Road Trip!

This past week we took our first extended road trip as a family of four. We drove 2200 miles roundtrip to Indiana to see Brian's side of the family. The drive was WONDERFUL! The boys did fantastic, I am so proud of them. We had a great visit with Nan and Pee Pa. Along the way I kept everyone in the loop with were we were at via emailed pictures and videos. It turned out to be a little journal of our journey. Here is the jist of it -

Saturday June 20th 11:58am

Hello from Dallas! No serious meltdowns yet. Though Cole needed a wardrobe change an hour ago after a poop explosion. But fortunately it was timed perfectly with a new rest area (they even had wireless Internet there!). Here is a picture of Cole playing with his favorite toy - his feet. Carter is watching Dora and making me draw all the characters on his Magna Doodle. We should be in OK City around 4. I think we'll swim at Brendons neighborhood pool and get the boys some exercise. Almost time to stop for lunch and stretch our legs some more. More to come as the Sheltons embark on their first big road trip ...

Saturday 3:52pm

Ah - now that's more like it! Both boys slept almost two hours, see attached picture. We had a 40 minute delay in Gainesville (we went three miles in construction) but no meltdowns. What a blessing. We are about 30 miles from Brendons house. Things are going well. Let's hope our 13 hour drive tomorrow is like the 8ish we did today.

Sunday 10:28am
We're in Joplin, MO now. I got up around 5ish and packed the car and took the first shift of driving on this Fathers Day. Guess whose turn it is now. Check attached picture. We should be to St Louis around 2:30 or 3 and we are meeting Erica at Forest Park to stretch our legs. She hasn't seen Cole yet - how fun!The boys are doing wonderful! We stop every 2.5 to 3 hours to feed Cole and hit the bathrooms. We got lucky at the McDonalds here in Joplin - there was an old, but great playground next door. They had a merry go round, swings and an excavator - yep, Carter got to move some sand. So let's hope for more cooperation from the boys - just 543 miles to go!!!

Sunday 3:46pm

We're in St. Louis now. We met Erica at a great park and are now cooling off inside as it is 95 degrees here. Headed out shortly for the last 5 hours into Indy. Yee ha!

Sunday 8:37pm

"You've reached your destination" Those words were finally uttered by Samantha, my GPS unit. We're here. What a trip - the boys deserve huge praises. Now for some fun that doesn't require me to drive anywhere ...

The Drive Home ...

Friday June 26 8:33 am

Its 8:30 local time and we are leaving Carmel. Our plan is to hit Little Rock, AR (about 600ish miles) by dinner and get a hotel. Then we'll do the next 440 tomorrow. That's around 10 hours of driving today (plus stops) and 7.5 plus stops tomorrow. We had a great visit and hope our ride home is as successful as our drive up here. Have fun with us along the way, I'll keep you all posted ...

Friday 9:51am

One state down five more to go. We just hit the Illinois state line and left Indiana.

Friday 1:50pm

Here's a video of us on a see saw at a great rest stop in Southern Illinois. There was indoor bathrooms, playgrounds, a lake and lots of room for running. We're in Missouri now. I realized we won't actually go through Memphis so we have two states left now!

Friday 5:13pm

Pit stop time. We're in West Memphis, AR taking a break. Cole is all smiles. Both boys are doing great. We had some rain in southeast Missouri, but it didn't last long. What was weird was the high number of people that were driving with their flashers on in the rain. Even some were pulled over. Its just rain people - there weren't tornadoes!Brian's turn to drive so you'll get some pictures from me possibly. The one attached is Cole smiling at me. I keep trying to get him to eat, but he wants to "talk" with me instead. We're making good time, we'll probably drive into Texarkana instead of staying in Little Rock. We're about 2 hours from LR and then another 2 to the Texas border. We'll see how the boys do and make a decision when we get there. Off to change the DVD from Dora to Handy Manny ...

Friday 8:24pm

Yeah! We made it to Texas. What an easy trip so far. In fact, we are strongly considering driving the remaining 292 miles back home. The hotels are lack lustre and we have some energy. We'll stop shortly for dinner and gas. Then I suspect the boys will sleep the rest of the way. A McDonalds Cafe Mocha has my name all over it!

Saturday 2:36am

Well almost at least. We're about 5 minutes from home. We had a nice safe drive down. Brian did some great driving the last two hours while I slept. I tried hard to stay awake, but just couldn't. I can't wait to snuggle in my bed ...Good night!

That's our story of our drive. Now to some of the pictures of while we were there ...

Carter playing with his cousin Brady during our stop in Oklahoma

Couple pictures of Carter playing outside. When he wasn't sleeping, he was playing outside. They had a crazy heat wave in Indy, but as a Texas boy he was used to it. He made fast friends with Otis - which I was SO glad about. He had a little bit of a dog phobia recently, but he loved playing fetch with Otis. He also stayed wet most of the week, we brought his splash rocket and they had a baby pool.

And this is what happens when you play outside all day in the heat. You fall asleep in your high chair. Too cute!!

Cute pic of Brian playing with Cole.