We're Back!

Well, we made it home from our Griswold Family Summer Vacation! We were able to do almost everything we wanted to do, with only a couple of exceptions. We ran into a few problems. Some weren't all that bad, but some were quite disappointing. But all-in-all, it was a fabulous vacation!

I kept a travel journal throughout our vacation, that I'd like to share with you all. I feel like this might be the best way to convey how we spent our time. Hope you all enjoy it!

Travel Journal, Day 1:
37 miles into our trip, Isaac said, "Here you go, Mama." and handed me a booger.

80 miles into our trip, Avery broke both handles on the bag that was supposed to hang on the back of the driver's seat, so that she could have easy access to all of her things for this entire trip.
227 miles into our trip, we crossed into Oklahoma.

232 miles into our trip, we stopped at Pops and saw the World's Largest Bottle of Pop. We made our own 6 pack of soda, which cost $12, but was totally worth it because it was tons of fun to pick from the hundreds of different types of soda that they had available. We even found a brand called Avery's soda...

233 miles into our trip, Avery spilled her Avery's Red Soda on her brand new Hello Kitty shirt.

235 miles into our trip, we stopped at the OK County 66 Museum. Really fun for the kids to see all the quirky exhibits.

235.1 miles into our trip, Isaac has a complete freak-out in the parking lot of the museum because he turned a corner and ran into a Rottweiler 4 times as big as he is. Shortly thereafter, Isaac realized that he is not as much of a Big Boy as he sometimes thinks he is.

336 miles into our trip, we decided to play Car Bingo.

339 miles into our trip, Samuel said he was no longer interested in playing Car Bingo.

340 miles into our trip, Avery said she was no longer interested in playing Car Bingo.

341 miles into our trip, I said that I was happy that no one wanted to play Car Bingo anymore, because now I was going to win it all!

375 miles into our trip, we crossed into Kansas.

402 miles into our trip, we saw a Boy Scout Troop in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, selling fireworks.

535 miles into our trip, Avery asked, "What's that smell?"

535.2 miles into our trip, I explained to the kids what a meat processing/packing plant is.

538 miles into our trip, we stopped in Dodge City and had an old-timey family picture taken.

538.2 miles into our trip, after paying for the picture and getting back into the car on the way to eat dinner, I realized that the backdrop of our family picture is a bar. We have whiskey bottles in our wholesome, old-timey family photo.

539 miles into our trip, we realized that the highly acclaimed restaurant we were told was the best place to eat in town, was really a smoke-filled bar.

542 miles into our trip, we found a Pizza Hut right across the street from our hotel, and thanked God for our GPS system.

543 miles into our trip, we settled into our hotel for the night.

Movies Watched By The Kids, Day 1:
Polar Express
Blue's Big Musical
Meet The Robinsons
Baby Einsteins
Garfield
Kid Songs, I Love Trucks
Kid Songs, Let's Dance
Over The Hedge
Summertime Fun
Charlie Brown

Travel Journal, Day 2:
602 miles into our trip, we saw a dog in the middle of nowhere, chasing a rabbit along the shoulder of the road. There were no houses in sight for miles.

631 miles into our trip, Samuel lost the pen used to play his Nintendo DS.

631.2 miles into our trip, Hector made a point to mention that we'd only been on the road for a short time, and reluctantly pulled the car over so that I could find the pen.

637 miles into our trip, Samuel lost the pen again.

637.2 miles into our trip, Hector announced that he was NOT pulling the car over again, twice in 1 hour, and that Samuel could use his finger as a substitute for the lost pen.

645 miles into our trip, we made an unexpected stop at Prairie Dog Town, to see the World's Largest Prairie Dog Statue. This was tons of fun. All of the kids loved feeding the prairie dogs, especially Isaac. I got some really cute pictures. Avery loved feeding the donkey they had here.

720 miles into our trip, we passed our first cow farm, and everyone in the car held their nose. Squeals of disgust abounded.

