Other than the weather, we had a great time in Byron. We left Friday night after David got home from his trip- we figured he was wide awake anyway, and we could take advantage of the overnight driving to provide a few hours of sleep for the kids. Didn't work as well as we'd hoped. We filled up with gas when we left home and drove until Spokane. We got there about 3:15am and, of course, everyone woke up when the car stopped. Unfortunately, they didn't go back to sleep. Looooong morning when it starts at 3am.
We stopped for the kids to get out and move around some at several rest stops between here and Illinois, but that was about all we stopped at. Drove by the Mount Rushmore exit, Sturgis, all the LittleHouseonthePrarie towns and museums, Wall Drug, the Corn Palace, the Spam museum....all the must-see places between here and there. But we saw some killer rest stops. Not really. And Minnesota was kind enough to close all their rest stops to save the state money. But since I got a speeding ticket halfway through the state, I'm sure they'll have the funds to reopen them. Seriously, WHO closes every rest stop in the entire state in the summer?? Do it in January when no one in their right mind is driving through.
We discovered that the heat is actually tolerable if you stay in the shade. It's really not bad if you're in the shade and there's a breeze. The kids didn't much care- they played outside on all Amy's toys no matter how hot it was. Andre has a six-wheeler that he drove the kids all around on. Joel had a gay 'ole time playing with the dog- he even hung out in the dog kennel for awhile.
When it was too stinkin' hot to be outside, the kids were in luck! Amy has every fun toy/book/video game known to man. The kids were in heaven! They played Rock Band a ton- Joel even used a broken guitar that wasn't plugged in and had a fabulous time "rockin' out", as he said. Taylor has a drum set in her room that the kids played at first, but she quickly realized that Joel chose not to follow the rule of 'only play it when I'm in here', so the drum set became offlimits. And since Amy works at a video store, she brought home all sorts of movies for the kids to watch.
One day we spent the entire day at the Rock River at Amy's cabin. Unfortunately, the cabin was torn down and is being rebuilt, and it isn't much more than just walls. The toilet is in the bathroom, but not hooked up yet. The air conditioner is in and hooked up, but there's no insulation yet so it only cools things a few degrees. We all fought over who got to sit next to the A/C vents:) The kids had SO much fun in the water! They all absolutely LOVED it! The river is muddy and dirty, but the water was cool. I stayed at the cabin during Daniel's nap while the rest of them went out in the boat. I knew being on the water in the sun on the boat would not be good for my insta-fry skin. The kids all got to ride on the jetbob; the jetskis weren't working very well so only David and Joel got to ride on them. I'd told David in the past that if we ever moved back there we'd get a set of jetskis to keep at the cabin; getting to ride Andre's for a few minutes made him think having his own would be a wonderful idea:)
The trip back was not fun. Actually it seemed like we made better time, but the anticipation of fifteen hours each day in the car was bad. Poor Daniel cried most of the time he was awake both days; I think not having any real time to move around was messing up his intestines. But considering how far we drove with four little kids, I think everyone put up with the driving remarkably well. And Joel went from sorta potty trained to not even needing a pull-up- I don't know why being on the trip made it click, but he got great at telling us when he needed to stop. Maybe because he wanted out of the car and that was one sure-fire way to get dad to pull over:)
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