Vacation... week 1

This past (past, late post) Saturday marked the half way point of our vacation. Time spent driving: 42+ hours. Miles driven: 2,000+

Gaby and Lydia find creative uses for the window shades during long day in the car.

We left Iowa on Friday July 18th and drove to Indianapolis. Saturday was a full day of driving ending in Sterling, VA a suburb of DC. Sunday was church and a visit to the new National Air and Space Museum.

Owen keeps us on track with some scripture reading on Sunday.

The new National Air & Space Museum

T, L, G and J in front of the Space Shuttle.

Jerry with the Joint Strike Fighter, a project he worked on while at Northrup Grumman in SD.

Monday was the zoo in DC after spending what seemed like hours (and 72 U-turns) finding a Metro station. Lots of walking once we made into town and it was HOT! Most of the animals were off exhibit because of the heat. Thankfully the zoo is free.

Riding the Metro... finally.

We felt hot and tired, too.

Owen loved the Efelunts.

Orangutans get really bored.

Tuesday was Museum of Natural History and some of the DC sites with Grandma and Grandpa Kilgore and Auntie Alyssa. Again, very hot. After finally finding the Metro station on Monday, we assumed we'd have no problem getting back to it on Tuesday. No such luck as the exit we thought for sure would be the most direct route was non existent. But the day was fantastic. A welcome relief to have some backup with the kids. It took all 5 of us to keep track of the 4 kiddos.

The reinforcements arrive!

Posing for the paparazzi

at the White House

Group shot

We are a hap-py fam-i-ly

Mr. President gets dropped off by Marine One (now I know why he doesn't use the Metro)

Holding up the Washington Monument - Owen thought it was falling on him.

So pretty

The Lincoln Memorial, the only thing Lydia wanted to see... this is as close as we got.

Wednesday we said farewell to the DC area and headed south to Knoxville, TN. My cousin Amy and her husband graciously put up with our brood for the night. It was so fun spending time with the cousin I idolized as a little girl. Heck, I still do. She does all kinds of amazing things. Gaby and Chloe are about the same age, though Chloe will be quick to tell you she's 5 AND a half. Owen LOVED the twins Kaelyn and Fiona. Dinner was a bit noisy with Owen hamming it up and causing all kinds of raucous at the kid table. So glad we made that stop and so grateful to Amy and Russ' hospitality.

Fiona, Taylor (being a TOTAL teenager), Gaby and KaelynChloe and GabyOwen providing LOTS of dinner entertainment for Fiona and Kaelyn

Slumber party!

Thursday morning Jerry walked Chloe to camp and we tried to get on our way while Amy was preparing for her voice lessons she was teaching that day and tending to the twins and welcoming the babysitter and cleaning up breakfast... all this after we kept them up late chatting and visiting. So, we headed to Pigeon Forge, TN. We found a gas station on our way out of town and paid $3.59 for gas! Once we got to PF we drove around a bit surprised at how commercial the area is. We made a stop at Wal Mart for water shoes, checked into the hotel and drove into Townsend to go tubing on the river. By far the highlight of the trip. We called Splashtown the water park next to Dollywood and it was $40 per person. Tubing was $40 for all of us. A beautiful ride down the Little River was a great way to the spend an afternoon after all the time we had spent in the car. Oh, I should mention that we also lost Owen in a stairwell at the hotel. It was for about 2 minutes and ended well with no tears.

Gaby was awesome on the rope swing.

View of the Great Smokey Mountain National Forest site of 2009 Kilgore Family Reunion.

Jerry & Owen and Gaby flowing down the river.

Lydia, Sara and Taylor

Friday we met up with Carl, Jerry's brother, and his family. (And I should disclose here that we lost Gaby after breakfast in the hotel for about 15 minutes. It ended well, but there were some tears, innocent hotel guests still in their jammies and a hotel manager named Dixie involved in the search and recovery) We drove to Gaitlinburg and did some touristy stuff like the aquarium and Ripley's Believe It or Not. For a change of pace we went into the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and let the kids "wade" in the river. Whenever you put kids in water and say don't get wet, of course they get wet. (AND I stepped on a snake, a real live slithering one, scared the dickens out of me, Carl had a good laugh) After an hour of wet kids we went to play mini golf which mostly meant watching Owen and Carissa pick up balls and throw them in the holes. YAY! The big kids, Taylor, Tyler, Drew and Lydia were quite the pals and went off on their own. A late dinner at Fridays and we headed back to the hotel after 12 + straight hours of cousin filled fun. But the night was not over for the big kids and their daddies. Jerry and Carl took TTDL to race go carts until midnight. It was like the best day ever, until we had to get up early the next morning to drive to the shore 8 hours away.

Gaby was very fond of Uncle Carl and his shoulder rides.

My camera took mostly crappy pictures at the aquarium, but the tunnel part was cool.

These guys had so much fun together. It was such a fun day!


Carl with the big pink backpack was cracking me up!

Carissa is about the sweetest thing there is, and the girl likes to accessorize.

Which concludes week 1 of vacation.