A sweet reunion

More than two weeks ago, we left the RTS Conference in Cincinnati.  We left a lot of new friends, and took great memories and information with us...but we also left behind Jessie!

I think we realized it the next day, but we were so busy with our trip, and Natalie wasn't complaining, that we didn't get around to calling the hotel until we got home.  Natalie has mentioned Jessie a few times, but not in the "Where is she, I need to have her right now!" sense.

So I had a fun time surprising her with her good friend Jessie coming home to her.  Kudos to Lukas as well, staying quiet during the whole video...

One week later...

...we are nearly recovered from our trip.  But in addition to cleaning and putting away in the week since we returned, Tom and I both had a weird flu bug that gave us aches but no fever and Dominik had a rash all over his body with no fever.  Thankfully, we seem to be all recovered now.

You might wonder what the first thing Tom would do, back from a 17-day trip with his family.  If your answer was "build stilts", you know my husband.  We saw these stilts at Conner Prairie, and Tom promised to make a pair when we got home.  Of course, when the stilts came up on the home video, Lukas asked, "When can we make the stilts, Dad?"

Here's Lukas and Konrad trying them out, with Tom's help.  Lukas has gone up to 7 or 8 steps by himself, and Konrad is content to let us lift the stilts while he hangs on...Natalie has shown no interest and I'm happy to leave it that way! 

Stuff they said, Part III

And then there was Lukas. 

If you've read this blog for any length of time, or know us personally, you know we've been blessed with a talker named Lukas.  And Annina was a blessing to us on this trip, not only that she was there to help out with Natalie and the boys, but also that she was another adult for Lukas to talk to (I know it helped that Annina has a younger sister who is close to Lukas' age).

10. The trip started out with Lukas examining every stop light at every exit that we made.  He compared the shapes and sizes and colors of the stop lights with those he knows in California (stop lights were his latest fascination before we left on the trip).  This continued through Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and I think started to lessen after Nebraska and Iowa.  By the middle of the trip, he wasn't mentioning the stop lights nearly as much, and by the end of the trip, not at all (because we were covering old territory?)

9. "Mom, do you have anything for me to do?"  You may remember that we didn't bring a DVD player on this trip, well, except the laptop, which we used to play a DVD twice in the hotel.  What we brought instead was paper, pencils, books, toys, and workbooks for Lukas to use: one about states, one about math and one with a word find.  He also got two hand-held electronic toys:  Simon and Yahtzee.  And we brought LOTS of CDs, which leads to the third thing he said a lot...

8. "Can we listen to Jonathan Park?"  We brought a bunch of kids-on-an-adventure CDs that the kids really enjoyed, especially Lukas.  We also listened to "Bud And Me," a story about 9- and 5-year-old brothers who rode horseback across a good portion of the United States by themselves in the early 1900s.

7. No, Konrad, that isn't a (insert noun).
6. I want a chocolate chip granola bar.
5. Hey, Dad, look at that!
4. Why is that (insert way something is different from the way it is back home)?
3. Can we pray?  Lukas was frightened by the severe thunderstorms we drove through, and always remembered our source of protection.
2. How far are we from our hotel?

And the number one thing that Lukas said on the trip was....
1.  Are we going swimming tonight?

Stuff they said, Part II

Since Natalie sat in the back, back seat with Lukas and Annina, I didn't hear her as much during the driving part of the trip (and she doesn't speak as loudly as Konrad does), so this entry was a little harder to come up with.

But here are the top 10 things Natalie said on this trip:

10.  No!
9.  I want toy.
8.  Hi Miss Annina!
7.  I get out!
6.  Good morning!
5.  This is my good friend Jessie.
4.  Mommy and Daddy!
3.  I want Signing Times.
2.  I go play!

and the number one thing Natalie said on this trip was...


1.  I want snack!

Stuff they said, Part I

I'll start with Konrad, because he repeated things the most on this trip.  I don't know if I'll get to Lukas or Natalie, but in hopes that I do, I inserted the "Part I" thing.

