4 Days, 5 kids, 1 Van, 1600 miles

So far we have survived!  We were in Oklahoma Tuesday, stopped in Kansas Wednesday, spent Thursday night in Colorado, and on Friday, we arrived at our (temporary) destination.  Whew!  The kids were awesome, by the way.  I had gotten an awesome audiobook for them to listen to: Gregor the Overlander, and they were enthralled.  After every stop they would get back in the car and start chanting, "Gregor!  Gregor!!"  We finished the first 2 books, but I wanted to save the rest for the drive home when my dad would be able to listen.  So we switched over to Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid.  That has been pretty good listening, and it is really long.  Score!

Since we were driving through Denver, I swung by the Temple. It was a lovely place to take a break from the van.

It took me a bit to realize it was closed because it was the 4th of July!

It was a good thing i got my serenity on before we left Denver, because we spent the next 2 hours in bumper to bumper traffic.  It was dreadful.  Not for the kids, I guess, they were pleased as punch to sit and listen to the story.

The delay added 2 hours to the drive time. I was really glad we had a pool at the hotel. The kids were pinging off the walls when we checked in.

They got their wiggles out in the pool and played and played for over an hour.

Dan is the one who usually takes them to the pool at hotels, and I was ready to go before the kids.  They could have played all night, I think. This was one of the times I especially missed having Dan on the journey.

 We stayed till it was well past dinner time and I was hungry! We had a late dinner and late bedtime.

We drove through a bit of this.  It was exciting to see the mountains, and to have them get closer and closer, till we were driving through them!

 We made it to Utah!  This was the best rest stop ever, by the way.  I loved that they had this sign that we could pose with.  And then.... 

 There was this awesome little mountain to hike up!  The kids were in love and dashed right up. 

Well, except for Delaney, who walked up with me.

On top of the World!

Falling off the world!

Yeah, Joshua thinks he is pretty funny, but this was a good pose.

Its me, on top of the world.  It really was great to get the kids out and hiking a mountain for a bit.  

And off we went, into the hot, brown mountains.  Then we got to Grandma and Grandpa's and I was so happy there will  be no more driving for a week.  I was SO tired.  Hmmmmm... I still am!