This year we decided to give our boys a choice. They could either each have a friend birthday party or we could take them to Legoland in Chicago. Each thought about it for a few days and they decided they each would rather travel to Chicago and spend a day at Legoland instead of a friends birthday party. We went on-line and found out that the weekend of June 24 -25 they were having Star Wars Lego Weekend. The boys would love Star Wars Weekend! So we decided to travel to Chicago that weekend so they be there for the Star Wars Weekend at Legoland. How exciting! Also, growing up we went to Chicago often because my mom grew up there. I have very fond memories of going to the Science and Industry Museum as a kid. I want my kids to have those same memories. So we decided to take a day and go to the Science and Industry Museum as well as the Lego Land. Then since we are very close to Iowa we can work visiting Heather's parents in line with this trip to Chicago.
We planned to leave early Thursday morning and make the day out of driving to Chicago, take Friday at the Science and Industry Museum, Saturday Legoland, Saturday evening - Drive to Davenport, IA, Sunday through Tuesday we'll hang out in Iowa and then take Wednesday and head back to Murfreesboro.
Wednesday afternoon I left work a bit early so we could make sure everything is ready for our trip to Chicago and Iowa. First thing was to have the van serviced to make sure it is ready for this road trip. We were going to leave early on Thursday so I wanted to make sure we were ready to go. Packed the car, put gas in the van and got things ready to go.
Thursday morning we were up early. The alarm clock went off at 5:15 in the morning to shower up and get ready to go. At 6 we got the kids up and put them in the van we were hoping they would stay asleep but they didn't. The plan was to drive up to Columbus, IN stop at KFC in Columbus and then drive 6 miles up the interstate to the rest area. Our timing was good. We arrived in Columbus got a bucket of chicken and heading to the rest area.
We found a picnic table and enjoyed a great lunch. After lunch we just ran around and threw frisbees to each other to let some steam off. Michael and Josh really are really learning to throw a frisbee well.
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| I AM REALLY GETTING GOOD AT THIS FRISBEE THING |
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| LOOK AT THAT FORM! |
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| CUTIE AT THE PICNIC |
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| PICNIC TIME |
Very impressed.
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| KAYLA SLEEPING ON THE WAY TO CHICAGO. SHE WAS PLAYING AND FEEL ASLEEP. |
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| ARE WE ALMOST THERE? THIS IS A LONG DRIVE! |
Our kids love watching new movies. We were taking advantage of the Red Box movies all the up to Chicago. Red Box is great, but their choices are very limited. By the time we arrived in Chicago we had already watched all the movies that were approprite for our kids.
Arriving in Chicago around 5:00 I was expecting the traffic to be pretty bad given it was rush hour, but to my surprise the traffic continually was on the other side of the interstate. We were going against the traffic the whole way up. We had planned to stop at one of the Oasis stops on the Illinois Tollroad and eat dinner.
The main reason we were planning to eat at the Oasis was becuase the rest area is over the interstate. They had McDonalds, Panda Express and a few other restraunts. The kids, of course, wanted McDonalds. Heather and I both choose Panda Express.
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| EATING OVER THE INTERSTATE IN CHICAGO |
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| THIS IS SO MUCH FUN. LOOK AT THOSE TRUCKS AND CARS UNDERNEATH US. |
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| THOSE MOST EXCITING PART OF THE DAY. THE TOY FROM MCDONALDS. |
I was surprised that Heather choose Panda Express given she doesn't care too much for Chinesse food. I was just glad I didn't have to eat McDonalds. Just not a big fan.
We found a great seat over the interstate watching the cars and trucks go under. Don't think I have ever eaten over the interstate like that.
After dinner we headed up to our hotel. We were staying at the Embassy Suites in Schaumburg, IL, a supurb out of Chicago. I decided to surprise the kids and stop by Legoland and see if I can get the tickets for Saturday so we didn't have to wait too long on Saturday. We had some coupons in which we couldn't use to purchase tickets on-line we had to purchase the tickets at Legoland.
We found it and parked. The boys could hardly keep the excitment down. We had traveled all this way for Legoland and we had arrived. I waited in line for about 15 minutes to purchase the tickets. Once I got up to the front they let me know that they couldn't sale tickets for another day. He recommended getting there early on Saturday to get a good spot in line. I anticipated that it will be crowded on Saturday given it was a weekend and it was the Star Wars weekend. They had a large lego store with Batman Lego Video game set up. The boys played the video game for quite a while while we looked around.
Time to head to the hotel.
