Day 4: Ludington MI - La Crosse WI

It's 9:50pm local time, 10:50 EST, and we are 10 minutes from our hotel in La Crosse Wisconsin. Danny finally fell asleep about 20 minutes ago after fighting it with hilarious giddiness. We had an absolutely awesome day today. I'll have to do pictures tomorrow from the car. Too sleepy right now.

Today we:
-Took a 4-hour ferry ride across Lake Michigan. It was phenomenal. Perfect weather. Mary napped in my sling. Danny and his cousins watched a movie on the ship in the movie theater. The adults got to relax and enjoy each other's company. Win!!
-Drove to Champion WI to where Jenny's ancestors lived and to the shrine where the first Marian apparition in the United States took place.
-Finally made it to hallowed Lambeau Field, Uncle Joe's favorite place on earth. It was bittersweet being there but not being able to call him on the phone. We got to see, touch and take pictures with an employee's championship ring. So many diamonds!
-Drove south to Appleton for dinner and a few detours. Texas Roadhouse!
-Got Danny and Mary in PJ's and headed out on the 3-hour trek to La Crosse, which included an awesome detour down some long country roads where a deer ran across the street in front of us. Crazy!
-Danny made his first drawing of a person with a face, arms, legs and hair. I was teary.
-Mary seems to have a fever. Sad.

Tomorrow: we pray for good weather in Boston, Chicago, Sioux Falls and Wall. We pick up Betsy in Sioux Falls at 12:30 if all goes smoothly! We camp in Wall tomorrow and Saturday. We hope the rain stays away!!

Time for bed. Well, once we get checked in to the hotel!!

Day 3: Orchard Park, NY to Ludington, MI

Our longest day yet! Out by 9am, made it through the Canadian border crossing without incident. Flew through Canada, reveling in the fact that Mary finally napped in the car, but lamented that I couldn't shout it from the virtual rooftop since we were "international" and our cell phones wouldn't work. And, yes, Canada deserves air quotes.

Once back stateside we stopped at a great park in Port Huron for an impromptu picnic and to let the kids run wild and free (we caravanned with The Framingham Bowmans throughout the day.) After a leisurely lunch we scooted across Michigan, stopping only for gas and a bathroom break, then again briefly when all hell broke loose in the Odyssey and we had a double meltdown that could not be resolved with Meg driving and trying simultaneously to soothe Mary while Jim tried reasoning with an overtired hungry and irrational 4-year-old. Thankfully we had just an hour to go.

A birds-eye view of the ride during a Cheerio break. Thank God for Cheerios.

Day 2: Albany to Buffalo, via Niagara Falls

Roughly 280 miles down, 6 hours or so, and we are enjoying a lovely evening in Orchard Park, NY.  It's 10pm and we're a bit sleepy, so this will be short on wittiness and intrigue.

We left Albany around 11 after a very leisurely morning, drove a few hours before meeting up with Billy and Jenny and the 5 cousins at a rest stop on the Thruway.  We encountered a crazy storm outside of Rochester that prompted me to ask Jim, "Do the windshield wipers go any faster?!"  Danny watched his first feature-length film, the original Toy Story.  There were lots of scary parts.  I'm hoping he has no bad dreams of the boy with the skeleton shirt doing bad things to Biscuit Buddy, Baby or Little Blue Doggy.  Mary made it 5.5 hours without falling asleep.  This is not so much an accomplishment as a statement of desperation and fear of what may be to come.  She finally fell asleep about 10 minutes from our destination.  We had to wake her when we got to Niagara.  Life can be so cruel sometimes, huh?

We made a brief stop at Niagara Falls (the American side), saw the falls, enjoyed the mist, then headed back to the car after Danny's 50th request for some milk.  Our gracious hosts greeted us in Orchard Park with a fantastic evening of swimming in their pool, eating pizza, playing in the great play room and finally falling asleep (Well, the kids first.  We're next.)

Toy Story is SCARY!

