The Trek West

It's never easy to leave when our Georgia visits are through, but the time had come to return to Utah. We are thankful to our wonderful family members for their hospitality -- for housing us and feeding us and providing great experiences and a fantastic Christmas.

After we said our goodbyes, we got on the road. I have to say that after driving across the country about 6 times, on different routes, that the roads in Georgia are by far the best. I am not just being biased because I am from the most beautiful state in the country -- it's just plain fact. Everywhere else we were met with tons of construction, horrible road conditions, barely visible lane lines, etc. One more reason to love the Peach State.



So we got underway on the first of 3 long days of driving. It is really a ridiculous undertaking to make this trip by car, but thankfully we have wonderful kids who were (for the most part) good little travelers. Thank you DVD player, Nintendo DS games, mp3 players, books, coloring pages, snacks, and everything else that kept them occupied.

Joseph started doing this really cute thing: whomever was sitting in the seat next to him would occcasionally feed him some snackage, but he got to the point where he would ask for him by outstretching his adorable little hand.





We drove all the way to St. Louis the first night and stayed in this super-nice Hyatt Regency hotel that we got at a super-good rate on Priceline. It was right on the riverfront, which was fabulous.



The bad thing about it was there was not free parking -- that's how they get ya! That and having to tip all the really helpful staff.

Still, it was a really nice place, and the kids were enthralled with everything. Joseph's crib came with some baby supplies:



This was the view from our window, which I think made it worth it.

All this made the kids very interested in the Gateway Arch, so the next morning we stopped by.

I have to admit that we didn't want to spend the money to go inside; it had been a long and expensive trip and, after all, Christmas just passed. But Bradley wanted to go inside so badly, and we decided we didn't want to become those parents -- the ones who never let their kids do cool stuff and have fun, memorable experiences. So we relented.

This face made it all worth it!

Nathaniel was a little worried in the pod elevator car thingy we rode in to the top. (I was too -- talk about claustrophobia-ville!)

At the top. It was an awesome view.

The van looked like a toy way down there. (Next to the grand Mississippi.)

Chris gives us a wave. (He stayed down with Joseph.)

The westward expansion museum was pretty cool.

We spent so much time goofing off in St. Louis that we didn't even make it out of Missouri before dark. Around 8pm we were passing Independence and decided to stop for a quick stretch at the Visitors' Center there. The kids loved it!

They have this awesome little pioneer-themed play area for kids, and we almost couldn't get them out of there.

Joseph in the tiny rocking chair in the tiny log cabin.

The next day we were driving through Kansas. It looked pretty much like this. (And they wouldn't let me stop at the Wizard of Oz museum again....rats.)

Then it started to look like this:

A storm was blowing up, a whopper! There was dust and tumbleweed everywhere. We had to pull over at a rest stop when a tumbleweed hit the radio antenna Chris had on top of the van and knocked it off.

The wind was so fierce it nearly blew Bradley away.

Collecting tumbleweed -- of course we had to take one home with us.

Finally we saw the first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains in the distance.

And eventually, after what seemed like forever, we were back home in Provo, with this beautiful scenery that I feel so blessed to see every day.

It was a great visit and a long trip back, but we had fun. Seeing the great expanse of this beautiful country we live in is always a positive experience, and being together as a family means anything you do is a million times improved. Good times.