We arrived at the hotel, checked in and carried our luggage up to the room. When we arrived at the room and as I had requested on the reservations they had candy land on the table and the radio was turned to opra music. Kind of funny. When I was checking in on-line they asked if we would like monoply or candy land on the table.
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| CAN'T BELIEVE THEY LEFT CANDY LAND IN OUR ROOM. |
Also, it asked what type of music we wanted on when we arrived in the room. I selected opra music just to see if they would put it on. They did.
Michael and I brought up all the luggage up. The hotel wouldn't allow us to have a cart; they said that only the bellman could use the carts. I didn't want to use a bellman and pay the tip when Michael and I could carry everything up. it is nice for Michael to be old enough to help. Josh and Kayla were not old enough to help. My thought is that carry luggage up is what the guys do for the girls. I guess I am just old fashion on that front. When we were carrying the luggage up I was quick to notice that they had popcorn for everyone from an old timey popcorn machine. Great popcorn. We got some popcorn for the whole crew. That was Michael's idea.
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| NICE TO HAVE A SUITE |
After all the luggage was up. Heather wanted to go to the treadmill for some walking. I put the kids to bed. We decided after Disney we decided that we would stay in suites with the kids now. It might be a a little more expensive, but this way Heather and I don't have to go to bed when the kids hits the sack. We decided that Josh would start off in the living room area and Josh and Kayla would start in separate beds. Then we would shift them when they go to bed.
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| BREAKFAST TIME |
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| I LIKE ORANGE JUICE IN THE MORNING |
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| DOUGHNUTS! |
Friday is the day for the Science and Industry Museum. I haven't been here since I was about Michael's age. Another nice thing about the Embassy Suites is they have a hot breakfast. Love a large omelett in the morning with everything on it.
After breakfast we hit the road. We had about an hour drive to the Museum. We decided to go ahead and drive since mapquest had put the trains to take around 2+ hours. That is a long time to sit on a train with 3 young kids. We didn't hit too much traffic until we got close to downtown Chicago. We wanted to get there when it opened but we were just about 30 minutes late. We parked down stairs and then off to the Museum.
First stop the Silver Streak. It was an electronic train from the past.
Good thing I had purchased tickets on-line the line for tickets was getting long.
Headed up tall esculator to the entrance. Once we arrived and walked in it brought back some memories. I actually hasn't changed too much.
First thing we wanted to do was to the coal mine because I had read that the line can get long for the coal tour. We were one of the first in-line. I remember the coal tour/ride. I remember it being more of a ride. It was a lot less than what I remembered, but it was still interesting.
Next event, heading down to the Farm Tech area. There were things to read and figure out. Devices to see how the things work and the reason. The kids weren't old enough for all of that. It was fun to push the buttons and see what happens.
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| HOW FAST CAN JOSH HOOK THE COW UP TO THE MILKING MACHINE? |
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| TIME TO GET SOME MILK |
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| SITTING ON A COW |
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| LOOK AT THE DETAIL. |
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DRIVING THE TRACTOR. LOOK AT THE AIR CONDITIIONING, THE RADIO AND CD PLAYER.
After the Farm Tech area we checked out the fairy castle. The detail was very interesting. You could listen to someon on a phone tell you about all the detail in the castle for the section that you were looking at.
Now it was time to head over to the Submarine. They had a real submarine from the World War II time. It was a German submarine that was captured during the war. It was housed in the lower level of the museum. I actually was looking forward to this. One of my favorite movies is U-571 when they capture the de-coder from a German submarine. On our way to the submarine we passed by the Idea Factory. The Idea Factory was for young kids. They had all kinds of things that the kids really enjoyed. We stayed for a little while and planned on coming back later in the day.
On our way over to the submarine we passed by a white screen with little little dots coming down. The dots stopped where you stood in front of the screen.
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We arrived at the submarine. I could have spent all day at the exhibit from all the things you could see, but the kids really didn't show too much excitment over the real life submarine.
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| SUBMARINE IN THE BACKGROUND. |
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| WHAT IS IT LIKE IN A SUBMARINE? |
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| WHAT DO YOU SEE JOSH? |
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KAYLA CAN DO IT TOO.
After the Submarine it was time for lunch. We headed over the Brain Cafe. There were lots of choices. It ended costing a fortune to eat there. I knew it would, but it didn't help that I got the kids some huge deserts. Unfortataely, they did not finish their deserts. We were all starting to get tired.
Michael and Josh had been looking forward to the model train for months. I had told them how when I was little that was my favorite part. I remember watching the train for a long time.