Top 10 things Konrad said on this trip:

10. I see thunder!
9.  We go swimming?
8.  I want my pacy!
7.  I see a tank!
6.  I no want milk, I want apple juice!
5.  I don't like that CD.
4. I see cement mixer!
3.  I see scoop (backhoe)!
2.  I see cherry picker!
and the number one thing Konrad said on this trip was:


1.  I want Beach Boys!

Home sweet home

We made it!

Thank you for all your prayers during our voyage from California to Ohio/Kentucky and back.  We know that it is by God's grace that we made the trip safely and with no illness or injury the entire time.

Note to self, or anyone else making the same trip:  the kid-friendly way to cross southern Nevada in the middle of the summer is to stop at the McDonald's Playland in Mesquite, NV and then at the outlet mall in Jean, NV.  They're about 2 hours apart and give a good opportunity to stretch legs and get refreshment in air conditioned comfort while avoiding casinos.

The entire drive today was 7 hours from Cedar City, UT to our home, but we made it in about 10 hours with stops. 

The first thing Natalie wanted to do was to spin in her swing in the front yard; Konrad wanted to ride his trike; and Lukas wanted to check all the sprinklers in the front yard to see if any had broken in the time we were gone.  Dominik looked around, trying to remember if this was one of the hotels he's stayed in during the last 15% of his life.  We had picked up take-out from Del Taco on the way in and ate it on our front porch so the kids could see their favorite activities (and we could avoid sitting more!)

During the last hour or so of our drive, Tom and I talked about how this trip across the country has impacted us.  We've become much more used to a slower paced life with less traffic and fewer people.  It's shocking to be back in a metropolis after spending 2.5 weeks crossing rural America.

Yes, the clothes are in the washing machine, the kids are in bed (the time zone difference on the way home ensures that!) but stuff is still everywhere all over the place. 

We are so looking forward to sleeping in our own beds tonight!

But first, a shower.

Monday: Grand Junction, CO to Cedar City, UT

We do miss Annina, but it is nice to have just our family again. We thought about some more interesting stops, but we've been spoiled with Annina's extra hands and we are tired so we're making easy stops.  For instance, the Powell River Museum in Green River, UT, was a great place to stop because 1) it's cheap admission, 2) it's not a long distance from the parking lot to the museum, 3) the museum is interesting, and 4) it's a contained area so Natalie can't wander off.

Uh oh, now we're stopping at Fremont Indian State Park.  I guess Tom thought he could pull another Indian stop on us...but it meets the important requirements I listed above.  And that's just the museum...there's a paved walking trail to view the petroglyphs.  That's probably the only petroglyph trail we'll ever be able to take Natalie in a stroller!  Once again, there's a family rate for the entrance fee (also at Green River).  Is this from the Mormon influence of large families?  Do we have a large family?  After seeing families of 6 and 8 kids, I don't think so, but I'm thankful for the family rate!

Another 4-5 hour driving day (not counting stops).  That's a doable distance for our family...more than that means we arrive too late in the day or we're just too tired.  And this from the family that did 12 hours the first day of our trip!  We could do that the first day, but not near the end.

We arrived in Cedar City so "early" that we decided to find a playground for the kids to burn off some steam before dinner.  After about 10 minutes of searching, we found Park Discovery, an awesome park that had every child's favorite playground equipment, all in one place.  But it was hot and dry and we probably stayed 15 minutes too long, because the kids were parched when we left for dinner.  We intended to try a Mexican restaurant we'd seen advertised on billboards, Costa Vida.  But when we drove up, it looked more like a fast food restaurant, so we looked some more (we've been trying to have nicer dinners since we're getting free breakfast and homemade sandwiches for lunch).  Just as we were about to go to another Mexican restaurant, I saw a Thai restaurant!  Tom swerved to get in the parking lot, and we were in the restaurant within a few minutes.

