Road TRIP!

George got a couple weeks off work in July and we headed west. We set out on our 2,500+ mile drive from Florida to Utah on Friday July 12th at 9 p.m.  Our plan was to 'tuck' the boys in their carseats and drive through the night. I don't know what happened, but sleep sure wasn't happening! We didn't have a quiet, peaceful car until 4 a.m. Sawyer would fall asleep and then Jack's crying would wake him up, or vice versa. George and I were regretting our late night departure. After that first rough night though, things went fairly smoothly. They were both so tired from staying up all night that they napped through most of the next day so we just kept driving. George and I were hammered but we switched off enough that it was fine. We had a food box behind the driver seat and a toy box behind the passenger seat. We drove pretty much straight through from Florida to Missouri (18 hour drive time took us 21 hours) where we got our only hotel of the trip. The pool and bed were luxurious after being cramped up in a car!

The in-car entertainment staging area. I was anxious about such a long car ride with little ones, I went overboard.

Books, pill containers filled with army men, goldfish, micro machine cars, M&M's, cheerios, and other small trinkets/treasures, magnetic trays and magnets, glow sticks, black card stock and chalk (or white crayon), stuffed animals, helicopter lollipops (that spin and lights up), mini equipment (dump truck, grader, tractor, etc.) and rice for them to 'move' around, a dry erase board, reusable sticker books, and way too much other stuff. Oh yes, and a portable DVD player. We threw in our camping bowls (silicone bowls by guyot designs). They worked awesome for the boys and kind of double as a toy.

Mmmm, Swedish Fish!

I actually think they're gross, but I'm such a good wife I stocked up on them for Georgie :)

How they entertained themselves while we packed the car.

George cut off the bottom of a t-shirt to rig up this head support for Sawyer. 

Doing some construction with his equipment and rice.

Flying high at our first pit stop in TN.

This is the first stop we made in TN at a little cafe. It was perfect because they had this outside area fenced in where we could run around and get our wiggles out while eating a bite of breakfast in between.

Jack checking out real estate in TN.

My friend, Megan, crocheted these birds for the boys before we left on our road trip. The boys love them! They actually sleep with them at night now too. Thanks Megan :)

This was our view for a loooong time. Lots and lots of interstate...

George had me snap this photo so he could use it in teaching his students about weather/clouds.

With the exception of that first night, the boys were champs in the car. Sawyer fared well having just been potty trained a few weeks prior. We made it out to the farm David has been helping start up in Loveland, CO the evening of July 14th, just two days after leaving Florida...not too shabby.

When we left Florida to drive out, there was talk of my sis, Sara, and her family moving from Cedar City up to Idaho, but no firm plans. And my dad had mentioned he was looking at property/houses in Colorado. Neither of them had any firm plans, so we didn't think much of it. But in the two days it took for us to make it to Colorado, Sara and Joe had worked things out to be moved by Aug 7th and my parents had put an offer in on a house in Palisade, CO. Our trip turned in to a big moving fest and we ended up driving more than 4300 miles in the past 6 weeks. Good times! More details to come...  :)