Idaho with Ben

Ben only had a few days in Idaho before he headed to Nor Cal to look for houses.  So we spent the few days with family.  Ben's parents and 2 of his sisters made the trek to Idaho to visit with us for a bit and to pick up some gear we had brought for them from the East Coast.  We had a great time visiting and catching up with everyone.  We sure were sad to see our Daddy go though.

The very first morning we were there, Rhone pulled his boots on and was ready to help Papa farm.

Hauling hay with Papa

Sylvie and Grandad

Rhone and Sylvie with their Great Grandma and Grandpa Roser

Ben's family

We got a shake at the drive-in the night before Ben left

We made Cars' 2 pancakes for breakfast for Ben.  That's Mater and McQueen

Rhone got a special book from Dad with his voice reading the story

One last family picture before the airport.

Cross Country Days 3, 4, & 5

We tried hard to come up with something a little bit fun to do each day, but we got a late start on day 3 and boy was it our longest and hardest day on the road.  We spent the night in Omaha, NE.  Day 4 we spent driving across NE.  We made a fun stop at Cabela's in Sydney.  We had a little trouble with the truck that day, but we think it was just some bad gas and thankfully it was an easy fix.  We spent the night in Laramie, WY because hotels in Cheyenne were mighty pricey (like $300!) because it was their big rodeo.  We made sure we had a pool that night so Rhone could have some time to play.  Day 5 we stopped in Green River, WY for lunch and were able to meet up with 2 of my cousins and their families.  Rhone had a great time running around wild.  We made it to my parents' in time for dinner.  Boy were we happy to be outta the car!  We had one pretty crazy potty stop in WY with poor Rhone.  There wasn't a public bathroom for miles around, so Rhone had a pretty serious potty break on the side of a road.  He kept looking at Ben and saying, "Uhh dad this isn't gonna work."  Sometimes you just gotta do, what you gotta do.

Cabela's

Cabela's

Pool time

Hanging out at the pool

Sylvie woke up Rhone this morning.

What a big crew of cousins!

Wide open skies and sage brush...getting closer to home

He pretty much drove the whole way

The valley that I grew up in!

We spent over 41 hours in the car and this doesn't include our time spent on our fun little side trip to Chicago or potty/gas breaks.  It was a long trip.  Now we just need to get to Nor Cal.  Luckily we have some down time before we make that trek.

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.