May 23, 2019-Great Lakes Day 5

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We all slept very well last night. I did wake up in the middle of the night and it took me a while to get back to sleep. That was around 2:30 and I already felt very rested, so after I had a few more hours of sleep I was awake right after Robby.

This breakfast was probably the best one-they had applesauce, fruit cups, cheese, salsa and granola bars. The kids went to town on the cheese and granola bars. After breakfast, we all pottied again since we had a long drive ahead of us. Then we loaded the cart and then van and headed on our way.

The seat switcheroo is still working well in the car, Whitman is the only one not changing seats because of his car seat so every morning he is excited about having a new seat mate. We listened to our book some more as we drove down the road. Robby though didn’t appear to be listening to the book-when he asked me a question about the book, he didn’t know who was a mouse and who was a boy. Gasp!

We ended up finishing that book before we passed out ipads. Our drive this morning was around 4 hours. We did stop once at a gas station where Robby bought cheese curds before we left Wisconsin-you can’t be in Wisconsin and not have cheese curds.

Not all of the kids were excited about eating cheese curds. We did make it mandatory for everyone to try one. They were received with a mixed reaction. Whitman and Graham thought that they were the greatest things ever. Campbell also liked them. Reagan, Anderson and Keaton weren’t impressed at all.

After the cheese curd/gas stop, I drove while Robby called Bingo numbers. The kids love bingo even though my prizes are pretty sad (they just stay in my travel box until a trip so it is really all just leftover prizes). When we did play cover all, Robby did up the ante with 4 choices for prizes-a slushie, 5 dollars, ride in the front seat for an hour or pick your spot to sleep tonight.

Reagan was the first to win cover all so she picked the 5 dollars. There was a big tie next with Campbell picking the front seat. Anderson prefers to sleep on the floor rather than sharing a bed so he opted for a slushie. Whitman did as well and asked about every 5 minutes about his slushie.

Our main stop this morning was the Spam Museum in Austin, Minneapolis. It had moved since we had been there last. The new location was pretty much like the old one, but it was still interesting. The favorite part was when everyone worked on packaging cans of Spam to see how fast they could do it. They even had a play area inside the museum which the kids used to burn off some energy.

Graham’s favorite part of the museum was the Spambassadors who were walking around with spamples for everyone to try. His favorite was bacon. When it came time to buy some Spam in the gift shop, there was a big debate. Graham wanted bacon while Anderson wanted cheese. My favorite was tocino which is only sold in the Philippians or maybe Guam-I'm not sure. It was delicious, and we will be frying up some when we get home.

Once we had seen all of the museum, we headed back to the car. Robby worked on putting in some address in the GPS while I started on straightening and making lunches. We let Campbell cash in her “sit in the front seat reward” so I sat in the back. That was fine because it gave me room to make my sandwiches fairly easily.

After we ate, I closed my eyes for a second until we were pulling up to a Wendys for the 50 cent frostys. Everyone had one but Keaton. She opted for a Sprite instead of a frosty. The drive was about an hour, and we were soon in downtown St. Paul.

We stopped at the Charlie Brown statues to take a few pictures. It was in a little park that took up a block. There we found an electric scooter to rent for a few minutes. Robby and I were the only ones who could legit-ly ride the scooters, but everyone took a whirl around the park.

Campbell struggled on it because she wasn’t tall enough so we didn’t let Keaton and Whitman try. When we did look over there and saw them sitting on the bench pouting, we did let them ride with Robby for a second or two. That appeased everyone and they have decided that they want a scooter like that for the house.

It was just a few more miles to the state capitol building. Graham, Campbell, Keaton and Whitman went with me to walk to the capitol steps. The kids all raced so I was the last one there. We guessed it was a quarter of a mile to the top of the steps and back to the car which was a good thing because we haven’t really done much walking today at all.

Our next stop was the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Keaton needed to go to the bathroom so we did quickly go into another art museum. Then we walked around some sculptures including the iconic Cherry on Spoonbridge. I had been wanting to see that sculpture for a while so I can mark it off the list.