But after waiting five minutes with no water glass service, and no eye contact from the one waitress serving the full restaurant, we left.  Yes, we're from California and we've both been waiters, so we don't have much patience for slow service, especially when our kids are thirsty and hungry.  We were about to go to the Applebee's next door, when I saw the Costa Vida again across the street...we were desperate to have quicker service at this point, so we went there.  It was great!  The food was bland compared to California Mexican food, but with a little hot sauce on top, it tasted authentic.

And instead of ending our day with a swim (which requires both of us to be in the pool, and then bathe and dress three kids), we put Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the laptop and the kids were satisfied while we relaxed in our hotel room.  In honor of our last night on the road, we were blessed with the nicest hotel room so far: right next to the elevator, 2 queen beds in the largest suite we've had.

California, here we come...right back where we started from!

Sunday: Eastern Colorado to Grand Junction, CO

What a blessing to stay with Carl and Esther another night!  We are always so encouraged by them!  But we were sad to say good-bye, and to leave without Annina and her wonderful smile and help.  Natalie cried in the van as she realized we were telling the truth when we said we would be saying good-bye to Annina:  she finally realized Annina wasn't getting in the van and sitting next to her.

We had planned to attend church and/or ride the Georgetown Railroad in Georgetown, CO...but decided instead to do neither and have an easy 4.5 hour (which stretches into 6 hours) drive to Grand Junction, which would ease our travels the next two days.  We are taking three days to travel the 1000 miles we traveled in two days at the beginning of our trip.  I would love to drive straight through and just SLEEP IN MY OWN BED, but it's a much better idea to take it slow and steady and keep everyone sane and happy.

We stopped in Vail again to play at the playground (we saw a different one from the highway that we visited this time...Lukas announced that he liked the playground on the west side of Vail better than the one on the east side).  Then we had dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ in Grand Juntion (some of the best food all trip!) and hit the swimming pool before the kids collapsed into bed. We're all looking forward to being in the same time zone for an extended period, having regular naps, and just having an overall normal schedule again.

Two more days!

Saturday: Abilene, KS to Eastern Colorado

Friday night, Tom and I talked about our travels on Saturday:  here we were in Abilene, KS, the birthplace of Dwight Eisenhower, and we didn't have time to visit his presidential library.  We were close to deciding to visit the library for an hour and leave town by 10 a.m., then decided it would only be of interest to the adults, and we'd be better off leaving by 8 a.m. to arrive at Annina's home at an earlier hour.

Our mid-morning "get the wiggles out/feed Dominik" stop coincided with Fort Hays. (I got confused and had this on the previous day, but have now corrected it!) We posed with the bison across the street, then walked around some of the old buildings still standing from the fort.

We saw a lot of funny signs that will be featured in a future blog post of the trip, and we also saw this huge harvester being transported...Konrad was very excited about it.

We were happy to arrive by 4 p.m. at Annina's home so we could settle down, Annina could catch up with her family, and the kids could burn off some more energy.  And our arrival didn't come any too soon:  Dominik was in full melt down (he wanted to eat), and Konrad and Natalie weren't far behind.  But as soon as we got out of the van, all was better.  Lukas and Katrina had a great time running in the sprinklers and playing with the pool toys we brought:  fill with water and squirt!  Natalie and Konrad had a fun time making mud pies...then Lukas and Katrina got into the action and Lukas ended up the dirtiest one of all.

And Carl and Esther honored us by including us in their celebration of the Swiss National Day.  They had delicious bratwurst, corn on the cob, grilled tomatoes and bread and beer.  What a fun celebration!

Friday: St. Louis to Abilene, KS

Driving out of St. Louis we first drove by the train station for the benefit of Konrad.  Last night we had thought we would go to a restaurant at the train station, but decided instead to go to a restaurant that was supposed to be like a fire station.  We had higher expectations of what the experience would be like (it was just a restaurant with fire station decor and waitresses in fireman shirts) but the food was good.  Anyway, Konrad was disappointed we went to the "fire station" instead of the train station, and he still remembered it the next morning.

