Day #10 and #11--days of driving to HOME!

We left Chicago early and started west. No more toll bridges yeah!!!!

And yes I drove...once in awhile.

We saw this sign that said there was an exit called "Roscoe", that is my fathers name, so we took a picture of it :)

And here we enter Nebraska!

Day #11...this is what we did...watch T.V.

Then we were home! It was an amazing trip full of great adventures and loads of fun memories. We even came in slightly under budget...gotta love that! The kids did so well! They got a long with each other, they weren't cranky, they just enjoyed being with their cousins. I am so glad Shelley's family was able to go on this vacation with us. 

Hope you enjoyed our fun journey to Pennsylvania and beyond :)

 

Day #9...CHICAGO!!!!

So many people gave us a hard time about going to Chicago...It's so dirty...People are always getting murdered there...There is nothing fun to do there...It is so expensive there...and the list went on and on. I will just say this, I LOVED IT!!! We really did our homework and got the kids opinions of what to go do and see. I felt like it was one of the best parts of our trip and I would definitely go back. The only rules you should stick to are #1. Take lots of money (it really was expensive) #2. Stay at a hotel that is not right downtown. Ours was 12 miles out side of the city, and it was great #3. Do not stay out after dark #4. Do not walk under the freeway (this one was for you Shelley:)

We went to the Pier on our first full day there. There is so much to do here. The kids posed in front of a bunch of pirate statues with part of the city as the backdrop.

This is a great photo of the pier. We decided to take a ride on the ginormous Ferris wheel. So much fun...but if you are afraid of heights you might want o avoid this attraction.

 Shelley and her family.

 The girls and I were on one side, Shawn and the little two were on the other side. There was Plexiglas on all the sides of the ride...so no worries about falling out :)

This was our view from the top.

 

Then we went on the swings ride.

We ate lunch at the pier and the kids had their first "Chicago hot dog", they weren't that impressed. Then we went to the children's museum. It was huge inside. As my nephew Everett put it "it was like the Salt Lake City Children's museum on Crack".

 After the museum we went to the botanical gardens. The kids thought it was amazing that outside it was so windy and hot...and inside the garden it was humid and slightly cool. They had these neat water fountains that sprayed water from one flower bed to the other.

 Then we went to the "Willis Tower" or as most know it as "The Sears Tower". We took the little tour and then road the elevator 103 stories up to the observation deck.

 They have this glass hangover that you can look out over the city. It has a glass bottom too, so it feels like you are standing in the air and could fall 103 stories at any time.

 It sort of scared the kids...but really it wasn't that bad haha

  I had to do a handstand in the box to prove I wasn't scared :)

 After this we went back to the pier to get our car and decided to walk to the other end of the pier and take a few pictures.

We went back to the hotel, the kids were so wiped out! We ordered true Chicago style pizza...like $95 worth of pizza and the kids hated it! 

Oh well, now we know if we ever go back there, do not order anything that is authentic Chicago styled food. But on a positive note the hotel had a great swimming pool. The kids swam in it the first night we got in, the morning before we went to the pier, the night we came back from the pier and again the next morning before we began our long drive home.The extremely long drive home :(

Day #8

We drove a lot this day.

 And I can't seem to rotate this picture...but Austin was bored...so he put silly putty all over his face!

We drove from Erie, PA to Kirkland, Ohio to visit my Aunt and Uncle on their mission.

 So of course we took a family picture.
We took a tour of the Newel K Whitney store and a few of the other church sites. The kids thought this checker board game was pretty cool because they used corn cobs to create the pieces on the board.

 We toured the temple also while we were there. It was different than what I thought it would be like. It was a testimony builder in so many ways. 

Then we went to lunch and had to say good bye to my brother and his amazing family! It was a sad, hard day. Many tears were shed :(

Then we drove and drove and drove...heading to Chicago.

  I took this picture just outside of Chicago. It was just a beautiful sunset.

Day #7...time is slipping away!

Today we went to church with my brother and his family.

Afterwards he took us on a little tour of Erie, PA. We were able to see the hospital where he works and the pier. Then we went to the peninsula that goes out into Lake Erie. It is 13.2 miles around it.

The kids loved every second of it!

They thought it was like the ocean, because you couldn't see land on the other side. Plus the waves can get up to 7 feet high and it has it's own tide.

The sunset was gorgeous!!!

And of course it just so happened that Saturday was my "long" run day...I was still in training for the Morgan Valley Half marathon. But because of time spent driving I ended up needing to do 10 miles this day. So I ran along the peninsula...it was amazing! They are a lot closer to sea level then we are in Utah, that alone helped shave 2 minutes off of my time. I'd move there just to run faster haha.

So of course I missed out on most of the water fun :(

But truly, who can go to Lake Erie and not get in it? I didn't have my swimsuit so I just dove in with my running clothes on. It was so refreshing after that long run. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

After a fabulous day we went back to Dustin's house and ate more food :) played games and just relaxed. It was a good day!