August 2018
The trek home from Yellowstone was a solid 24 hours of driving not including all the stops necessary with kids. While it was a long, hard drive, it was also a most beautiful drive. We did stop by Jake's apartment to pick up our head rest and to drop off food that didn't get eaten while at the cabin. We left him nearly all the BBQ pork we had brought with us. Haha! I think he really enjoyed it!
Look at this landscape though! This is what you see on TV and read about in school but how beautiful to see wheat being harvested! I loved it!
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| Classic American landscape |
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| "What does it mean?" |
We cut the drive into two days and while we were mindful of our children, we also pushed hard because of them. Audrianne still could not hold food down. We were on day four of her throwing up and so we finally called her doctor and got some anti-nausea medicine for her to start that night. It was instantly helpful! Here are our two kiddos helping Daddy pick the medicine up from the pharmacy. They held hands the whole time! That's an adorable miracle! It's like they were saying, "We'll do anything just to walk around, please!"
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| Being friends |
Temple #14! We purposely had Audri's medicine sent to a pharmacy close to the temple so we would have an excuse to drive by. :) There are only so many left to see! We had to take advantage. We missed seeing the Denver temple from the freeway, or maybe I just didn't take a picture. I don't remember now. But honestly, it was so late and we were so tired and we still had hours to drive that night to get to our designated halfway point.
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| Fort Collins Colorado Temple |
This poor, sweet girl! This is how Audrianne stayed from the time we ate breakfast to the time we got ready to leave. She was so drained of energy. Fortunately, the medicine was working and she was able to eat a little breakfast and drink some water. My little heart had been breaking for days listening to her beg for food and have to deny her because it would just cause her to be sick again. She kept saying, "Cheese! Cheese!" :( Ugh, so sad! It was such a celebration on this leg of the trip as she ate more and more.
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| Our little sicky |
This picture is hard to see the details but just another aspect of Audri's condition. She had not done much more than lay around in a car seat or pack and play for almost five days and while she'd had several baths, her hair was still completely matted and teased into a huge knot so that it stuck out weird in the back. Haha! Oh man. Sweet girl! You can tell though how much better she was doing - sitting up in my arms and using her own energy to look around. That was huge!
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| Her hair was so matted |
Ok, another amazing thing I've only ever heard of - cotton fields! I almost couldn't believe I was seeing it. Cotton is one of those things that I can't believe is natural and grows on plants. It just boggles my mind so it was very fun to drive by so many fields of it as we passed through Texas. Silk is the same way for me. I just don't understand how the beginning product becomes the end.
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| Cotton fields |
Our kids were so done driving on night 2 so once when we stopped for gas we let them out to run around. It was so shady though. James chased them and tossed them a bit but then we hurried on. It was really creepy. Haha!
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| We stopped at this shady place to run around very briefly |
We did finally make it though and we mostly just got inside the house and crashed into bed. I think we did most of the unpacking the next day and over the next few months as I was still recovering from the sickness as well for a couple weeks. I think it was Thanksgiving before we finally got everything completely unpacked and put away. Something to remember when planning the next EPIC road trip: it takes about as long to recover as it does to prepare.
Our final temple count was 14. That's pretty good! We could have seen something like 22 if we'd had time to wander around a bit more but I'm happy with the 14. Our kids now know what a temple looks like so mission accomplished!
The next morning, we had an unbirthday celebration for Abi as her birthday had occurred while we were on our EPIC road trip and we couldn't bring her gifts along. She was thrilled to get some presents. :)
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| Happy Birthday to Abigail |
This picture is sweet because she finally can use the doll furniture that Juli and her family have gifted Abigail. So fun to see her play pretend and enjoy their special gifts.
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| She loved playing ponies with her dollhouse |
My cousin gave Abi a doctor kit while we were in Colorado and then we accidentally left it at my Grandmary's cabin. She had mailed it back and it was waiting for us as well. Abi was happy to see that again and gave her stuffed animals all a check up.
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| Giving her doggie a shot with her new doctor kit |
Audrianne was smiling again!!!! She got to eat eggs for breakfast!
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| Audrianne has never been so happy to eat real food! |
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| She is happy to have a present... |
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| ...happy to have a cardboard box... |
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| ...happy to have bubble packaging... |
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| ...the kids are jealous of all those things... |
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| Finally she got to see what her present is! |
Audrianne was so off on her sleep schedule as she was exhausted, yet had also slept for almost a week. Hehe, so she got to stay up with me and replace some of her lost calories while we watched a show. Special memories right here!
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| My sweetheart eating! |
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