Konrad:  Where we going, Mom?
Me:  We're going to Kansas.
Konrad:  I no want go to Kansas, I want go to train station!

So we said hello and good-bye to the train station as we drove by and that barely satisfied him (when we also distracted him by pointing out a crane).

BTW, traveling for 2 weeks with small kids means naps are not consistent (and a lot of other things aren't consistent), so there are more fits over not getting their way than normal.  I am gearing up for training when we get back home!

We found a unique sink at a rest stop in Missouri:  you put your hands in and got soap, then water, then dryer without moving your hands!

Independence, Missouri.  We found a mall that had a huge indoor playground, so we stayed longer than we'd planned, but it was worth it for the kids.  And it meant that we weren't in Abilene by dinner time, so we stopped 30 miles short, hoping to find a steak house.  After all, we are in Kansas!  But this route has no steak houses that we could find.  We settled for "Sirloin Stockade" that was actually a buffet. It wasn't until we had disappointedly settled for lots of fried and canned food on the buffet that we saw that there was prime rib and steak back in a corner that we could have had!

Is Missouri called the Show-Me State because of its thousands of roadside billboards?  Our impression of  Kansas:  sunflowers, and if you are from Kansas and become famous for something, they will put "Hometown of Cindy from The Happy Ones" on a sign outside the town.  Too bad I'm not from Kansas...oh, not famous, either!


We are determined to leave tomorrow morning early enough to reach Annina's home by a decent hour tomorrow night.  There's a special celebration planned!  Hint:  Annina's mom is Swiss.

Wednesday and Thursday: Louisville to St. Louis

Wednesday we drove to St. Louis.  But on the way we had the pleasure of visiting Tom's mom's hometown of New Athens, Illinois.  We went to the house where she was born and grew up, and even met the young lady who grew up there...her grandparents bought the house from Tom's grandparents.  It was fun to see the small town and imagine that it was probably about the same size when Mom lived there, but there are a few new features like a new school and a few new businesses.

We enjoyed crossing the Mississippi River and seeing The Arch and the beautiful skyline.  St. Louis has many beautiful areas, but we were also shocked by the many abandoned buildings that have been sitting burned out for many years.  I know there are areas like that in LA, but it seemed there were so many more here. 

Tom had chosen a hotel near the River that gave us easy access to many fun things to see and do.  Wednesday night we had a great pasta dinner in the Italian District called The Hill.  Then I did laundry... sorting it back into the bags would happen the second night in St. Louis.

Thursday morning we were planning to go up The Arch.  Myssie had suggested we buy tickets in advance, and Tom had reserved ours for 9:10 a.m.  But we didn't leave our hotel with enough time to get there, so Tom dropped me off near The Arch so I could run and get the tickets while he parked.  Thankfully I was able to get our reservation moved to 9:20 a.m....but where were the lines?  There was no one in line, so I was beginning to think we didn't need advance reservations to save time.  However, after we came down from The Arch, a little after 10 a.m., the place was packed and there were very long lines.  Thanks for the tip, Myssie!  As we left the parking lot for The Arch, we drove right next to the Mississippi River, which was actually up over the street that we were driving on!

After The Arch we drove to Cahokia Mounds, an archaeological site of ancient Indians (inhabited 1000 years ago).  You need to know that Tom is very interested in ancient Indian sites:  our last major vacation in 2002 (before kids) we visited many Indian sites in the Southwest U.S. (Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and at least three others that I've forgotten the name of).  I had had ENOUGH Indian sites for a while...so Tom kept it simple this trip with just one Indian site visit, at Cahokia.  It was quite impressive, and the museum is very interesting and well done.  But the climb up the largest mound would be too much for Natalie, so I stayed in the van with Natalie and Dominik and we jammed to Signing Time CDs.  Tom, Annina, Lukas and Konrad climbed to the top of the mound and enjoyed the view.