Finally it was time for the train. Josh and Kayla didn't seem too interested, but Michael was following the train around everywhere. The model railroad here was huge! It was a lot bigger than I remember. Probably because it has been 30 years or so and they have added and changed a lot.
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One of the sections of the museum that was most fun was the Science of Storms section. They actually had a "vortex" (not a tornado). They had a show in association with the vortex. The let all the kids walk through the vortex. Pretty cool.
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VORTEX AT THE MUSEUM
Up on the top floor on the Extreme Weather Section they had a wind tunnel. The wind tunnel let you experience winds around 40 mph. |
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| KAYLA IN THE WIND TUNNEL (WINDY) |
After heading upstairs and seeing the jet plane. They had it set so you could walk in the replica plane. It was really interesting to me when I was a kid when I never flew, but to our kids it was too big of a deal because they just flew to Virginia last month.
Josh and Kayla were struggling with the rest of the upstairs. It was too old for them anyways. They all decided they wanted to head to the Idea Factory again.
We spent quite a bit of the remaining time there. They had a water cannal that went through the middle of the area with little balls that float through. They could make dams and have the balls go through the water flow.
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KALYA IN THE IDEA FACTORY
After the Idea Factory we noticed there was a section of the museum that we hadn't seen yet. So we headed over to the ships through the ages section.
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On the way to the Ships Through the Ages they had another cool item. A heat sensor camera. The camera picked up the heat sensor and put it on the screen. We had some great fun with it.
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THE HEAT SENSOR PICTURE (YOU CAN SEE THE CAMERA AND MY GLASSES) - THE KIDS ARE AT THE BOTTOM. YOU CAN SEE HEATHER NEXT TO ME.
While heading over the ships of all ages we ran into a show about the world and space exploration. Kayla kept wanting to answer the questions that the instructor asked. I would tell her the answer and she would say it. The instructor didn't see me tell Kayla the answers. She looked like a kid genus (which she is). |
Our crew on the moon (or the next voyage to space, maybe Mars or an Asteroid.)
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| THE MOON WALKER |
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| KAYLA THE FIRST WOMEN ON MARS |
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| LOOKS LIKE JOSH REALLY FEELS AT HOME |
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TRYING TO GET SOME AIR
We made it to the Ships Through Ages. Michael kept looking for the Titanic, but they did not have a replica of the Titanic, but every other ship from the battleships and air craft carrier to the ships that took the pilgrims over. |
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| What do I see on the Horizon? Is it Land? |
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| IT IS LAND DADDY, SEE.. |
Michael wanted to see the trains one last time. On our way to the trains we walked through a section with little chickens which just hatched.
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| LOOK AT THOSE CHICKENS! THEY ARE SO CUTE! |
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| I SEE CHICKENS |
We made it out the door of the museum. What a long day. Josh and Kayla were a bit young for the museum, Michael was a bit young as well for some of it, but most importantly we had fun.
We got in the car and headed up to downtown Chicago on he way back to the area near the hotel. We had quite a while to drive and I figured we would run into quite a bit of traffic on the way out of town during rush hour. To my surprise the traffic was not too bad. It backed up a bit with a broken down car in one of the middle lanes. I really refelt for the one in the car. It is purely a wait game for them. You can't get out too dangerous.
Before we left from Murfreesboro we had decided that we would get Pizza Hut this evening. We called the preselected Pizza Hut near the hotel and headed over. We picked up the pizza for the evening and headed to the hotel. We ate in the room.
We had promised the kids that we would go swimming at some point and we were running out of time. Even though it was around 8:00 we really wanted Josh to get some experience swimming. We went down to the pool. It was an indoor pool.
There were a lot of swimmers in the pool. Josh did great! He started getting some confidence in himself and learning that he can touch the bottom. Also, we was able to figure out how to move in the water. He has really become a great swimmer, but he still needs to stay in water that is not over his head.
After we swam for about an hour we decided to head back to the room for the night. We didn't have too early of a morning, but we did want to make sure we were there when it opened so we can get a good spot in the line. (since we needed to purchase our tickets to LegoWorld that morning).
We didn't have much trouble at all getting the kids to bed. I decided to try out the eliptical or running on a treadmill. They had tvs set up so I thought I might enjoy watching tv while I run. Not very exciting at all. I ran about 3 miles and that was about it. I was just bored.
I hit the sack. Tomorrow was the LegoWorld day. The purpose we came up to Chicago.
Saturday morning we got up and enjoyed our breakfast once more. I love an omellette full with everything (peppers, onion, etc.).
