One Drive Down

Today was the beginning of our trip out West. I'm one of those people who overpack in order to be prepared for anything. We managed to leave the house at 7:30 this morning though which I think is a first, although my original goal had been 6:00 a.m. The girls were excited to see some of their new toys and movies. We stopped at Mammoth Spring around 11:00 and walked around the huge springs of water bubbling up from the ground.





We had brought a cooler and fixed a lunch of ham, turkey, and cheese sandwiches before hitting the road again. When we got into Missouri, the girls got to see the rock formations that line the road. Eliana leaned over and told Emily, "We must be in Little Rock." They liked the Ozark Mountains too. After seeing the view of mountains lined with trees, Emily said, "Wow, it's heavenly!"

Our next stop was at a gas station because Sarah tricked me by saying she needed a diaper change, but she was completely dry. While Andy filled the van up, I took Sarah in the store there for a few minutes to stretch her legs. As soon as I got her back in her carseat though, she started saying she needed a diaper change again. I was able to distract her with some Teddy Grahams and Goldfish.

The last 30 minutes into Kansas City was the hardest because Sarah asked to watch Elmo and I knew she wouldn't have time to watch the entire thing. So I kept giving her animals to look for outside. The problem was that as soon as I said, "Let's look for an elephant." She would give me a second and then say, "There it is!" and point to the same spot out the window. I had hoped she would give me at least a minute of looking so I would have her tell me the animal's sound and then move on to the next animal. By the time we were pulling into Andy's grandparents' house, I was getting a little sick from looking behind me so much and I was running out of animals to look for.

Andy's grandparents had never seen Sarah in person, only in pictures, so it was neat that they got to see her. All of the girls had fun walking around the house looking at everything. Andy's grandma keeps a miniature Christmas tree up all year round which they thought was neat. The only problem was that the house is not made for an 18-month-old to go exploring and we had to keep a constant eye on Sarah to keep her from touching all of the breakable knick-knacks on the tables. That girl can definitely get around! :) Andy's mom met us there since she is taking care of Marvin for the week.



We went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant here, El Maguey. They had a live band playing which Sarah was fascinated by. She got to hold a maraca and loved shaking it while the music was playing. When the song was done, she would clap her hands and say, "YAY!" The band members let her play their harp.



Our next stop was to Andy's dad's house for the night which was only 45 minutes from Andy's grandparents' place. I expected all of the girls to be tired since they really didn't sleep too much on the drive, but they were wound up I guess and had a hard time going to sleep. We are starting out bright and early again tomorrow for South Dakota. I'm hoping our drive tomorrow will go as well as today's did!