But wait, there's more!  Since it was hot, we decided to not go to Grant's Farm (also, too similar to Conner Prairie that we had already seen) or the Mississippi River Locks at Alton.  Instead, we went on a (free) tour of the Budweiser Brewery.  There was lots of air conditioning, a very interesting tour of a brewery and bottling plant (the kids loved it!), the architecture was beautiful...and there was free beer at the end.  Mind you, Tom and I are beer snobs so we don't drink Bud, but we enjoyed the more refined flavors of their American Ale and Amber Bock.

It was nice to spend two nights in the same hotel, the last time we'll do it on this trip. :(  Now we're heading home as fast as we can without killing ourselves or our children (only 4-7 hours of driving each day).

Tuesday: Bowling Green to Louisville

We started with an early morning (packed and in the car by 7:30) so we could make our 9 a.m. tour at Mammoth Cave, the largest cave network in the world.  We took a 3/4 mile tour, which included 240 stainless steel steps down to the bottom.  Here's a visit that would have been impossible without Annina along: Natalie's not that good on steps and Annina ended up carrying her most of the way.  Natalie walked about 10% of the trek (the flat parts) and Tom carried her some too.  Another wrinkle we weren't expecting was that Konrad had a meltdown in the bus on the way to the cave tour, and then was less than cooperative for the first half of the tour (wouldn't listen to Tom, but would only walk with Tom).  He was tired and thirsty and we couldn't give him what he wanted right away, so we kept saying, "soon!" and he finally came around.

The caves were beautiful and large, but not spectacular with stalagtites and stalagmites...there's one large formation, the Frozen Niagara, which is a curtain formation.

After we came out of the cave, I put an eye patch back on because I could feel irritation coming on again.  :(  I was glad to make it through the cave because it would have been hard to safely navigate the cave with one eye.

Then we were off to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.  On the way there, we drove through a huge thunder and lightning storm with very heavy rain.  Tom got another thunder storm!  We also saw a sign that said "used cows."  I couldn't get a photo of the sign...but what does "used cows" mean?  Inquiring minds want to know.  BTW, I'm planning a special blog post on all the funny pictures we took..."used cows" would have made the post if I had taken the picture.

Lincoln's birthplace was nothing spectacular to look at, but more than we expected and still a momentous place to be.  And we needed something easy to do after the cave tour...and I needed a place to feed Dominik.  The quote of the day came from Tom:  "my son has suckled at the same place that Abraham Lincoln suckled!"

Then it was off to the Patton Museum near Fort Knox.  More thunder, lightning and pouring rain, with heavy rain timed for our arrival.  We paused to let the rain die down, and as we were changing a diaper, it did stop raining.  Then just as we were ready to go from the van to the entrance, it started pouring again.  But we were there, so we put jackets on and used our umbrellas and made it inside...quite wet, but it's very warm until you go inside with air conditioning.  The dark spots on our clothing IS RAIN!  The kids and Tom had a great time looking at the tanks.  I was along for the ride and I think Annina was as well...we find a lot of things interesting, but would never go there if it weren't for Tom's interest, and his knowing the kids will love it.  And admission is free, so how can you go wrong?

Hotel in Louisville, ordered pizza in (didn't find anything interesting on the way to the hotel) and went swimming.  We've been in so many hotels now that they're all running together.  We are ready to be home, but home is one week away!  I am amazed that the kids have really gotten used to going to bed in a different place almost every night:  at first it was too exciting for them to settle down and go to sleep, but they're finally used to it and cooperating very well.