We headed over to the LegoLand. We were the first one there. LegoWorld was opening at 9:30. We got there around 9:00. We were first in line. The next few families showed up just after us. At 9:15 they came out and gave us the instructions on which line to be in. It was almost time.
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LEGOWORLD - THE ENTRANCE
Once we paid and were in (by the way, so proud of Heather we were able to use coupons which knocked about $20 off the total price.) we headed to the lego world. They had a whole city set up with Star Wars taking over the city. |
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| LEGO WORLD REPLICA |
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| STAR WARS CHARACTERS ARE TAKING OVER |
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| SEARS TOWER |
After looking at the city we headed up to this room to play a game. I had signed us up to be a part of the game. Didn't know anything about the game. They built their game board and played. Josh and Michael played against each other and there was another set of brothers that played each other. Josh didn't understand the game; Michael got it. So Michael ended up winning that game. They decided to put Michael the winner of his game against the winner of the other game. The other kids were older. I guess 9 or 10. Micahel took him on and won! He came in first place. He won a lego set which was a great price for him. I was really glad he won.
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| JOSH AND MICHAEL GETTING INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PLAY THE GAME |
After the game went over to a Legomaster room where a lego master walked the kids through how to build a small race car. Josh and Michael really didn't need the instruction, but it was fun.
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| GETTING INSTRUCTION FROM THE LEGO MASTER |
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HOW DO YOU BUILD THIS ONE?
During the entire day we spent tim visting the characters from the Star Wars weekend. The had a bunch of legos in bens in which you build race cars and then you can race them with other kids. Michael spent hours on end working on this. Josh and Kayla played on the playground there. They played for hours in the Playset.
They did have a ride, but the ride was slow and went around and showed different lego sculptures. Josh loved the ride. Michael didn't get too much out of it. Kalya loves any ride. |
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| STORM TROOPER AND THE BOYS |
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| THE GOOD GUYS MEET THE MILLERS |
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| MAYBE THEY AREN'T THE GOOD GUYS... ATTACK DADDY! |
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| DARTH VADOR WAS THERE |
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| JUST GAZING AT THE CITY. WHAT WOULD IT LIKE TO LIVE THERE? |
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| DARTH VADOR AND THE KIDS. |
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| BUILDING MY NEXT RACE CAR TO RACE |
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| BUILDING MY OWN RACE CAR |
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| ONE OF THE RIDES AT LEGO WORLD. GREAT RIDE FOR KAYLA |
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| THE PLAY GROUND THERE WAS A LOT OF FUN |
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| JOSH READY FOR THE 3-D LEGO MOVIE. SO COOL. |
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| KAYLA CAN BUILD TOO |
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| WHO WILL WIN? |
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| THE PRINCESS LEGO SECTION |
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| LET'S DO THIS JUST RIGHT. |
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| WHAT THIS RIDE GOES FAST? |
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| THE BOYS AND THE SANTA LEGO MODEL |
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| DARTH VADOR LEGO SCULPTURE |
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| LOOK IT IS MICHAEL'S MOON CRUISER THAT HE BUILT. |
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| RRRR.... |
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| JOSH AND BATMAN |
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| KEEP WORKING TO WIN |
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| YODA |
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| MICHAEL ENTERED HIS OWN DARTH VADOR INTO THE DARTH VADOR COMPETITION. HIS WAS GREAT! |
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| READY SET GO! |
After spending most the day at LegoWorld we started getting hungry, it was actually about 2:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch. The kids were having too much fun. So we headed over to place called Meat Heads. We found a seat and ate burgers for lunch. Meat Heads was actually pretty good. We had a lot of food. After Meat Heads we went back over to LegoWorld and spent another 45 minutes or so racing and playing on the playground. We really like Lego World. But, I do say LegoWorld is for kids up to about 9 or 10. I can see how Lego World can be finished in about 2 hours if they aren't into building the race cars. Dads were getting into the picture, too. I along with Michael was building a race car to race other dads and kids. We wanted to leave in time to arrive in Iowa in a reasonable time so that our kids sit as still as can be at Church tomorrow. We were driving from Schaumburg, IL (location of the LegoWorld in Chicago). Josh was having a hard time with all the driving. He was right, we had been on the road quite a bit the last few days. We stopped at McDonalds for water and a break. This McDonalds was a bit different than the others. This one actually had a few video games. The boys had a good time playing a few games before hitting the road again.