733 miles into our trip, we stopped at The World's Largest Easel. It was really big. What else can I say?

764 miles into our trip, we crossed over into Colorado (Yes, Colorado!). And into a different time zone, which we did not realize was going to happen until it happened....

892 miles into our trip, we crossed over into Nebraska.

902 miles into our trip, we got stuck behind a tractor, on a 2 lane road with "No Passing" signs everywhere, even though there were no other cars on the road for miles. The tractor was hauling another tractor behind it.

907 miles into our trip, the tractor turned off the road into a tractor graveyard, and we realized that we were unknowingly part of a tractor's funeral procession.

917 miles into our trip, we passed yet another cow farm (about the 10th), and the squeals of disgust were as loud as the first time we passed one.

949 miles into our trip, Avery kept telling us that she was really enjoying the Sponge Bob movie she was watching, but she was actually watching Garfield. Getting worried that delirium is setting in.

950 miles into our trip, Hector suggested that I give all 3 kids a dose of Benadryl.

1010 miles into our trip, we stopped at Carhenge. Totally cool! Completely worth the stop.

1114 miles into our trip, we crossed into South Dakota. It wasn't too long after that, when we turned a curve in the road, and saw around 40 - 50 buffalo in the middle of the road. It was SO COOL! Of course, we pulled over and took about 80 pictures. Before taking this trip, we thought that we would have to go in search of wildlife. But the wildlife was everywhere, and it was abundant!

1179 miles into our trip, we settled into our cabin.

Movies Watched By The Kids, Day 2:
Little Einsteins
Kid Songs, Let's Dance
Kid Songs, I Love Trucks
Ratatouille
Boz
Stuart Little 3
Planet Heroes
Garfield
Blue's Clues
Shark Tale

So, how did we spend our time in South Dakota? Glad you asked...

Our first full day in South Dakota, it rained, a lot. And when your entire vacation is meant to be spent outdoors, well, rain kind-of puts a damper on things. We waited in the cabin for a few hours hoping it would stop, and finally realized that a little rain never hurt anyone and that the day was wasting away.

We spent the morning riding a lift up to the top of a mountain, where we hiked around and then ate buffalo burgers for lunch on the top of the mountain. It was beautiful! We didn't care at all about the rain. We wanted to slide back down to the bottom of the mountain, but it was closed because of the rain. So, we rode the lift back down the side of the mountain, and had a really great time anyway! The kids really loved this!

At around 4:00 p.m., the rain finally stopped, so we headed out to Mount Rushmore. We had to park pretty far away, but the kids handled it like the little champs they are! We were able to spend a few hours there, looking around and being amazed at how awesome Mount Rushmore is. At around 7:30, we set out our lawn chairs, and ate dinner amongst all the other people waiting to see the fireworks display. Unfortunately, right at around 8:30, a huge storm rolled in, and covered Mount Rushmore with fog... lots and lots of thick fog. I would like to tell you all that the fog went away, and that the 4 mile hike we made up the side of Mount Rushmore (I'm not exaggerating!) to see the fireworks display was all worth it. But I can't... The fog did not clear. We were not able to see the fireworks display. The kids were VERY upset. And truth be told, Hector and I were upset too. But as I looked around to the tour group to my left from Asia, and to the tour group to my right from Europe, and as I remembered the couple I met earlier in the evening from California, and the family from Virginia, I realized that I was not alone in my disappointment. These things happen... Bottom line, we wanted to see Mount Rushmore, and we were all SO thrilled that we did get to see it. We can see fireworks any old time. But seeing Mount Rushmore, well, that's what we really wanted to see. And it truly was as magnificent as I dreamt it would be.

The next day we went to Bear Country. Bear Country is a drive-through wildlife adventure park! Bears, bears, and more bears... everywhere! It was tons of fun and I can't wait to show you all the pictures because the kids had a blast.