Monday, Lexington to Bowling Green

Monday morning when I woke up, my eye felt better, then started to feel worse and worse.  When Lukas and I came back up to the room after breakfast, I told Tom I needed to see a doctor (after he experienced a comedy of events that hopefully he will blog about).  Tom called our insurance company and found an ER close by.  We left Annina with the kids in the hotel room and Tom, Dominik and I went to the hospital.  The ER at 9 am is not that busy in Lexington!  I was seen right away and they determined I had a large scratch on my cornea.  So I spent the rest of the day with a patch on my eye and antibiotics in my eye.  I have never spent the whole day with an eye patch...already wearing glasses instead of contacts I feel handicapped, and to wear glasses and only have the use of one eye in an unfamiliar environment was very uncomfortable.    When we finally got on the road about 11:30 a.m. and went to Old Ford Harrod State Park, I realized my problem with depth perception.  I tried to touch something in front of me and had to move my hand several times to find it.  Thankfully I didn't fall the whole day, but I did take it easy with watching the kids since I had to be more careful. Annina has been so helpful the whole trip, but today I don't think we could have gone to any sites without her and still kept our sanity...and going to the ER with all the kids would have been a nightmare.



Can I just say that Kentucky is beautiful?  We loved seeing the horse farms and beautiful black barns and black horse fences with well-kept lawns and grounds...Kentuckians are mowing a lot!

For lunch we got Lee's Chicken and had a picnic lunch at the Fort.  I was surprised that Tom agreed to stop at Lee's because we never go to KFC.  But he said although he doesn't like "Kentucky Fried Chicken," we're in Kentucky, so let's try the fried chicken!  Boy, was that a terrific meal!  The chicken was wonderful, the biscuits were from scratch (unlike the national chain) and the beans and coleslaw were great too!  And they gave us a jug of sweet tea.

But the adventure of my eye caused us to shorten our tourist plans for the day.  We had to skip going to Maker's Mark factory and Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace and went to the Perryville Battlefield (Civil War) instead.

When we arrived in Bowling Green, there was some sort of car show/car race staying at our hotel...must find out more tomorrow, but it made for a cute pic with the kids.

Friday to Sunday, Indianapolis to Cincinnati

The easiest drive of our trip so far: only about two hours from Indianapolis to Cincinnati.  We arrived too early to check in, so we drove around Cincinnati.  Somehow Tom has a nose to find the drug-infested parts of town--on accident, of course!  We made it out alive and called the hotel to see if we could check in early since we couldn't easily kill another three hours.  They were so nice to let us check in early.

We were here!  We had made it to the RTS Family Conference!  When we arrived Tom and I looked at each other and marveled that we had made it after all these months of planning.  It had seemed daunting when we first discussed a roadtrip, but now that we had made it to Cincinnati, we could enjoy the conference and then the roadtrip home.  It was very exciting for us to check in and immediately see families that had kids with RTS.  There were so many people!  And it was so wonderful to meet RTS blogger moms that I know so well but have never met: Brandi, Gena, Tena, Terri, Kelly, Jessica and Jessica, Michelle, Kristi, Myssie.  And it was beautiful to meet your kids too!

The meetings were really helpful:  Tom and I split up for several of them so we could go to more sessions and get more info.  It will take a while for us to digest all the information we got, but the most helpful sessions I attended were on teaching life skills and another on financial planning for the future.  Natalie had fun meeting other RTS kids, and Lukas is starting to understand better how there are other kids like Natalie.  Konrad was a constant "hi!" machine, and drooling Dominik had everyone else drooling over how cute he looked.  It was so enjoyable interacting with both RTS children and adults, and we hope to encourage West Coast RTS families to start organizing reunions.  We live near Disneyland...should we have a reunion here or in Northern CA to make it more central on the West Coast?  Someone chime in and plan it and we'll come!

After the conference ended on Sunday, we went to the Creation Museum for the afternoon.  It was great to see Michelle and Ben, and Austin and Andrew there too.  I hadn't gotten a picture of Natalie and Austin together at the conference, so when Natalie woke up, we got a stroller picture of her with Austin.  Then we drove to Lexington, where we spent the night. I couldn't wait to get to the hotel so I could take my contacts out:  my left eye hurt terribly.  But that is another story for tomorrow!