The Cousins Picture

I like to get the boys and Em together for a cousins picture each visit. It's a little like herding cats.

Bye For Now G-Ma!

G-Ma heading back to Virginia today but we will see her again in 3 weeks! Yaaay! 

Photographic evidence that my mom had the vacuum out with 15 minutes of arriving - no joke. 

Emma decided that she would start LOVING strawberries while my mom was here. 

We visited Anna Mae's in Millbank... it was totally shocking and disorienting. They have been through a major renovation that has just opened. It is gorgeous! 

Afterwards, we headed to Herrle's for fresh corn. G-Ma got Emma to be a sheep. :) 

See you soon G-Ma! --> Check out the countdown...

McLennan Park Visit

Emma was ready to roll in G-Ma's car.

There was some extreme sliding going on with G-Ma and E-Ma. (Yes, I was playing around with slow motion again :P)

I love when I can get a real smile out of her.

G-Ma Goes East - Day 5

Our longest day was.... long. When you are nearing the end of a really long trip, all you want to do is get to your final destination. After 2750 miles and 5 days... we made it! 

This cat. Kitty is a stray that G-Ma took in. She's a giant ball of love... especially at 2:00am. >< I will "miss" her. 

I was the porter for this trip. So many packing.. unpacking.. just to do it all over again the next day. I am happy not to see another luggage cart for awhile. 

It was pretty cool to plug in the address of Casa de Petty instead of a random hotel! 

Our routine at rest stops was pretty efficient. The cats were let out to stretch their legs. If you look closely, you can see Kitty - plotting her escape.

G-Ma drove for most... almost all of the trip. I got the reins for about 2 hours. Wooo. 

We went over or under many bridges during this trip especially in Illinois and Indiana.

Huh? :P

And yet another really loooong tunnel!

It was pretty surreal pulling up to the house.. but then we saw these monkeys...

Even after being in Virginia for a couple days now, it does not feel permanent. It is so wonderful to have G-Ma within driving distance and not by plane!

G-Ma Goes East - Day 4

Today was a really long day. We woke up - thanks to G-Ma's FIRE ALARM RINGTONE - at 4:00am and headed out an hour later. We were facing our longest day so far at 8 hours and 40 minutes... it didn't help that the hotel we stayed at last night wasn't the greatest....... I think even the animals were happy to leave! 

The first town we hit was Kansas City, Missouri which was kind of pretty... including the Royals stadium. They might have one a game or two there in 2015.

Shortly after this, we were lit up with the old blues and twos.. #GMaBreaksTheLaw...... Truthfully, it was nothing and we got the feeling that the cop was just being nosy. He pulled her over for following a tractor trailer too closely... but I didn't see that. He wanted our driver's licenses and then asked G-Ma to go sit in his car. He asked a ton of questions... especially around why I had a Canadian license. In the end, she escaped the long arm of the law and got away with a warning. Silly.

We crossed over the Missouri River and then the Mississippi River into Illinois. 

Illinois was so exciting that I didn't take a single picture. Lol. Once we crossed over into Indiana, it started to rain a bit. There was a huge downpour once we got to the hotel... just as Silo needed a bathroom break. HA.

Last leg tomorrow... 576 miles, 9 hours and 2 minutes. :D See you soon Petty Family! 

G-Ma Goes East - Day 3

Colorado to Kansas. Exciting. :|

This was the view before leaving the parking lot at the hotel in Silverthorne, CO. Beautiful!

No matter what G-Ma says... the road was wet from snow the night before and covered in sand from the snow plows. :P

I don't think I've ever seen a warning sign about sunlight...

Just before leaving Colorado, we saw a really long train carrying what turned out to be wind turbine parts. Exciting stuff. 

Kansas is exactly how I thought it would be. Flat. Boring. A little more green than the southern route would have been. But.. we're almost through it! 

The hotel we are staying it in Junction City, Kansas is not the greatest... but it's only one day. Tomorrow we will cross the rest of Kansas, then Missouri, Illinois, and stop in Plainfield, Indiana. 594 miles, 8 hours and 40 minutes. 

Missing My Girl

Google Photos is awesome. The photos on my phone automatically back up to Google. Then the program creates little gems - gifs, collages and movies. It created this awesome clip from the photos taken on Friday and Saturday last week. :')

G-Ma Goes East - Day 2

We are marching on... I think we are getting the hang of traveling with animals and the animals are getting the hang of traveling with us! We're pretty efficient during our 3-4 pit stops. Everyone is alive. Bonus points. :P 

I said this in the last post... but pictures do not do justice to the size of these mountains. Sometimes we are surrounded by truly massive rock formations. Very pretty.

By far the scariest part was this tunnel. Apparently it is called the Eisenhower Tunnel... and it is the longest tunnel and at the highest point on the Interstate System. At 1.697 miles, it is about 1.696 miles too long. It seemed to go on FOREVER. Scary.

Vail was really pretty even with the light dusting of snow on the ground.

We're currently in Silverthorne, Colorado at 9,035 feet and man, am I feeling it! My heart has been a little less than racing since we got here. Yes, I have been moving around, handling luggage etc... but even sitting here relaxing my heart is 109 - thank you FitBit. 

The view from the hotel room is pretty nice... if it wasn't snowing! 

Tomorrow we head to Junction City, Kansas :| 541 miles, 7 hours and 37 minutes minus stops.