After that, we drove into Custer State Park. In all honestly, we were still thinking that our buffalo sighting on the first day was a completely random thing, and that we were probably going to need to go in search for more wildlife. Still, we drove around the park, hoping to see something... anything... Within a couple of minutes (literally), we saw a huge male buffalo in the middle of the road. I took a picture of him because he was bigger than the tiny car he was standing next to. I was a little relieved we were in our Suburban... After we passed the huge buffalo, we rolled down the windows and enjoyed the cool breeze. While driving through the park, we also saw deer, pronghorns, and a herd of wild donkeys with baby donkeys. There were tons of people feeding the donkeys. So, against our better judgement, we went against the many warning signs that said that the animals in the park are wild, and to stay in your car, and we got out to see the donkeys. Needless to say, it was a truly memorable experience... one that I am so happy we did. Wait until you see the pictures!

Later that night, we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial. We stayed until the sun went down, and saw the Legends in Light show. Very, very cool! By the way, if you have someone in your family who is a Cub/Boy Scout, or a Girl Scout, the entire car gets in for free to see Crazy Horse. We saved $46 simply by bringing Samuel's Cub Scout shirt and Avery's Girl Scout Daisy Vest.

By the way, it was really nice that all of these tourist sights have cafes that serve food, but it was at this point in our trip that I wondered how many hot dogs and hamburgers one family of 5 could consume in a 7 day period of time. I don't hate hot dogs and hamburgers, but I don't love them either...

We also spent a day in Wyoming at Devils Tower. I think the kids were a bit tired of being in the car so much, so our time this day was a bit stressed. But, Samuel and Avery went on a scavenger hunt and found various items throughout the park, that earned them Junior Ranger badges and certificates. A park ranger gave the kids their badges and certificates. It was really cute.

We made a point to stop at the World's Largest Rocking Chair in Deadwood, SD. The kids had a lot of fun running up and down the stairs on this. And shortly after we tore the kids away from the rocking chair, we ate dinner at a 50s style burger joint up the road, called Boondocks. Boondocks had a train and a Ferris wheel (which my kids refused to ride, but that's okay...). And there were tons of motorcycles that were really cool to look at. The food was really good too!

Unfortunately, we simply ran out of time, so we didn't see The Badlands. But that was the only thing we had to cross off our list. So, we packed it up and headed for home.

Travel Journal, Trip Home, Day 1:
78 miles into our trip home, we stopped at Wall Drug Store. Saw the Jackalope. Took tons of pictures. Had lots of fun.

162 miles into our trip home, we stopped in Murdo, South Dakota. Murdo had 2 restaurants; 1 only accepted cash, and we were out of cash... the other 1 did not have a non-smoking section. The entire restaurant was a smoking section. But desperate times call for desperate acts. So, we sat down and ate our hot dogs and hamburgers...

300 miles into our trip home, we stopped at The Corn Palace. It was neat, but it wasn't what I expected it to be. I was thinking it was going to be a palace made out of corn, and we'd get to see palace-type things. Instead, we walked in to the Corn Palace, and walked down a long hallway that had pictures on the wall of the outside of the Corn Palace, year after year, so that we could see how it changed over the years. After the long hallway, it had 1 large room that was a gift shop. That was it... the Corn Palace.

511 miles into our trip home, we crossed into Nebraska. Shortly after that, things started turning bad... There were a lot of roads in Nebraska that were either no longer drivable or closed due to construction. The GPS system and the back-up maps I had were pretty useless. I had hoped to make it to Sutton, Nebraska at this leg of the trip home. Sutton, being my maiden name... Unfortunately, because of all of the detours we winded up taking, by the time we passed through Sutton it was already dark and we were a couple of hours behind schedule. That, combined with the fact that we did not realize when we were planning this trip that we'd be going into a different time zone, turned our 10 hour road trip this day into a 13 hour road trip. Needless to say, we did not stop in Sutton, and we winded up getting to our hotel in Hebron, NE, around 11:00 p.m. :-(

712 miles into our trip home, we settled into our hotel, FINALLY!

