ROAD TRIP!!!

Where on earth do the Roots have to go??

To the Twin Cities - for cousin Betsy's graduation from Northwestern University.
It was a 5 hour drive and all 4 kids did great!! The baby slept the whole way (besides a stop for a feed/diaper change, etc.) and the kids slept, sang, colored and played the hours away!
We were amazed!!

Kylee posing at the hotel entrance - the sun was bright!!
This was their first time in a hotel and Kaden walked in with arms wide open and declared,
"This is our room! This is AWESOME!"
But even more awesome than the room was the pool, which we quickly made use of!!

Cole, Daddy and Ky

Kaden jumping at the side of the pool.

Colson and a ball in the kiddie pool

The boys waiting for Daddy to come so they could jump into his arms.
(my jumping photos were blurry!)

The boys settling in and unpacking their toys.


It was strange for us to all be in the same room at bedtime. All 3 boys were out pretty quickly, but Kylee had a hard time falling asleep. She was VERY talkative and kept Daddy and me laughing much too late into the night with her questions, comments and antics.

We awoke Saturday morning and were off to a restaurant, then returned to try and get an early nap from the kiddos before the 2pm graduation ceremony. The boys drifted off for a half hour or so, but it was certainly not enough. Even though I was very nervous during the ceremony and kept very busy just trying to keep the kids entertained, they really did pretty well. Of course, the lollipops from Aunt Donna really helped!

This is the only photo that turned out from the ceremony, but I like it. Aunt Donna offered to hold Colson during the song and he was very glad to accept. Too cute!!


Betsy, the graduate, with big sister, Kate

Jim catching up with cousin, Greg (whom Kylee adored!!)


Betsy with proud beau, James


The busy graduate taking time to say hi to the baby. So sweet!!


The boys kept busy splashing around in the fountain.


Kylee doing the same

After the ceremony we went back to our hotel with the family and read stories, ate cookies and played baseball. It was wonderful to catch up with family that we love so much, but get to see so little. Kylee was really taken with Aunt Donna and was amazed at how much she looked like and sounded like her Grammy, Donna's sister. Because Ky loves her Grammy so much, she took to Donna right away! I loved that she, Uncle Jim, cousins Kate, Greg and Betsy all took the time to play with and get to know our kids. It meant so much to us!

Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna treated everyone to a lovely dinner!! Again, a fun time of fellowship and celebrating Betsy's graduation. Here, Uncle Jim is feeding Kaden some dessert!!

The time, of course, felt much too short. Because the kids were quite a bit tired, we chose to have a quiet Sunday morning of rest before checking out of the hotel and heading on our way. Again, it was another amazing 5 hour trip and we sang about 1000 rounds of "Down by the Bay". We did stop just once, and were so excited to find this incredible steam engine and train cars. All the kids were crazy with excitement to play around the train before the final 2 1/2 hour stretch home.

Good-bye for now!!!
Congratulations, Betsy! And thank you for giving us a reason to travel and celebrate with family!