The Gilbert Family: Family Road Trip

We have been home from our big summer road trip for two and a half weeks, and I am finally getting this blogpost finished up! We had such a great vacation and I wanted to have it well documented for future memories!

*********************************************************************

Ten days, nine nights, 2200+ miles, 35+ hours driving, visits with lots of dear family and friends, and many fun family memories made for a really great summer road trip...

Friday, June 27: We left home at 4AM and only made three quick stops with our road warriors in order to make it to my grandparent's place by dinner. The kids did really well overall during this first long leg of our trip. Ryker did spend a good portion of the time yelling, "No, no, no!" and "I stuck!" (in his car seat), and "Out peas!" (please). Myles learned how to clip out of his car seat during this portion of the trip, which would be a really great step toward being even more independent, except that he spent a lot of the time un-clipping himself while we were driving down the interstate. Typical Myles!

It was so great when we finally arrived! My grandparents moved into an apartment at The Western Home in January, so this was our first visit to their new place. We had a great dinner in the dining room with my grandparents and Uncle David before exploring the property and letting the kids run off some steam.

Saturday, June 28: The weekend we were in CF happened to be the same weekend as Sturgis Falls, the big summer festival. I have fond memories from Sturgis, but haven't been since high school! We met my grandparents and Uncle David for the parade and afterward headed to Overman Park for some live music, strawberry slushies and mini donuts. Mission accomplished, those were pretty much my favorite things from Sturgis growing up and I'm happy to have shared them with my kiddos.

The parade. - Ryker falling asleep in the backpack. - Strawberry slushy and JR mini donuts!

Although it wasn't a particularly hot day, we were still all hot and tired from the muggy weather (gotta love the midwest!), and headed back to our hotel to go swimming. Again, my grandparents and Uncle David met us to watch the kiddos swim before they had to go for the night. My grandpa was getting an award from the Waterloo Lions Club that evening for being the longest standing member. I love my grandparents so much and am so, so proud of all of their community contributions, which are still going strong! They are amazing!

Right before Ryker fell on the tile and hit his cheek on the way into the hot tub. Poor buddy. It's amazing we all made it back in one piece with the number of "owies" the kids got. According to Sydney, she had "hundreds of owies."

It started to pour rain at dinnertime, so our plans of grabbing a pizza and heading to a park weren't going to happen. Instead, we decided to take our three tired kiddos to the Hy-Vee Deli. Gilby and I were already a bit tired too after only one day of vacation, and as we watched our kids run around like crazy at the deserted deli, and faced another week plus on the road, we found some comic relief in this fortune he pulled out of his fortune cookie.

Sunday, June 29: We left bright and early Sunday morning to meet our former nanny, Anne Marie, at the Oschner Zoo in Baraboo, WI. Although Anne Marie was only with us for a few months last fall before she had to unexpectedly move back to Madison, she made a lasting impression on our family and we miss her! The small zoo and park next to it were perfect for our little kids. We spent a couple of hours catching up with Anne Marie before moving on to our next stop.

One of many attempts at a group photo!

Next, we drove 30 minutes north to visit my best friend from high school, Christina, and her family at their lake place. Christina is the kind of friend that might only come along once in a lifetime and I cherish our relationship. Although we still talk weekly, it had been 3 years since the last time we had seen each other in person. We spent the afternoon boating, watching the kids play in the sand, tubing, and eating outside on the lakefront. It was an amazing visit and way too short!

Logan, Ryker, Harper

Ryan was sweet to let all of the kids drive the boat. - Ryker tubing wtih Gilby and Logan!

Monday, June 30: We had checked into our hotel, Great Wolf Lodge, the night before, and spent the better part of Monday playing at their amazing water park. Great Wolf Lodge is a hotel/water park resort and super family-friendly. We LOVED our time there and could have easily spent another day or two enjoying all of the different areas of the water park.