It was now time to head to Iowa to visit the Peters for a few days. We were all looking forward to seeing them and spending some relaxing time in Davenport, IA. We arrived near 8:00 or so..
Time to hit the sack and get some rest. We were all tired. What a day.
Sunday morning we got up at hte Peters house and enjoyed a great breakfast. It was time for Church. The kids behaved very well at Church this morning! So excited! After Church we headed to Dick's bar-b-que for lunch. The barbaque was great. I love thier sause and the ice cream for desert are the best. Something different about Dick's is the large pickles that you can get.
After lunch I noticed that I received two phone calls from my mother. I normally don't receive multiple calls from family so I decided to call her up. My mom told me the news that my grandmother has passed away. We called her "Granny" in my family. She was very sick and it was time. She had been waiting for a long time to meet up with my grandfather, "Pa". The reunion had happened! I could just picture this meeting in my head. I was honered to be asked to be a pall bearing in Granny's funeral. Of course, I accepted the invitation. We did not know what the arrangements were. Granny lived in Hamilton, MS which is a long way away from Davenport, IA. So our vacation will change a bit we will need to head to Mississippi.
On Monday morning, I learned that the visitation and funeral for Granny would be on Wednesday. So Heather and I decided to leave early Tuesday morning and drive to Fulton, MS and spend the night. Then Wednesday morning we would drive to Columbus, MS for lunch at the Columbus Church of Christ. After lunch we would drive up to Aberdeen, MS for the visititation and then the funeral.
So Monday the Peters wanted to take us to the zoo in the Quad Cities. What a great idea! The weather looked to be nice.
Monday morning we got up and got ready for the zoo.
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| WE'RE GOING TO THE ZOO! |
It didn't look as though the zoo was going to be too crowded today. We were able to take advantage of our Nashville Zoo membership and get in.
First thing we headed to was the elephants.
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| I SEE AN ELEPHANT |
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| WOW! LOOK HOW CLOSE WE ARE. |
There were two and you actually could get pretty close. They were some small quaters. From what we understand they are trying to raise funds to build a larger facility for the elephants. The authorities (who ever is the authority of the zoos) has threatened to take the elephants if they don't build a larger facility. We followed the trail and ran into a few structures that we took pictures of.
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| DIDN'T TELL US DINOSAURS WERE AT THIS ZOO! |
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| WHERE ARE THE OTHER DINOSAURS? |
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| THIS DINOSAUR IS MY SIZE |
Next stop the ducks in a pond. We walked out over the pond on the bridge. We found some food that had been dropped and feed the ducks and the gold fish.
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| LOOK HOW BIG THE GOLD FISH ARE! |
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| PICK UP THE FOOD ON THE GROUND AND FEED THE FISH AND THE DUCKS |
After feeding the fish and the ducks we headed to the petting zoo. The had goats, ponies, etc. that they could ride, feed and pet.
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| I LOVE PONIES! |
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| COWBOY JOSH |
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| UMM GOOD! |
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| THEY REALLY EAT THIS STUFF |
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| IT TICKLES |
After the petting zoo we headed to the parrots. They had a special cage you would could go in with a special juice and the birds would land on your arm or on your head. I got the special food for the birds so they would sit on each one of us. The boys really enjoyed this. The birds came and landed on each of them. So this most definately was a treat. Josh got to do it first. I could tell this bothered Michael a bit, but he was very patient while Josh feed the birds some of the juice.
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| LOOK AT ALL THE BIRDS ON JOSH |
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| THEIR CLAWS HURT JUST A BIT. NOT USED TO HAVING SO MANY BIRDS ON ME. |
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| SCOTT EVEN GOT A CHANCE TO HOLD THE JUICE AND HAVE BIRDS LAND ON ME. |
The boys shared the juice very well. Heather later told me that Michael asks all the time to get the food and we normally don't get it.
After feeding the birds we headed over to the giraffees. We found out that at noon they were having giraffe feeding. If you purchased a leaf they would let you feed the giraffes. What a cool thing. We have never had an opportunity to feed the giraffes so we decided to purchase a leaf for each one of our kids. We waited in line got the opportunity to feed the giraffes. Not sure when we'll have that opportunity again.
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| LOOK HOW BIG THE GRAIFE IS COMPARED TO KALYA, JOSH AND MICHAEL |
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| LOOK AT THAT LONG TONGUE! |
We headed over to the reptile and the wolves. Very enjoyable for all. The next animal was a black bear. He was awake and right there in front of us. He was very big. He went for a swim and everything.
