My best friend moved to Utah about 6 years ago. About 4 years ago she started flying me out to visit around spring break. She came out to visit us last February and our kids had the opportunity to get re-acquainted, and then at the end of July she offered me the chance to drive out with all the kids and visit for a few weeks. Tom was starting midnights in a few days, and since the kids didn't go back to school for another 3 weeks, it was going to be kinda loud during the day while he was trying to sleep. It was perfect timing :)
It turned out to be a pretty great trip. My trusty GPS showed us the way and I found a gas app that saved me a bunch of money on fuel. I got to visit with two of my older cousins and their kids who I haven't seen since I was very small, and two of my sisters in law and their kids, as well as my friend and her kids :) We were even there for my friends daughters baptism which was really nice :) Nobody got sick until I got to UT, and the car didn't have any problems until I got home :) The kids had a blast. They did most of the picture taking cuz I was driving, and I think we got some great pics out of it, but I was a slacker and didn't get very many of the family that we were able to visit :( As always, there is no particular order, and since we had 3 kids with cameras clicking away, it's hard to identify which ones were taken when or where....the most interesting part of the trip, in my opinion, was the drive, and as such, all the pictures from the road trip get posted first :D
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| The kids took lots of pictures of windmills...I guess they aren't too common here...we got stuck behind a truck carrying one of the arms, and it took us about 3 hours to figure out what it was...they look way different up close..... |
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| Train! |
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| My GPS took us the 'fast' way out west, so we got to see some different stuff on the way out than we saw on the way back in....such as this small logging operation in WV....very interesting... |
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| My kids love the cemeteries..... |
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| This looks like somebody's Capitol building......maybe WV?? |
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| Way cool smoke.... |
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| Way cool firetruck..... |
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| Way cool car fire :) |
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| This was on a major road in KY, and even with all the rubbernecking drivers I was still doing 60 mph....it's amazing that the kids even had time to get 4 pictures of this event lol! |
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| Pretty good picture of the St. Louis arch |
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| A not-so-great shot of a really cool looking mining operation in WV.... |
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| Road trips provide opportunities for seeing some really pretty sunsets :) |
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| TEMPLE!! Not sure which one....in MO..... |
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| My kids are now in love with Jack In The Box.....especially Jack.....it was my favorite too as a teenager.... |
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| All the curvy sticks in this picture are actually a dead snake...it didn't look dead though, except for the part where it's in pieces....it was mummified by the sun I think....Calvin found it on a parking median at one of the hotels we stopped at..... |
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| Cornfields!! The kids took lots of pictures of these too..... |
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| The only navigation problem I had on this trip was at the intersections of IA, NE, KS, and MO.....the road was closed due to flooding, and everyone who was stuck had to get a little map from the gas station and get directions for the backroads to where they were going..... |
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| Flattened bird at the gas station I stopped at for directions...apparently my kids are fascinated by death......wonder what kind of bird it is? |
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| The kids kept track of all the different license plates we saw, and how many of each....this is the second page..... |
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| Getting out of the flood zone, we got stuck behind these people....for like 100 miles....they kept veering off the road to the right, creating lots of dust which was really hard to drive in....I kept my cool, but the kids were not oblivious to the perils of riding in their wake.....if you blow the picture up, you can see the clouds of dust subsiding..... |
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| Cool rock formation....kinda looks like a house.... |
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| More big rock walls....I love these.... |
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| An interesting sunset... |
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| I don't know why the clouds are so much prettier out west.....I love this picture..... |
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| Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.....the kids took so many pictures of these.... |
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| Cows!! |
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| More beautiful clouds.... |
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| A quarry in UT....I thought the red rock patterns were interesting.... |
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| Another cool rock formation.....with little scrubby bushes :) Kinda looks like you could climb it...until you realize how big it is..... |
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| I liked how you could see the road and the sky forever...... |
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| Another fabulous sunset :) |
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| "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K....." My kids are big Bill and Ted fans..... |
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| My first ever sighting of a Hawaii license plate in IL....still trying to figure out the vanity tag though.....'NDADAC'.... |
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| Lots of rain on the way back, and lots of lightning and thunder....a little scary, but we were rewarded with this rainbow in PA.... |