Movies Watched By The Kids, Trip Home, Day 1:
Kid Songs
Veggie Tales Jonah
Kid Songs
Stuart Little 3
Kid Songs
All About Airplanes and Trains
Kid Songs
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Kid Songs (AGAIN!)
Charlie Brown

Travel Journal, Trip Home, Day 2:
Travel Note... The owners of the Budget Host Motel (pretty much the only place to stay in Hebron, NE) are from Tyler, TX. It really is a small world after all. They were so friendly and gave us ice and bottled water for the trip home. Just a very nice couple...

714 miles into our trip home, we stopped at the World's Largest Porch Swing, since we didn't have time to stop last night on our way into town. It was fun! I only wish we could have stayed and let the kids play at the park that was there. But we had to get on the road.

723 miles into our trip home, we realized that the only restaurant that served breakfast in the area was 23 miles in the other direction. So, we kept on going...

738 miles into our trip home, we crossed over into Kansas.

756 miles into our trip home, we finally got to a McDonald's, only to discover that they had thrown out all of their breakfast food items about 7 minutes earlier. So, we ate hamburgers (again!) at 10:37 in the morning.

808 miles into our trip home, we stopped at The World's Largest Ball of Twine. Had to explain to the kids what twine is. Then had to take a picture of a couple who was there with their kitten.

892 miles into our trip home, we stopped at The Scheme Restaurant in Salina, Kansas... only to discover that the restaurant is only open on the weekends. But the owner was there, and he let us in. The owner's Great Grandmother wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln when she was only 11 years old and he was running for President. She told him in that letter that he looked too young and thin, and that she thought he needed to grow a beard. She also said in the letter that if he did grow a beard, that she would tell all of the men in her family to vote for him. Really neat! But what's even neater is that Lincoln wrote her back!!! He said in the letter that he didn't have a daughter but he had 3 sons, and he gave their ages. He also told her that he'd never thought about growing a beard before, and he wondered whether or not people would think it was strange that he took the advise of an 11 year old girl, but that he appreciated her act of affection towards him. Really, really cool! Unfortunately, my 3 crazy kids did not want to sit still and listen to this guy talk about the letters. They wanted to run all over the empty restaurant as if it were an amusement park. I was very embarrassed, so I thanked him for his time, and for letting us come in even though they were closed. And as we left, I tried to convince Avery to slow down and stop acting so crazy. But she didn't listen to me. And that's when she fell on the sidewalk, scraping both knees, both palms and one of her sides. Bad! So, I got out the First Aid kit, doctored her up, and we got back on the road.

1071 miles into our trip home, we crossed into Oklahoma.

1072 miles into our trip home, Samuel asked what the bad smell was. After I realized we were no longer in Kansas, and I could not blame the smell on a cow farm, I took a whiff of my youngest son and realized it was his diaper. :-(

1073 miles into our trip home, we made an unplanned pit stop to change Mr. Stinky.

1080 miles into our trip home, we made yet another unplanned pit stop for Avery. Her tummy wasn't feeling so good.

1081 miles into our trip home, I felt something crawling up my leg on the inside of my pants. It was one of those clicking beetles. Yeah, it was gross! Yeah, I freaked out a little!

1101 miles into our trip home, we made the difficult decision to not stop in Avery, OK and the Shoe Tree in Stroud, OK. We figured that since we were already so far behind schedule, that it was not worth the 100 extra miles it was going to take us off the main interstate, to go see those 2 things. So, we stayed on I-35 south and kept on going...

1127 miles into our trip home, Avery hit a wall of boredom. She kept yelling at Samuel to stop looking at her. Poor Samuel kept yelling back, "I'm NOT looking at you!".

1170 miles into our trip home, Isaac hit Samuel in the head with his sippy cup.