It was just a few miles to Matt’s Bar. We were in search of a Jucy Lucy. Apparently, many years ago two bars in this area made a burgers with cheese in the middle. Ever since then both bars claim that the are the home of the original Jucy Lucy (Matt’s Bar) or the Juicy Lucy (5-8 Club). We choose to visit Matt’s Bar, and it was quite an experience.

The place was tiny, we knew that when we drove up. The line was out the door, we quickly realized that. We jumped in line and not only was the line out the door, the line was through the restaurant. You just waited in line until a table opened up. As you waited in line, you were standing right beside folks enjoying their Jucy Lucys.

We were prepared to sit at two tables but were able to squeeze at the same table. We were squeezed, but thankfully we didn’t have to squeeze as much as the people that were right behind Reagan and Keaton. They had 5 adults in a booth that was almost meant for just 2.

We ordered 4 Juicy Lucys, 2 grilled cheese and one order of French fries. The fries were served in a huge basket and were enough. When you cut into the burger, the cheese would just ooze out. The boys acted like it was the best thing ever and wanted to figure out how to make them at home.

I am so glad that we opted to wait out the land and try something new. It was a great stop. The next stop was not as exciting-Walmart. Of course by the 5th day of the trip, we needed to replenish a few things-water bottles, chips, bread and cokes. The one thing that we do not need at all is cheese-gracious me, we brought a ton and since we added the cheese curds, we now have enough cheese to stop us all up.

Of course, while we were at Walmart we also purchased some ice cream to eat at the hotel. It was just a short ride to the hotel after we had loaded up the all of our groceries. It was a bit tough finding spots to put all of our new food. We had eaten enough to have some room, but I had quickly filled all of that room with things that we have acquired on this trip.

The hotel was just a few miles away so it didn’t take us long at all to arrive. It is again laundry night so we were quickly changed into pajamas and clean undies. Robby quickly threw the laundry in the washer and hopefully things work well.

While we were eating our ice cream, the kids listed some of their favorites. I do think that the St. Louis arch along with the Cubs game and all of Chicago were favorite activities. The favorite foods included the cookie dough, the Chicago pizza, tonight’s Jucy Lucy burger, and the Chicago popcorn.

May 22, 2019-Great Lakes Day 4

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I woke up at 8 and jumped in the shower. I guess that I was really the first one moving this morning. That doesn’t happen to often. Robby had to shave and shower, so I took everyone but Reagan to breakfast. She waited on him. They arrived just a few minutes before they were shutting breakfast down. It was a normal hotel breakfast, and we ate most everything they had-waffles, yogurt, bagels, sausage and eggs.

From there, we loaded up and changed seats. Usually on our trips, we keep the same seats the entire time. This time, we are changing each day. This is just the 4th day of the trip but so far things have worked out fine. Now, Anderson usually sits in the second row so he is able to help me pass things back to everyone. Today, Keaton is in Anderson’s normal spot so passing things around was a bit more difficult.

We had to fight the weekday Chicago traffic to get into town. We try to his our big cities on weekends, but it just wouldn’t work out for that to happen. The weather was much different today than yesterday. It was sunny and warm-absolutely wonderful.

I am always surprised that we always end up able to see everything that we want to see when we stop in big cities for just a few hours. By 3, we had done Chicago. We lucked into a pretty perfect parking place near Millennium Park. We walked to the Cloud Gate (the Bean) and took pictures there. Robby then decided that maybe we didn’t need our jacket so he walked back to the car while we walked on.

We walked to Crown Fountain where there is a slight wading pool with fountains that have pictures of people’s faces. The faces will occasionally spit out water. Now, I let the kids walk through the water carefully with their shoes on, but I was pretty adamant about them not taking off their shoes and socks.

