Day 1 - Left home by 8:00am for Grand Island, NE. Arrived at the Holiday Inn for a quick swim before getting dinner at Long John Silvers (we'd never been to one and Darren wanted to try the Lobster Bites - yum!) and visiting some family camping for the night at Mormon Island State Park. After returning to the hotel William and I went to swim while Eliana was supposed to be falling asleep. We had a fun swim, but a tough time convincing the little one that she needed to go to sleep!
Day 2 - Departed Grand Island after a nice brunch in the hotel restaurant. Lunch was cheese and crackers on the road so we could arrive in Breckenridge, CO in plenty of time for dinner. We gained an hour due to mountain time. The Gold King Lodge was beautiful and just the right size to sleep our crew of about 30.
Day 3 - I explored downtown Breckenridge with one group while Darren and the kids stayed back and explored around the lodge with another group. In the evening we celebrated the triplets' (my cousins) graduation from their Denver-area high school!
Our crew of mountain climbers
Day 4 - An amazingly large number out of my family of night owls departed at 6:45am to climb Quandary Peak, one of the top 20 highest peaks in Colorado. The majority returned home with great stories of their ascent above 13,000 feet and only a few brave and/or stubborn climbers continued on. They made it to varying points between 13,000 and 14,000+ feet (Darren figures he made it to about 13,700ft). Only two Coloradans: my brother Adam who led the climb and Audra, one of the recent graduates, toughed it out to the peak (14,265ft). It was snowy, cold and extremely windy up there! The afternoon was understandably filled with naps and hot tubbing, while the night was a celebration of Grandma's 80th birthday!
Day 5 - We started out our morning with a lovely brunch and a baby shower to celebrate the much anticipated next baby in the family. My brother and his wife, who are currently living in Boulder, CO, are expecting a boy in October! After the shower wrapped up, one group went off to ride an old steam train through the mountains. This party was graced with every type of weather God made during their open-air train ride. Our kids stayed in the warm, dry lodge for play and naps, much to William's disappointment. I went with another group to the outlet mall a couple towns over. After returning Darren, William and I hopped in the car for a sunset drive up Boreas Pass while dinner was cooking. Eliana stayed back and played with the aunts seeing as the next day was going to be spent entirely in the car. It certainly saved my heart a few skipped beats to not have her in the car with us. The drive was terrifying and beautiful.
Cute cousins - the Legatts and McKeevers
Day 6 - Off we go again! We didn't even stay long enough for brunch. We headed out to Seward, NE where we planned to spend the night with Darren's sister Dawn, her husband Nathan, and their four little ones ages 4, 2, 1 and 0! We wanted to arrive before too late since were were losing an hour with the time zone change. But we started out with a bit of a setback when we realized we still had some items in our car that were meant for Adam and Jennie and their baby boy. So we took a lovely scenic detour to Boulder where we met up with Adam to do a quick swap. Then we continued on our way. We arrived in Seward at around 8:00pm and Tiernan, the four-year-old was waiting for us. He showed William right to the toys and they played hard for a couple hours before collapsing into sleep.
Day 7 - Our kids slept so well that we didn't get much time to play before heading out for the next day of driving. We would've loved to stay in Nebraska longer, but that wasn't part of the plan for this trip. We were continuing on to Arkansas for a visit with Darren's other sister, Leah, her husband John, and their three kids ages 7, 5 and 3. Our kids were getting to be pros in the car and we made it a quick trip, arriving in time for dinner.
Day 8 - We enjoyed the heat of the Arkansas summer by playing in water in the driveway at the house. The kids loved their picnic lunch in their swimsuits and afterward went right back into the water again. The cousins had a blast together.
Ring around the Rosie
Day 9 - The day started out a little cool for our trip to the big pool, but quickly warmed up when the sun came out. We spent some time in the wading pool, ate lunch, and then headed to the big pool. Eliana was getting crabby and tired, so I brought her back for a nap while the big kids stayed and swam and played.
Day 10 - We visited the flip house which is really looking great. Then the moms and kids weathered a tornado warning at Hobby Lobby, as good a place as any to hang out during a storm until they herd you into the bathrooms and break rooms. Then it starts to get not-so-interesting for five squirmy kids. Thankfully it was over quickly, much more quickly than our southern-style diner lunch. But the food was great and the server was friendly and kind enough to treat us to dessert. None of us were very hungry for dinner that night!
Day 11 - Wow! I thought I said it was a 10-day trip... hmmm... I guess I never counted the return day since we slept in our own beds. But we spent the whole day in the car driving home to MN. We stopped for an hour and a half to visit our friends in Owatonna. They were gracious enough to grill some hotdogs and brats for us since we were passing through around dinnertime. It was great for the kids to run and play in the yard. Their two are about the same age as ours. We wish they still lived in Sauk Rapids because we would get to see them more and we were anxious to get back to our own beds. The kids could feel the excitement as the final leg of our trip came to an end. We were cheering that we would get to sleep in our own beds in our own house which was a sight for travel weary eyes by the end of the day.
As fun as the trip was, as great as the kids were, as hospitable as all our hosts were, and as many times as I said we should live like this all the time, it sure felt nice to walk into our house at the end of the day.