1213 miles into our trip home, even though it was getting dark, we stopped at The World's Tiniest Chapel in Ardmore, OK. It was in the middle of nowhere, and a bit creepy (dark + middle of nowhere = creepy). But the kids loved getting out and running around.

1254 miles into our trip home, Avery started crying. She said that she missed South Dakota and the cabin, and wanted to go back.

1287 miles into our trip home, Avery finally stopped crying and fell asleep. Isaac fell asleep about a minute later.

1296 miles into our trip home, we crossed over into Texas! Texas, Our Texas!!!

1345.71 miles into our trip home, we arrived home! The 5 Aces did it!!! And even though we love taking vacations, we love sleeping in our own beds, in our own home, even more...

Movies Watched By The Kids, Trip Home, Day 2:
Blue's Clues
Finding Nemo
Alvin and The Chipmunks
Kid Songs
Shark Tale
Kid Songs (AGAIN! Enough already, Avery. Pick a different movie next time!)
Charlie Brown
Baby Songs (AGH! At least she listened and didn't pick Kid Songs again though.)
Stuart Little 3

I took a lot of pictures (356 to be exact), but I'm not going to put them all on here right now. You are very welcome! I will put them on here at some point though, hopefully either later today or tomorrow. So, please check back.

Oh, and we have a few awards we'd like to give out now. The nominees in each category are: The State of Oklahoma, The State of Kansas, The State of Nebraska, The State of South Dakota and The State of Wyoming. And the awards go to...

Brownest State: Oklahoma
Yellowest State: Nebraska
Greenest State: South Dakota
State With The Best Visitor's Welcome Center: Oklahoma (the kids got free coloring books and the adults got free coffee)
State With The Most Tires From Blow-Outs On The Roads: Oklahoma
State With The Most Bugs: Nebraska
Stinkiest State: Kansas
State With The Most Motorcycles: South Dakota
State With The Most Wildlife Sightings: South Dakota
State With The Most Gas Stations Without Pay-At-The-Pump: Nebraska
State With The Most "Cash Only" Gas Stations: Nebraska
State With The Most "Cash Only" Restaurants: Nebraska
State With The Most Closed Roads Due To Road Construction: Nebraska
State With The Most Non-Existent Roads (even though the GPS system said the road was there, it wasn't...): Nebraska
State With The Most Small Towns Without A Single Gas Station or Restaurant: Nebraska
State With The Quirkiest Roadside Stops: Kansas
State With The Longest Stretches Of Road Without A Single Thing To Look At: Nebraska
State That We Got Asked The Most Times By The Kids, "What's That Smell?": Kansas
State That Inspired The Most Oooos and Ahhhs: South Dakota
State We Wish We Could Have Spent Much More Time In: Wyoming (although we wish the same for South Dakota)
Overall Favorite State: South Dakota

In the category of Best Advise Given To Us Before Our Vacation, the nominees are all of you. And the award goes to... My Aunt Joni, who told us to pack jackets, blankets, and pants. A BIG thank you for that advise. It came in very handy, since when we were packing in Texas it was in the upper 90s and we were wearing shorts, tank tops and flip flops. But this was about as hot as it ever got in South Dakota:


And in the category of Most Random Comment, the winner is... The gas station attendant in Nebraska who came outside and told Hector, "We don't have pay-at-the-pump out here yet." even though Hector was not getting gas.

And finally, everyone picked their Favorite Part Of Our Vacation. And the winners are...

Hector's Favorite: Seeing the buffalo in the road.
My Favorite: Mount Rushmore and eating lunch on the mountain (it was a tie).
Samuel's Favorite: Riding the chair lift and playing on the largest rocking chair (it was a tie).
Avery's Favorite: Feeding the donkeys in Custer State Park.
Isaac's Favorite: Based on his reactions to everything we did, we think Isaac would have definitely picked feeding the prairie dogs. You'll see his reaction in the pictures...

And speaking of pictures, they will follow soon!