Christmas and New Year 2016/17 aka Our Epic and a lot Crazy Road Trip to Ohio!!

Looking back, I'm not sure why we don't have more pictures from this adventure! I think it really must have been a little too crazy for us to handle, let alone document. Either way, it was a great trip and we're totally glad we made it. 

Quick sum up: We left Sherwood Park early hours Friday Dec 23rd and drove all the way to Headingley spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa Cutts. Leaving no time to waste, we woke up Saturday and drove down with the Grandparents (in separate vehicles) to Lino Lake, Minnesota to spend Christmas Eve with the Tom Cutts family. The trip went relatively smooth, barring a little extension at the end. With no data in the states, our next big trip will see us with a GPS before we go! We had a great Christmas Eve meal that Julie prepared, we're utterly shocked when she announced she was pregnant with Peter (excited of course too), and spent a lovely evening with their family, remembering the birth of our Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. Sunday morning we woke up to LOTS of presents! And believe it or not, pretty sure Grandma and Grandpa Cutts' names were on most of them!! We had a delicious and simple breakfast, again, thanks to Julie, and went to church. After we quickly changed to travelling clothes in the church and headed off to Wisconsin Dells and their famous water slides! We had Christmas dinner at IHOP and had to remind ourselves that it was Christmas Day while going down the water slides and around the lazy river. We stayed right till close at 10 pm which is late for three little girls (and their parents), but it was great fun. I think we decided we liked the water slide tradition during the Christmas holidays, just next time we'll drive 30 minutes to the West Edmonton Mall Waterpark instead of 23 hours to the Dells!

Monday morning we spent some time at the indoor amusement park at the Dells. It was definitely intended for younger children, which was great for us. Just before noon we left with the destination of Maineville, Ohio and the James Cutts family home. We did stop for lunch at Culvers - a favorite of mine. We arrived late at James' around 11 pm I think, and were met by James and his family and the Richard Cutts family (children of course in bed). We spent the next three days in Ohio. We had a nice little routine of waking up, going on an outing - the Children's Museum, an indoor playground, the National Museum of the United States Air Force, and then going for lunch (Chic-Filet, Skyline Chili) and then relaxing in the afternoon before eating some more! We got out on a date to see Rogue One at night, went running in no snow and above 10 degrees Celsius, it was a fun and busy couple of days. A big thanks for James and Jamie for hosting and putting up with us all.

Friday we drove back to Lino Lakes. It was a long day without the break up of Wisconsin Dells and terrible traffic around Chicago - but the girls were amazing and we made it all in one piece.

Saturday we relaxed around Tom and Julie. My mom, Julie, and I went for a mani-pedi with a hot stone massage - after a busy week, it was heavenly! Thanks mom. Grandpa, Tom, Chris, Rachel, and Henry drove across the border to Wisconsin to get amazing and illegal  fireworks. We ate Chinese food, set off the fireworks - they really were great and the kids loved the pooping dog! And then had a fab and impromptu dance party on facetime with the Lemons. A great way to end the year.

Sunday, January 1, 2017 we got in the car once again, and drove back to Headingley. And again, we got in the car on Monday, and drove all the way back to Sherwood Park, Alberta. It was exhausting (I won't lie, within an hour of being home I was sick throwing up a week's worth of terrible road trip food) and took many days to recover. Total trip: roughly 60 hours of drive time and over 6200 km (over 3800 miles) in 11 days - honestly, what were we thinking??! Family visited: 2 Grandparents, 6 uncles and aunts, and 8 cousins. Provinces crossed: 3. States driven: 6 Memories made: Too many to count....and mostly good ones ;)

So much for a "quick sum-up". Here's pretty much all the photos we've got.

 Opening jammies from Frosty.

 I can't believe how few photos we have - and by few I mean none from Christmas day. I think I was relying on Grandma...can you send me some?

 Wisconsin Dells.

This fun play center, that actually is a store selling everything you see.

 The National Air Force Museum. I'll be honest, at the time, this was no fun for me. I had a super cranky three year old, plus a one year old in stroller, we all were operating on little sleep and I just wanted out of there. Now looking bad, too bad, it looks super cool and I wish I had seen more. Chris took a zillion picture with his phone because he thought everything was so great (by the way - he had the happy go lucky 6 year old with him...just saying ;).

Well, that's a wrap. Sometimes I dread these large posts, but looking back at them always make me re-live the trip and get all excited and nostalgic about it (minus 60 hours in a car)!