Now, I knew good and well that when their Daddy got back he would let them, and of course he did. He has the “wear the red dress” mentality better than me. The kids loved playing in the fountain. Now, Anderson had already done a bit of getting wet before they took of their shoes so he and Reagan didn’t wade any.

Whitman and Graham loved it. Now, Campbell and Keaton did too even though Keaton fell twice and ended up with a wet rear end. From there we headed to Garrett’s popcorn shop for some popcorn. We then walked towards the Chicago River to eat our popcorn. We sat by river and stared at the Chicago Tribune building and Marina City (those two round buildings).

It was super pleasant outside in the shade, and we could have stayed longer watching the river and everyone going up and down the sidewalks. Then Robby headed to go and get the car while the rest of us continued down Michigan Avenue.

Reagan could live in a big city-nothing seems to phase her and she is the one trying to cross the street before the light changes. I was thankful that she was in the lead of our bunch while Robby was gone. On long walks like today, I pretty much have to drag Whitman-not only is he pretty distracted but he has to take 2 or 3 steps for everyone that the rest of us take.

We walked through Dylan’s Candy Bar along with the Nike store. It was 4 levels of Nike goods-Graham was in heaven. We continued walking down the Magnificent Mile until we made it to the American Girl doll store. I have American Girl gift cards that I need to use-they are extremely old. However, I cleaned out my gift cards so I didn’t have to bring them all on the trip. Keaton loved the store and could have stayed in there much longer-but Anderson saw the Lego store.

We walked around the Lego store until Robby met up with us. I did buy Keaton and Campbell a little lego set. They were on clearance so it was a deal that I couldn’t pass up. Robby had initially planned on just picking us up, but he was able to find really great parking so he parked again and came to meet us.

Before we headed to get our pizza, we did stop by a cookie dough store. I guess they are the thing now, I have been wanting to go to one for a long time. Before Robby met up with us, I was going to buy a scoop for us all to share. Since he was back when we walked by again, he ordered a scoop or nine for us to share. See I told you,, he is much better at wearing the red dress than I am! (For those that don’t know, that phrase “wear the red dress” is in an old song mean to seize the moment or you only live once.)

He also ordered a pizza or four from Giordanos. You can’t go to Chicago without having pizza. We picked up our pizzas and put them on the hood of the van and passed it out. As the kids picked their pizza, they would climb in the car. One passerby said, “an elegant Chicago meal.” It was sure a pretty perfect Chicago meal. We sat in the car and ate and then navigated out of the city.

It wasn’t a long drive to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin where we stopped at the Jelly Belly Bean factory. The last time we were in Chicago we stopped here. The kids loved the free samples of any flavor you would like. Then we went on the tour through the warehouse area. I think that the factory is actually down the street, but the tour was still neat with video screens showing us about the family that owns the Jelly Belly Company and about the process of making the jelly beans.

After the tour, we were all handed a package of jelly beans. Then Robby let the kids pick out something from the clearance table-it was even buy 1 and get 1 free. The car is currently filled up with jelly beans. I don’t eat jelly beans at all so the grand game of Bean Boozoled that they have planned for tonight will not involve me. (Bean Boozoled is a game where you have to pick a certain color of jelly bean to eat-it could end up being a good flavor like orange or lime or it could be booger or grass. Not what I would call a good time.)

We decided to go the long way to Madison which was through Milwaukee. Whitman, Keaton and I jumped out of out of the car to take a picture of “Bronzie” which Whitman called it. The statue of Fonzie was actaully Bronze so maybe he got it all confused.

Milwaukee has a new light rail system that runs through their town. We jumped on it and rode to their Historic Third Ward and used the bathroom at their Public Market. It was a neat stop and we could have spent some money on food there, but didn’t.

It did seem like every time we jumped in and out of the car someone was grabbing a slice of our leftover pizza. Robby drove us out of the town, and then I drove the car for a bit while he did some work. He knew that it was going to be a late night plus we need to do our laundry tonight.

