Kansas Road Trip

We survived our first road trip as a family of four. Really the ten hour drive to and from Kansas was pretty uneventful in a good way. I whined a bit as sitting in between two car seats in the back of a Prius for ten hours is a bit cozy but it is better than listening to crying. Amelia stayed happy as long as we kept Sesame Street rolling and Juliet entertained herself by sleeping and occasionally smiling. Us girls were in Kansas nine days and Mark joined us for both weekends (and to drive us there and back). It was wonderful to spend so much time with mom as she is well on the road to recovery from her surgery. I'm sure she will be doing a lot of resting this week as she recovers from the constant chaos we brought into her home!

To all who hosted us, thank you! To all who we got to see, we wish we could have seen you more! To all those folks that we didn't get to see this trip, we miss you and don't know how even with nine days we didn't get to see everyone.

All loaded up and ready to head to the lake!

Keegan Vail, Amelia and Elise Cates enjoying food off the grill.

I am surprised Amelia isn't pink and green after all the watermelon she ate in Kansas!

GranAnn was a trooper and was happy to keep Juliet company in the shade while we chased Amelia around.

A "small" picnic in South Park. Between the four mamas there we had nine kiddos to keep our eyes on. The hit of the picnic was clearly the bubbles and LaSala size bag of Fruit Loops Sarah brought. Yes, Sarah brought Fruit Loops for her kid's picnic lunch :)

Only Sarah has the patience to teach these three little girls how to share bubbles.

Eric LaSala helping Amelia and Kendall Krier out.



Mark's idea of a lazy Saturday; a good book, sleeping baby and cold beer.



Amelia and Norah Meyer enjoying a diaper party

We almost got Amelia to smile for the camera......

"EE Merrill" (as Amelia started calling her) and Amelia sunning together.

Swimming makes for a very happy dad and oldest daughter!



Amelia loving being able to spend so much time running around GranAnn's yard.



I really try so hard to get pictures of the girls together. I'm doing a very poor job which is evident in that this is the best picture of the two of them from Kansas. Getting Juliet awake long enough for a picture is hard enough then to get Amelia happy and cooperative while Juliet is awake is nearly impossible.



If Juliet could talk she would have been saying, "Amelia are you STILL awake? We've been in the car for nine hours don't you think you could fall asleep at some point?" while we made our way home.

Amelia decided that, no, she didn't need to sleep on the car ride home. She FINALLY fell asleep when we were about 30 minutes from home. After a week of running around Kansas and being awake nearly all day she was exhausted when we got home. She curled up in a ball and fell asleep in the living room while we unloaded the car.