Monday evening we went to the Berg's house in Reedsburg for dinner with them and the Jantz family. Gilby worked with Ben Berg and Zack and Amy Jantz during his time at Okoboji. The connections he still has with so many friends from Okoboji is really neat and we had lots of fun getting to know each other's kids. Between the three families, we now have 10 kids age 6 and under! It was a full house and the Bergs were so gracious to let us destroy it!

Ben, Gilby, Amy, Zach

Tuesday, July 1: Tuesday morning we treated ourselves to the breakfast buffet at our hotel, which was yummy, and would have been a lot more fun had Ryker not been a crazy man! Everyone at the restaurant thought he was so cute, other than Gilby and I! Ryker can be the most independent one-year-old ever and decided that morning that he needed to get his own food, carry his own food ("I carry it!"), and dance in the aisles. We had a hard time containing him. Silly boy.

We spent the rest of the morning playing at the water park again. I was really proud of how the kids did at the hotel. Before going, I was a bit concerned about keeping the kiddos safe at the water park with just Gilby and I. That might sound silly to other families that have three little kids as it shouldn't be that hard, but Myles can be so unpredictable at times that safety is a concern of mine pretty much anywhere we go. But, he did awesome. He listened really well, cooperated, made safe choices, and he and Sydney watched out for each other amazingly well. Myles was of course not fearful of anything, but Sydney on the other hand didn't want to go down the littlest slide at first, but very quickly was trying everything Myles was. "Mountain Edge Raceway" ended up being the favorite slide for both of them, so we went over and over.

The Mountain Edge Raceway - Gilby, Sydney and Myles on their way down.

After lunchtime we all packed up in the car again and headed on our way to Minnesota. We arrived at our friend's, the Pruden's house, in Maple Grove, MN just in time for dinner with them and Montgomery family. Gilby also worked with Chad Pruden and Suzanne and Jeff Montgomery at Okoboji. We saw the Prudens two summers ago, but hadn't seen the Montgomerys in several years. It was really great to catch up with everyone!

Suzanne, Jeff, Gilby, Chad

Wednesday, July 2: We had spent the night at the Pruden's house, and woke up for a yummy breakfast and some time playing at a nearby park (before our tired kids had some major meltdowns and we had to be on our way!). We drove a couple hours south and stopped at the Kliment's farmhouse on our way to Fort Dodge. Susan and Darrin are another couple that Gilby worked with at camp and got very close to. Sus and Darrin have an amazing family, and I am very thankful to couples like them and the Montgomerys for the role models they have been to Gilby (and now me) in marriage and parenting. His Okoboji family helped contribute to the strong foundation he had when we first met that is now part of what our family is built on.

The Kliment's live on a beautiful farm in Northwood, IA and it was fun to expose our kids to all their property has to offer in one short afternoon. They have buffalo, chickens, kittens, horses, and dogs, plus lots of fun swings, a tree house, a big trampoline, and plenty of room to run. The kids could have spent more than a few hours having fun.

Sus, Josiah, Gilby, Caleb, Darrin, Samuel

His Iowa roots.

The kids LOVED these tire swings.

Wednesday evening we arrived at Uncle Joe's house in Fort Dodge in time for dinner and some playtime with the cousins before heading to bed.

Thursday, July 3 - Sunday, July 6: We spent the next few days in Fort Dodge visiting Gilby's family. Because Grandma and Grandpa Gilbert and Uncle Shawn were out to see us just two weeks before, the kids were able to pick up right where they left off playing and interacting with them, which led to some good, quality time together. To celebrate the 4th, we went to a small neighboring town for a parade, carnival and BBQ. The kids had fun gathering candy at the parade, and jumping in the bouncy house at the carnival before we met up with Gilby's aunt, uncle, and cousins for a BBQ. While in Fort Dodge, also visited Grandma and Grandpa Steck, played at the park, went swimming at the rec center, and spent lots of time playing with the cousins.