The Thruway is thrilling!

Conference call time!

Some good phonics/reading/writing practice, too

Niagara!

Tomorrow we are off to Ludington Michigan on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  Long day, though, so let's hope Mary has realized there will be no escape from that car seat so she might as well fall asleep.

Agenda for 6/28

Good morning, Albany! Special thanks to our niece Christina for telling us about this Albany tribute YouTube video (originally shared by her brother Thomas):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx_3ral3e08&feature=youtube_gdata_player

On today's agenda: 5.25 hour drive to Niagara (the American side), then 45-minute drive south to Orchard Park to stay with some friends and meet up with Billy, Jenny and their 5 kids for dinner and sleep (and a glass of wine.) 

This was a nice leisurely morning that saw us get some exercise, eat breakfast and play. Also, the 7.5 hours of sleep helped. Woohoo!!

And for those playing at home, the answer to yesterday's quiz was c.) Husband. Thankfully, I was driving. 

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Day 1: Home to Albany

We did it!  We successfully packed the car and made it out the door in time to get to a noon mass to pray for safe travels (and children to sleep).  We stopped for lunch (at Panera, of course), then got on the road by 1:45.  145 miles later we pulled into our hotel east of Albany shortly after 4pm and found a Cracker Barrel to eat a great dinner.  Children were asleep before 8, and we won't be far behind.  Hoping for a good night's sleep tonight since tomorrow will be twice as much driving.  On to Buffalo!  But first, some pictures...

Oh, and this will not be the first time I say:  we love the Honda Odyssey.  LOVE.  (And here I was that person who didn't want to be a minivan driver!  It's not a minivan.  It's a swagger wagon (sorry, Toyota.  I'm stealing your line.))

God bless the minivan

I made these nifty little tags to indicate the contents of each bag.  This one is waaaaaay in the back.

I love plastic bins

Did I forget to mention that there would have been NO WAY we'd have left on time if it hadn't been for my dear mother who came to our house to entertain the kids for two hours while we finished packing?  I even got to shower!!  Thanks, Mom!

Made it to Albany.  Eating at Cracker Barrel.  She will slay you with her eyes.

Someone's got her Daddy wrapped around her finger.  I think her shirt actually says something to that effect.

KISSES!

Cuteness abounds

Danny and his baby are hard at work on the coloring front.

Sweet boy enjoyed the first leg of the trip.  Thanks to the DVD player (which I SWORE we didn't need nor did I want.  Don't mind being proved wrong once in a while.)

Playtime!

Daddy: tackled

I hope these pictures don't all take too long to load for y'all (I went to Cracker Barrel.  I can say y'all now.)  Let me know if they do and I will adjust.  Or if they're too small.  I didn't have any photo-editing tools at my disposal for this post, so the baby's little pimple or bug bite above her lip will have to remain.  I hope you enjoy them regardless!

Here's a quick quiz for you.  During our 145-mile drive, who's the only one who fell asleep:
a.) The 9-month-old baby girl
b.) The 4-year-old boy
c.) The 31-year-old father
d.) The 32-year-old mother
e.) None of the above
f.) All of the above  (Look out!!)

The answer will be revealed tomorrow.  Until then!

Last Night @ Home!

It's our last night at home and DJ was nestled in his bed ready in his very patriotic stars and stripes PJs. The car is about 3/4 of the way packed with (hopefully) plenty of room left for those last minute things we decide to bring.

She's so excited

And she just can't hide it!

51 hours from now...

...we should be pulling out of the driveway! So, that means I have 51 hours to finish laundry, pack clothes for 3 weeks for 4 people, put the newspaper on hold, put water globes in my potted plants, bring my potted plants to my neighbors' house (friendly neighbors are the best!), find Danny's wedding outfit, buy a new wedding outfit for Danny when I can't find the one he wore in May, cut Jim and Danny's hair, fill up the car top carrier with all of our camping stuff, move the jumper cables from the WRX to the van, buy Mary's teething tablets at Walgreens, pack all the food for the trip into bins, set ant traps (curse you, ants!), carefully pack our passports and the kids' birth certificates for our Canadian border crossing, print the tickets for our Lake Michigan ferry crossing, pack the first aid kit, toiletries, games, swimming things, cameras, laptops, i-items, DVDs, chargers, diapers, wipes, sling, stroller, sports equipment, energy drinks, cups, bowls, plates, spoons, forks, salt and pepper.