Once we were in the hotel, everyone put on new pjs before putting their clothes and old pjs in the laundry bag. Robby ran to the washer as the rest of us started on showers. It didn’t take long for laundry to be in the dryer and supper to be served. Tonight’s meal was bbq which was incredibly yummy-except I wasn’t hungry at all. Our food tour of Chicago filled me up.

After we finished supper, Anderson, Graham, Campbell, Keaton, Whitman and Robby played Bean Boozled. Well, Robby just had one which was sour milk or rotten egg, I forgot, and then decided that he didn’t want to play. The others stuck with it a bit longer but we were never sure if all of the jelly beans that we had were bad or if there were any good ones in the package.

When the game finished, I passed out leftover popcorn from this afternoon. That helped clear all of the bad tastes out of the jelly bean player’s mouths. The laundry took a little bit to dry and is actually still in the dryer. It should be finished soon and as soon as I can fold it, then it will be bedtime for the crew.

May 21, 2019-Great Lakes Day 3

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Last night as we were watching the last little bit of tv, Whitman left his sleeping bag spot and climbed in our bed. He wanted to lay between us for the last little bit of the show. That was fine since there was just about 10 minutes left. I cuddled up with him and soon we both had a little catnap.

Robby hoisted Whitman off our bed and onto his pallet on the floor. He slept there until about 6 this morning when he crawled back in between us. He was still just as cuddly so we snoozed on even after Robby had gotten up and was getting his shower.

It took us a bit longer to get around this morning, but we still had time for our breakfast. Breakfast was better today than yesterday-they had granola. Now, we also smuggled out some nutella, paper plates and silverware which mortified Reagan even though she helped bring the plates upstairs. We didn’t take anything excessive but only just a few-Robby had to explain that we could have used those at breakfast so we weren’t stealing.

It was just a short drive to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. Robby and I were here with Grannymom and Granpda when I was pregnant with Reagan in 2005. The museum was still just as impressive. When you enter we took pictures with statues of Lincoln and his family.

They had two really neat movies in the museum. They were more like plays or even Disney type movies so they kept everyone’s attention. Now, the most interesting fact that I have learned over the past two days is that the Lincoln’s did not discipline their children. The little boys seemed to wreak havoc where ever they were. Now, also there is that interesting story about Robert Lincoln havin his mother, Mary Todd, declared insane. However, the letters that she had written during this time he desperately tried to destroy. I wonder why-was he trying to hide something?

It was pretty chilly this morning-we all put on our pants and jackets. I still could have used another layer though. It was also windy as we walked across the street to another part of the museum. It was a train depot that commemorated the transcontinental railroad. There wasn’t much to that little area but Anderson and Whitman enjoyed playing with the Thomas the trains that were set up.

From there we ate at Cozy Dog Drive In which is located on Route 66. We had our fill of corndogs, hot dogs and fries. Most everyone didn’t really like the corn dog batter as much as the batter of regular corn dogs. (I couldn’t really taste a difference though!) It was a fun little stop and we ended up buying about 2 too many corndogs.

We knew we had a drive ahead of us so we pottied before loading up on. The Windy City was our next sop, but it was super windy on our drive there. Robby struggled a few times to keep us in our lane as the wind blew and blew. He had to have two hands on the steering wheel most of the time,

We listened to some of our book in the car before passing out ipads. Of course, everyone had a coke to drink since we just had water in the restaurant. Those drinks added up to two bathroom stops. That was fine though since it was nice to stretch our legs for a little bit. One of the stops was at a reststop that had a playground so he kids ran to play on it for just seconds as Robby walked to the car. When he honked, they all came running as fast as they could to the car.

Traffic slowed as we neared Chicago. Our hotel tonight is near the hotel which is outside of town but the traffic was still a mess. Robby and I worked a bit on the drive trying to figure out how to best get us to the ballgame tonight.

All off of our figuring went up in smoke-well, kind of. We made it to the hotel just fine and quickly unloaded because we knew that getting to the game would take an hour or two no matter how we would get there. The original plan was to drive to a metro station that we could park at and ride the train in or to drive to the Cubs parking lot and ride their buses to the stadium.

