There and Back Again

on jack's last day of school we picked him up and hit the road.  18 days later we returned home.  we put 5000 miles on our car that, in all honesty, we weren't sure would make it back home with us.  it did after many different repair shops in many different states, and it is now up for sale.

on our tour of the entire north eastern portion of our country and canada we drove through or visited:

colorado (of course)

nebraska

iowa

illinois

indiana

ohio

pennsylvania

new york

vermont

new hampshire

maine

quebec

ontario

michigan

wisconsin

minnesota

south dakota

wyoming

we spent time on the coast of maine, niagara falls, mount rushmore and mackinac island, michigan.

we have two new jars of sand and three new snow globes.

our kids are amazing travelers, and we absolutely do not mind if they just veg out to media.  i mean, let's be real, that's all i want to do. 

when we picked jack up from school we gave him a little trophy we had made just for him.  we are really proud of him, and he was really proud of the trophy.

you can get a trophy made up super inexpensively at your local trophy shop.  jon had verbally "given" jack the "proud of you award" a couple of days before, and i ran down town and had this made up as his first trophy ever in his favorite color.  he keeps it in his bed.

starbucks stops are the best, but they're rare when you're on interstates.  mostly we eat from gas station convenience stores.  hot dogs, ramen noodles, stouffer's mac n' cheese, fresh fruit and yogurt...lots of good stuff.

the cup in my hand morphed from this...

...into this.  the coffee of choice in new england.

we did have a few of these moments.

but mostly we had these.

QUIP O'THE DAY
my family is from new england, and i summered there my whole life.  i only actually lived there for two years though.  my junior and senior years of high school.