Did we forget anything? Kitchen sink? Billy and Jenny are bringing that. Not to worry.

See? I HAVE started packing!

Almost there!

A Baker's Worst Nightmare

And with that...

...my mixer died. Or at least suffered greatly and now sounds quite ill. If only it did this a month ago, whilst still under warranty. Hope the bread was worth it!

What to Pack?!?

We are less than 7 days away from starting our epic road trip. This weekend it started to really hit home that we are going to be away from our house for three weeks and subsequently have to plan out everything we need in advance. I’m more of a pack for three nights, 4 days kind of person, so I’m guessing this will take a little more forethought. The good news (or bad news) is that I think we’ll have a Target, Wal-Mart, random mega-mart within 50 miles of us for the entire trip. With the exception of potential snow/cold weather in Yellow Stone, I think we will be ready to go with t-shirts and shorts for most of the trip with the exception of the big wedding and various hikes. The bigger question is what to pack for the kids to keep them entertained for the boring parts. We have a bunch of travel games, silly songs, videos/dvds, makers, paper, card games, etc. so I think we’ll be in good shape. Plus, I’m sure they’ll sleep a bunch too, right?

As part of our packing prep we also tried out our super cool tent that connects to the back of our Swagger Wagon. I was really surprised at how easy the tent went together and happy that we could leave MC and DJ hanging out around the tent without incident.

That said, MC literally tried to climb the walls. Oops!

We also think we’ll be ready for any electronic needs. I think everything, but the Wii will be joining us in the car, including a couple of iPads, iPhones, BlackBerry, Laptop, Mi-Fi, Air Card, Camera, Flip Camera and a whole slew of chargers… I sure hope that campsite has a lot of power strips… power strips and extension cords, let’s add that to the list!

Eight Days.

Ok, so I REALLY ought to start packing. My lists have lists. It's daunting. But, I also want to keep baking. I'm baking treats to bring in the car with us. So far, I've made:
-Chocolate Chip Cookies
-Sugar cookies (but they're low fat!)
-Mini Banana Muffins
-Bread (buttermilk, white, cinnamon swirl)
-Granola

I also made a strawberry-rhubarb pie on Friday, but that won't travel so well.

I still plan to make a few more things to take with us. Mama Bowman made her fantastic Nuts and Bolts* for us to take with us - enough for both cars! Thanks, ma! (*Chex Mix for the uninitiated)

My sad realization is that we will have lots of these homebaked treats for the way TO California, but not so much on the way HOME from California. That drive through Kansas and Missouri's looking pretty bleak. Oh well, that's what iPads are for, right?

Road Trip 2011

In approximately 288 hours, we will embark on a cross-country journey (and back!) with our 4-year-old and 9-month-old (and brother and sister-in-law and their 5 kids). We don't think we are as crazy as most seem to think we are. We prefer "brave!", "adventurous!", "bold!", "fun!", etc. Please check back as we prepare for the trip, inevitably forgetting several key items, and ultimately leave on June 27th for Albany, Orchard Park, Ludington, La Crosse, the Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier, Kennewick, Eugene, Napa (Yay, Annie and Paul!), Las Vegas, North Rim, Cortez, Colorado Springs, Independence, Indianapolis, Washington PA, NYC, and home. Three weeks, 27 states, several national parks, a wedding in Napa, a 7th anniversary in Wyoming and lots of potty breaks are sure to make excellent blog material, not to mention memories (well, for most of us; sorry baby!)

T-minus 12 days and counting! Better start packing!