When Robby was checking in, the hotel clerk said that he could take the hotel shuttle to the train line and it would take us to the game. She called the shuttle driver for us and then gave Robby the printed directions-well, hers included the shuttle, the train, a bus and the train again. We were about to change our minds and head to the car when the shuttle arrived and the lady told Robby that we could do it with no problem. She was from the South and commented on our manners (yes ma’ams) so we trusted her judgement.

Our hotel was almost to O’hare so we had about 15 stops (seriously) until we changed trains. Then we had about 6 or 8 before we made it to Wrigley field. It took long enough that Whitman fell sound asleep on the way. His head would bob ever time that we slowed down. I eventually had to hold him because he started to lean his head on the guy’s backpack beside him.

Wrigley Field was super close to the metro stop-we were even able to see it while we were on the train so that was nice. It didn’t take too long to find our seats in the stadium and to realize that we were going to freeze our hineys off! We were dressed as warmly as possible-jackets, pants and some even had two shirts on, but that didn’t really seem to help too much. It was like the whole stadium was a wind tunnel. I now know where Chicago gets the name “The Windy City” from. It really would have been cold no matter what we were wearing because the wind was just blowing on our faces the entire game.

We did walk around a little bit. Campbell and Graham even went off by their selves to get closer to first base. Bless Graham’s heart. Big crowds and navigating the subway make the boy so nervous. I will admit that getting on the second subway train was kind of like what you see on tv-the train was full, the platform was full, but dang it we were getting on-all 8 of us! We did have to wait on one train before we could get close enough to squeeze on, but we made it.

Anyway, when they were walking around they did have the extra phone with them, and thankfully Campbell’s coat made it easy to see her as they headed to first base and then back to us. The goal was to stay through the seventh inning stretch, and we made it.

We all sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” through shivering teeth and then we hurried out of there. There was a Subway restaurant right outside of the stadium and would you believe that it was almost empty. There was plenty of room for us to sit down and eat inside. The Cubs were behind by 1 when we left but Robby kept watch and by the time we made it to the second train, the Cubs had won the game.

It would have been nice to see them win, but it was nice to be in a warm train car headed back to the hotel. The train ride home was just as long, but didn’t seem nearly as long. Then we did have to wait on the shuttle lady to come and get us. We had to wait outside so it was little chilly-really, it was freezing. We froze! But she was there within 15 minutes and soon we were back in the hotel.

Everyone changed into their pajamas while Campbell passed out drinks and I passed out cookies. After a few minutes on ipads, it was soon time to head to bed since it was 11:30.

May 20, 2019-Great Lakes Day 2

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We all slept perfectly well last night. I did wake up once to go to the bathroom and once when Robby was peering over me to look at the clock. When our alarms went off this morning, Robby and I were the only ones who stirred.

He got in the shwoer while I started making noise and opening the blinds trying to wake everyone up. Campbell was the first one awake while Reagan was the slowest to move around. Whitman could not wait to get to breakfast.

Robby said that breakfast was just enough, but not enough. They did have his sausage biscuits, but they didn’t have my bagel or granola. We all managed to find plenty though. Soon we were loading up the car. As we were walking out, Anderson raised his shirt showing me a few bug bites. He asked if I thought that they were bed bugs. As soon as I sat down in the car, I googled a bit and his bites were not bed bugs thankfully. I do think that he has a few spider bites though-I think that spiders like him since he just had a spider bite at home.

Once in the car we listened to some music before passing out ipads. We did listen to a podcast about the renaming of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It is now the Gateway Arch National Park. The kids weren’t too interested, but it was a decent podcast.

Before we did make it to the arch, we stopped at Ted Drewes. I mean how can you not stop at Ted Drewes while you are in St. Louis? It doesn’t matter how long you are there. Robby bought everyone concretes except for Whitman who wanted an ice cream cone. Robby and I split a peanut butter, chocolate concrete of some sort which was very good.

