Vacation

I know that I promised to report back about our giant, 2-week, cross-country, road-tripping vacation. The short story is that it was great! Clark W. Griswold would have been incredibly proud of us. We all had a great time, the kids did great in the car, and everything went as smoothly as it possibly could.

On our way to Minnesota, we spent the night in Kansas City, MO and had some excellent BBQ at Oklahoma Joe's. Needless to say, Abbie did not manage to eat that entire rack of ribs in one sitting, but she certainly tried.

The kids got to engage in all sorts of fun summer activities during our trip. We spent a couple of nights with Grandma and Grandpa P. and Abigail got to swim, fish, and attend her first ever demolition derby. She absolutely loved being sprayed with mud from all of the cars.

We also spent a few nights at a friend's cabin on a remote lake outside of Longville, MN (population 147). Abbie had a blast with kayaking, paddle boarding, fishing, lighting camp fires, eating s'mores, etc. She was really active the entire time.

One morning I went kayaking with her and I tried to scare her by telling her that I saw piranhas in the water. I thought for sure that she would freak out. Instead she just rolled her eyes and told me that piranhas only live in tropical waters.What? How did she know that? With all this knowledge rolling around in her head, my job is getting much more difficult.

Before heading to Chicago for four nights, we spent a few nights in Minneapolis and took the girls to the amusement park and the aquarium at the Mall of America. Abbie was able to talk Chad into the log ride, and talked me into something called the "Brain Scrambler." I'm not sure which one of us got the better deal.

On our way to Chicago, we stopped in Madison, WI for a few hours and Abbie had a nice walk down memory lane, seeing our house, the streets, the mall that she used to run in, etc. It was amazing how much of it came back to her.

As for Chicago, that was jam-packed with incredible food, and another trip to an aquarium. Abbie was definitely up for a food adventure and found herself trying things like grilled octopus. All in all, the trip was a nice end to a busy summer. The girls both start school tomorrow, and I think that both are a bit apprehensive about the change (Upper Elementary for Abbie), but I'm sure that they'll soon settle in.