Vacation Day 1: The Drive and Martin's Cove

We actually did it! We actually took a family vacation. It was much, much needed.

Recently Aaron's sister Sydni moved to Wyoming near Cheyenne. She called Aaron up a few weeks ago and invited us to go on a trip with them to see Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota over Memorial Day. Aaron and I talked about it, and decided that we'd regret it if we didn't go, and this seemed like our chance. Then Sydni decided not to go, and we thought, "Ah, what the heck, we might as well still go, it'll be an adventure." The timing was good for us, and we already had all our reservations made, and our itinerary planned out. And we couldn't postpone to another weekend, because Lincoln has swim team most all of the summer. So we packed up the car, and away we went. I'm SO glad we did.

We're getting to the point where we almost don't fit in the van. 

The kids thought this part of the road looked like we were going to drive right up into the sky.

The only down side to the trip was that to get there we spent the majority of the time driving through freaking Wyoming. Nothing but prairie and sky for miles and miles and miles. But the kids were great. We only had to stop four times. We listened to book 1 in the Artemis Fowl series, for most of the way, and then once it got dark and the kids got restless, we turned on a movie.

Our only planned stop was at Martin's Cove, it seemed like a good half way point. We met some nice senior couple missionaries who gave us a tour of the buildings, and took the kids on a little handcart trail. It made me really want to let the kids watch the movie 17 Miracles, so they could understand more about what happened at Martin's Cove and why it is important. Maybe one of these Sundays.

Just before we left, the sweet Sister Missionary gave each of our kids a postcard and a fun little yarn and wood necklace as a souvenir. My kids were tickled pink.

We pulled into the KOA about 9:30pm and got the keys to our cabin. We knew we wouldn't have room to bring the tent, and hotels are SUPER expensive (especially considering that most hotels would make us pay for two rooms because there are 7 of us); so after looking around a little bit, Aaron discovered KOA two-room cabins! Genius! They are like a tent, but SO SO SO much better. It's got two sets of bunk beds in one room, and a queen bed in second with room to put up a port-a-crib. And this picture doesn't show it, but there is a door that closes in between the two rooms, so it made bedtime so easy. We put the four older kids to bed, turned off the light and shut the door, and then we could stay up as late as we needed to with Ruby with the lights on in the other room. AND to make it even more wonderful, the cabins were heated. :) I'm totally sold on this cabin thing...we can go anywhere now!

First day of vacation = success!