To end our little food tour of St. Louis we thought that we had better have some tasted ravioli since that is one of the things that St, Louis is famous far. We went to Mama’s on the HIll to pick up some toasted ravioli and cheese bread. Even though we had just eaten ice cream, the kids devoured the toasted ravioli. Robby and I both fondly remember eating toasted ravioli while we were in college-I guess that is a college cafeteria staple.

Now from there, it was just a hop to the arch. Whitman and Graham weren’t too sure at all about going to the top of the arch. Robby bought tickets while Whitman and I worked on stamping our passport books along with picking up Jr. Ranger books for us to do at home.

We had a few minutes to walk around the little museum before it was time for us to board our pod to the top of the arch. Whitman knew that he wanted to ride with me, so he and Reagan rode up in my car while everyone else rode with Robby. We had two strangers with us, but that didn’t bother chatty Whitman.

The kids were pretty awed at the top of the monument. It is pretty neat actually-we could see the courthouse, ballfield and Mississippi River. We were almost able to see where we had parked the car. We stayed at the top for a while before finally heading back down.

When we went outside, we walked under the arch and looked at the flooded Mississippi. Then we hiked back up the hill towards the Courthouse. I don’t think that I had ever been in the courthouse before. There wasn’t too much to do inside, but it was beautiful though.

We then found our way back to the van and crossed the river into Illinois. Once we were well on the road, I did work on our late lunch. I had to write everyone’s sandwich request down before starting. It didn’t take too long for me to make everyone’s lunches. The kids ate their lunches quickly but not as fast as they ate their rice krispy treats.

While we ate, we listened to one of our books on tape. When we listen to books, the kids are just as quiet as when they have their ipads. It wasn’t too long of a drive to Springfield, the home of Lincoln.

We went to the Abraham Lincoln National HIstoric Site. There was a video which we watched-I saw some of it, but may have a snoozed just a little bit. Then we had a tour of the Lincoln home. It was an interesting tour which I was wide awake for because I was worried about Whitman stepping off of the carpet and making the alarm ring (he didn’t) and I was worried about him asking too many questions (he did ask some, but not too many thankfully).

After we finished the tour, we walked around a bit there and then drove to the Lincoln tomb. They were almost closed, but we managed to hurry around the tomb and see everything that we needed to see. We walked around outside and then headed towards the capitol building in Springfield. Anderson stood in the middle of the road for me to take a picture of him before we had to jump back in the car because of traffic.

We were pretty early checking into the hotel-almost too early. We do think that the optimum hotel check in time is around 8 and certainly not 6. It was fine though because as soon as we unloaded the van, people through on their bathing suits. Reagan opted not to swim but the others did so they swam as Robby ran back and forth moving our laundry from washer to dryer.

The boys played football for most of their time in the pool. Campbell and Keaton are thinking about trying out for swim team so they worked on their strokes (which they can’t really do!). The boys were finished first, and Robby walked them to the room for their showers. Reagan had her shower while we were swimming.

The littles stayed in until Robby said that it was time to get out. They finished their showers as we worked on supper. Robby did most of the cooking tonight-chicken soft tacos. They were delicious or maybe we were really hungry. Everyone had at least 2. We were starting to wind down around nine tonight. I do think that the kids were a bit tired tonight. It was almost 9:30 when we finally turned out the lights. Tomorrow will be another fun yet chilly day.

May 19, 2019-Great Lakes Day 1

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It didn't take long for Robby to wake up this morning. He knew that today was road trip day, and there were still lots of things to do. I was a bit slower getting up but was still right behind him rushing around trying to get a few more things done.

I had told everyone to make their beds this morning. I do know now that I probably need to work on "making your bed" lessons. Since their beds are all against a wall, they are a bit more difficult to make, but still!