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| THE CHEETA AND ANOTHER LARGE CAT TAKING A NAP |
After seeing all the animals we happened upon a carasel. Josh and Kayla wanted to ride it. Michael decided to hold off (He feels he is too big).
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| WHILE MICHEAL AND I WERE WAITING FOR THE REST OF THEM TO RIDE TO CARASEL MICHAEL PLAYED IN THE MISTERS. THE MISTERS WERE WHAT THEY WERE CALLED. YOU DIDN'T GET WET EVEN JUST STANDING IN FRONT OF IT. LOOKS LIKE A LOT MORE WATER THAN THERE REALLY WAS. |
After the carasel we headed to the train which went around the entire zoo. Nice train and zoo. We had a great time at the zoo. We should do this more often when we head to Iowa.
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| LOOK HOW MUCH FUN THE TRAIN IS! |
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| TIME TO RIDE THE TRAIN |
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| I LOVE THIS ZOO! |
After the zoo we head back to the Peters house and hung out. We had a very long day ahead of us.
The visitation and funeral were scheduled for Wednesday. So on Tuesday we were planning to drive down Mississippi from Iowa. This was really going to be a long day. I found a hotel with a decent rate in Fulton, MS. It was about 30 minutes from Aberdeen, MS and an hour from Columbus, MS. The Church of Christ in Columbus, MS had offered to have lunch for the family. We were planning to make it there for lunch.
Tuesday morning had come and we were planning to hit the road around 6:30 in the morning. So we had every packed and ready to go. We got the kids up early and hit the road. We headed down to Peoria, Il and took I-55 south. We stay on I-55 all the way to Memphis, TN. The kids did great on the drive! To break up the drive we decided to stop at the arch in downtown St. Louis and run around a bit.
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| THE ST. LOUIS ARCH |
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| KAYLA AND THE ST. LOUIS ARCH |
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| JOSH AND THE ARCH |
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| MICHAEL AND THE ARCH |
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| HEATHER AND THE FAMILY IN FRONT OF THE ARCH |
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| HOW BIG IS THE ARCH? |
I hadn't been to the arch since I was in high school on the chorus trip. There was lots a space for the kids to run around. We went down to the museum in the arch. We had a nice picnic lunch under the arch.
We kept driving south and in Missouri we decided to stop at Baskin Robbins (we had coupons for free ice cream at Baskin Robbins) we used my phone and found one fairly close. We headed off the interstate and arrived at the Baskin Robbins in a strip mall that looks to have shut down. The Baskin Robbins had probably closed. So we settled for Dairy Queen, still was good, just didn't have coupon for free ice cream. It was a nice break to enjoy some ice cream.
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| DIARY QUEEN IN MISSOURI |
We still had a lot more to drive. We were planning to stop at Logans in the Cordova area just outside of Memphis. We stopped for a nice dinner at Logans. We were all really hungry and it was getting late. We still had about 2 hours left till we got to Fulton, MS. We arrived at Fulton, MS around 10:30 that night. Each one of the kids had fallen asleep and I carried them all in.
We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Fulton, MS. It was brand new. It was a nice hotel with a great pool. It was too late to swim and we wouldn't have a chance to swim in the morning because we were going to drive to Columbus, MS. We all slept good there. Heather and I had discussed possibly staying at the hotel on Wednesday night as well so we could enjoy the pool and then drive back Thursday morning. The window guys were coming Thursday afternoon so we had to make sure we would be back to the house around lunch time.
Wednesday morning we got up, got ready and hit the road. We drove through Smithville, MS. Smithville had been hit with a F-5 tornado back in April. The town had been devistated. It was heart breaking to drive through there and see all the devistation.
We made it to Columbus for lunch. All my family was there, cousins, uncles, aunts, etc. Granny had been waiting for this day for a long time. It was a celebration of her life.
After the lunch we headed up to Aberdeen for the visitation and the funeral. I was very proud of our kids. They behaved very well under the circumstances. After the funeral and gravesite thoughts we went to an early dinner with my parents. I enjoyed the time with them. Again the kids did great. We ate at one of the only restruants in Aberdeen.
Heather and I decided to head back to Murfreesboro instead of staying another night. We had a long week of travel and we were all ready to be back home.
We drove back home and arrived around 10:00 or so. We put the kids to bed and hit the sack.
We had a great trip with a lot of fun. At the end of the day this short trip to stop by Lego World on the way to see the Peters in Iowa ended up being a long driving trip. After all was said and done we had entered Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiania, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. We had entered 9 states during the trip. We remembered my Grandmother and what a great lady she was.
