Wednesday, April 23, 2014

This is where we've been the last 3 weeks!

Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota


Special friends in Idaho

We got to see Bethany's 89 year old Grandma

Bethany's uncle and aunt in Olympia WA

Stonehenge near Goldendale WA where we visited Bethany's other grandma

A ride in a 1923 Ford at an auto museum

The Redwoods in CA




We got to Laguna Beach just in time for Easter!

An Easter egg hunt at Aunt Audrey's


So far we've spent every morning at the beach!

Yes the water is freezing!


A whale breeching right by our beach! What a treat! We watched the mama and baby gray whale come up right in front of us for about 10 minutes.

2 dolphins right by our beach too

Evan on a boogie board for the first time


Eli did pretty great too!


We have been so encouraged by all our friends that we've seen along the way. What a gift to get to visit so many on this insane cross-country road trip! The boys are doing well and we are trying to enjoy every special moment with loved ones. Thank you for your prayers!

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Day 34

34 days of travel! Phew! Today we drove thru western Montana and into Idaho and it was just beautiful. The scenery took our breath away! We're slowly getting closer to the west coast.

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

The First Few Days of our April Road trip

Truck Museum in Iowa

What an adventure we are on! On Saturday, March 29, we packed up the apartment in Illinois where we've been staying for the past month and we began our journey. Our first destination was only 2 hours away in a small town called Dixon. There is a wonderful church in Dixon that supports us and we enjoyed spending the weekend with them.

After church on Sunday we decided to drive for a few hours to get a bit of a "head start" on our travels. We found a fun place to stop in Iowa - the world's largest truck stop. And across the street was a Trucking Museum which the boys loved!



For this part of our journey we are staying in motels along the way. Once we reach Montana we will have friends to stay with all along the way for the rest of the journey. Don't the boys look so cozy all snug in a bed together?

There is so much to see in South Dakota


We spent Monday night in a small corn town called Mitchell, South Dakota. The boys were thrilled to find that our hotel had an indoor water slide and mini water park.


Even Josh braved the water slide

Going down on a double inner tube


Isaac
 Today we drove another 4 1/2 hours to Mt. Rushmore. After doing home school in the van (not as easy as I'd expected), and stopping at the famous Wall Drug mini town, we arrived at Mt. Rushmore. The boys were thrilled. Sadly, it was a cold 21 degrees and snowing for part of the day but Mt. Rushmore was beautiful nonetheless.

Great memories in the making!


We enjoyed the cool museum that explained how it was built and we watched a 12 minute movie in the theater that showed its construction.


A picture I will treasure!
Every day has definitely been an adventure. We're all realizing how crazy this is to drive for hours every day, not know what we'll eat for our next meal or what bed we'll sleep in next, but it's been fun. Even when we hit challenges I remind myself that these are memories we'll fondly remember as a family.
 

Why does sickness like to hang around so long???

Only a few days after returning from our trip to Kenya, Judah started spiking high fevers. We took him to our clinic here in town for blood ...