Pretending we aren't exhausted from our kids

Sweet little sleeping Sylvie.  Her clothes were soaked from drool and we didn't have any extra jammies (we had already dropped them at the hotel).  I promise she sleeps better the next 2 nights!

we said see ya later to our friends and our house

I thought it was really important for Rhone to have the chance to say good bye to all his friends (well I needed to as well).  So we made little good bye gifts and played together one last time.  Whew leaving behinds friends sure can be rough.  These are the people who we spent our holidays with and celebrated birthdays with and who took care of Rhone while I was in the hospital with Sylvie. They are our family when our family is far away. We have been blessed by so many people in DE, not just those in these pics.  It took me 2.5 years before I knew it, but Delaware really was where God wanted our family for the past 3 years.

A sweet hug good bye with our Air force friends.  Moving sure is getting harder the older Rhone gets.

Sylvie and the boys

Isn't this what childhood is all about.  Just hanging out with good friends

Sylvie and T are only a few weeks apart.

Ben managed to get an action shot of the moms. 

Rhone and the boys from church after hours of bouncing

We will miss the 1st house we ever owned!

Right after these pictures we crammed ourselves into the truck and set off across the country.

we said goodbye to the beach

Hands down one of our most favorite things about living in DE was being close to the beach.  We took a break from the chaos of our house and packing to hit the beach one last time.  It was so nice to enjoy time as a family and pretend like we didn't have a care in the world.  We made only our 2nd trip to the Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe.  They hand dip them right in front of you when you order them.  They were so delicious.  We finished up the beach outing by using the rest of our tickets at Funland on the Rehoboth Beach Board walk.  I can't believe how much Rhone has changed since we have been in DE.

This is how he decided to carry the body board.  Doesn't he just look like a little beach bum?

Our little beach baby.

Rhone is not afraid of the waves.  He will spend hours out there getting tumbled and pummeled with water.

Our little family

Look how brave Rhone is to boogie board with Ben!

You have to look really close, but it says Delaware in the sand.

This is the most delicious box of donuts I have ever had.

He was all business on these rides.

Scrapple is a local Delaware food, so I insisted that I try it at least once before we left.  So one morning we made it out to a little local cafe to give the questionable meat a try.  That big old brown slab is scrapple.  It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad either.  I feel like my DE experience was pretty complete.

Even Rhone gave it a try and he really liked it.

4 month sweetie

 

This little lady is growing up so, so fast.  I cannot believe how much she smiles!  When I was pregnant (and extremely sick with her) I would joke that she better be as sweet as sugar to make up for my horrible pregnancy.  Well I think she pulled through and really is.  She had one last check up before we left DE.  She is about the 50th percentile for both weight and height and in the 25 %  percentile for her head.  She is getting to be a good roller and starting to enjoy tummy time.  We think that her eyes are going to stay blue and that her hair might stay red.  She sure does look a lot like her daddy.

Here's Sylvie with her "shrinking" kangaroo.

Pretty blue eyes

Well Hello Lady Liberty

We really tried to squeeze a lot into our last little bit of time in the East.  We took a last minute trip to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  One the way up we were able to meet up with some of our Air Force friends who are stationed in New Jersey.  We loved getting to see them.  We decided not to try out NYC with 2 kiddos.  Instead, we opted to take the ferry to the Islands from the New Jersey side.  We were sure glad that we got there bright and early before it was too crowded.  Both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty were really interesting.  I had no idea that the US was so selective about who we would let  immigrate in the 1800s.  The inside of the Statue of Liberty was closed, but it was still interesting learning about it.  Did you know that Gustave Eiffel (that architecture of the Eiffel Tower) is also the one who designed all the support of the Statue of Liberty.

At the hotel.  Rhone loves her so much and she puts up with all his shenanigans.  I couldn't love them more.

NYC sunrise behind us.

Ferry Passengers

Immigrants' documents at Ellis Island

Lady Liberty

I had never seen the backside of her.

He was super impressed can you tell?  One grumpy old lady yelled at us as we were getting off the ferry that Rhone would never remember it.  Guess she might have been right.

This is the New Jersey Sept 11 memorial.  The 2 walls are at the same spot in the skyline that the towers were.