Robby called "2 minutes" this morning when I was on my hands and knees in the car shoving bags into their places. It doesn't matter how prepared you are for a trip, there are always so many things to do. We had originally planned on leaving tomorrow, but who wants to wake up at the crack of dawn.

When Whitman heard that we would be spending the night in a hotel, he was so excited. Robby asked him why, and he replied that he loved sleeping on the floor. Good thing because he always gets a turn to sleep on the floor. 

The children's Sunday school was so neat this morning. We went to different rooms and heard missionaries to different countries speak. It was incredible, and now I want to go to Honduras and Algeria...well, maybe not Algeria, but I might want to learn more about that country from the safety of my home.

After church, Reagan went with all of the other 7th graders to tie dye t-shirts for camp. They also worked on their cheers-who knew you needed cheers for camp? They had lunch, pizza, there and from there Reagan went to church to have supper, pizza again. She had a mission trip meeting tonight. When that was over, she ended up in the sanctuary passing out balls as all of the Upward folks left which is where she met up with us.

Robby had a meeting after church so he stayed there for lunch while the rest of us ate BBQ at Nonna's house. She had her baked beans which are so much better that mine ever are. I have tried but just can't match hers.

The kids and I played a little bit of Trivial Pursuit before we left. When we headed home, I had a pretty good list of things that we needed to do in about 2 hours when I had to leave again. Pops was pretty sure that I wouldn't get a nap in-but I did. Well, kind of. I did lay down and close my eyes for 5 minutes. I didn't really go to sleep though so I am not sure if that counted at all.

After my power rest, Robby and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I think we got everything accomplished-though we did leave a jug of lemonade in the fridge instead of it getting int he ice chest. 

I rushed out the door at 3:30 to take Anderson to his t-shirt tie dye party. It was just a come and make a t-shirt. We were the first ones there and the first ones finished. That worked out perfectly, because as soon as we flew down the road, Robby had the van on and was finishing loading the last few things. 

We then headed to church for the Upward soccer celebration. They had games-Whitman was called up on stage for one of the games. There were about 20 five and six year olds on the stage. They were kind of doing the "telephone game." It was mass chaos but somehow the group that Whitman was in won so he received a 10 dollar Chick Fil A gift card. He was so excited. 

After the soccer thing was over, we found Reagan, went to the restroom, grabbed some ice and hit to road. We made it as far as Nonna's house because I do not plan to drive to Canada with 6 soccer balls in my car at all! Plus we had to 2 tie dye tshirts that Nonna will have to rinse and wash tomorrow. 

Our final stop tonight was Sikeston which is the home of the throwed rolls. The kids will be disappointed that we can't eat there since that restaurant near Branson was one of their favorite places to eat. Tonight we did eat our supper in Brinkley at McDonalds. Well, we did eat on the road after running in to potty again and get our food.

After we ate, we passed out drinks, and then we eventually passed out ipads. We have to make them last as long as we can. Once those babies were passed out, we never heard a peep from the kids again-those magical devices. That was fine because Robby and I rehashed the day along with trying to figure out better packing strategies. 

We arrived at our hotel around 10:40ish. It didn't take long for us to unpack and get to the room. These days we barely need a cart anymore. We still use one, but most everyone can carry their bag plus something else. We were soon in the room in our pjs finding our beds. 

This is one of our smallest rooms tonight, but when Reagan saw it, she said "this isn't too small." So that is a good thing. Everyone is almost asleep right now and Robby and I are not too far behind them.

May 18, 2019

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• Today was our last day of soccer, and we didn't have an 8:30 game so really, could life get any better? The boys were awake this morning, but I did have to wake up Campbell and Keaton. Whitman was up early at Grannymom's house and Reagan was up late at her sleepover.
• The first two games we had this morning was Whitman's and Campbell's. Campbell was super excited that Robby was able to watch her play because most of the games that she has played has been during a time that Robby was coaching another team. 
• Campbell was goalie for most of the time, but for two periods she played on the field. I looked over one time to see Campbell just about knock the goalie down while kicking the ball. A bit later she was able to score which made that girl super excited.
• Whitman really improved this year. Now, he won't probably be playing in the World Cup or anything, but he saw improved this year. Maybe next year will be his year that he really enjoys the game. 
• Keaton's game was the next hour. She did super and scored today. Now, Keaton could have scored about 5 other times except she would miss the goal by inches each time. Robby is her coach, and the boys and I became quite tickled and him and the other coach. Robby would yell "kick it in" and the other coach would yell "kick it out." That just went on and on like that.
• As soon as that game was over, Keaton, Campbell and I zoomed home so they could change clothes. It was Zoey's birthday party, and they were super excited about going. They had a great time, and came home with a bag full of candy.
• I made it back just a few seconds after Anderson scored his first goal of the year. That was a pretty perfect way to end his Upward career. Graham really wanted to score, but he spent some time as goalie and did a pretty great job.
• From there, we headed home for some work-I worked on cleaning out all of the soccer bags and turning one of them into a swim bag. There as also laundry and dishes to do. Robby mowed in high gear until the rain finally came.
• When it became really dark, I ran out to move all of the soccer shoes and that I had airing out in the sun. Then Robby with a little help from me and Anderson put the back seat in the van. We finished right before the rain came down. I let Whitman use his umbrella to play in the crazy hard rain as Robby and I sat in the garage watching it rain.
• Once inside, I helped Reagan make some bracelets. The kids started eating their supper, as Nonna and Pops were over. Their electricity was out so Nonna came over to dry her hair for a little bit-tomorrow is church after all. 
• After the kitchen was finally cleaned, we headed over to the Wilson's house for a little bit. Shannon had made a dessert which we ate on after I had my supper-cheese dip and salsa. We didn't stay too crazy long because there was still lots to do before bed.
• Robby cut some sausage and sliced some cheese. I cut and wrapped two recipes of rice krispy treats. Then the kids put up their laundry before it was finally bedtime. I am pretty exhausted today

May 17, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

• Well, this was the last calm summer day around here. From here on out, after our trip, the days will be filled with running to and from the pool along with our Third Realm visits. I have enjoyed this week so much that maybe we will have to finish school earlier next year. This was actually later than we usually finish school since our May trip is later. Though I am not too sure if we will be able to finish earlier with a few Disney trips on the horizon.
• This morning it was nearly 11 when I was shocked to see Reagan downstairs on the computer. Each day so far, we have had to wake her up at 11 when we do our reading together. I guess she might have been awake because Campbell and Keaton were awake fairly early because they were excited about making muffins for breakfast. I think that the kids have made muffins at least 4 different times this week.
• After lunch, we loaded up for Third Realm. The kids enjoyed jumping and afterwards, we dropped Whitman off at Grannymom's house for the night. He has been a little toot for us the past few days. His new thing is playing with water-if he has a water bottle, then he pours it everywhere. Most of the my carpet in the living room is wet right now because of that stinker.
• The next stop was were Walmart and Sams. We divided and conquered-the boys ran into Sams while the girls ran into Walmart. Reagan found a few more things that she wanted for camp, and after packing Campbell today, I realized that she needed one more pair of shorts for this summer.
• From there, we rushed home so Reagan could pack before heading off to Camryn's birthday party. Also the boys soon jumped back in the car to go to their Friday night basketball. The girls and I took Reagan while Robby stayed out until after basketball was over. 
• Once we came back home, Campbell and Keaton rode to the neighbors house and even though I was sitting outside, I still never heard them or saw them playing so I am not too sure what they were doing.
• Robby and the boys came back with pizza which we pretty much devoured. Then we headed out to work on the van. It takes about 60 feet of cord for Robby to get all of our trip cords/wires and plug ins ready for the trip. While he worked on this, I loaded the things that I had ready.
• By the time that we came in, it was close to 10 and there wasn't much left of the evening. Tomorrow is the last soccer day and the weather looks decent in the morning so that will be fun.