Day 4 - Keep on Truckin'

Muggy morning in Sioux Falls, SD! Breakfast of Champions at Mickey Dee's. Fill up with some gas, well at the station. $2.35 a gallon. On the road again at 9:25. Next stop Chicago! We are driving down I-90 and we keep seeing signs for The Spam Museum - we look at each other and laugh about it. But, then we see FREE admission into the Spam Museum, well they got us at FREE. Detour - Spam Museum in Austin, MN. Cheesy but fun. Dan was the only one to sample the Spam. Ewwwww. Pb&j in the car again for lunch. Gas in French Island, WI. We decide to camp somewhere in WI, near the IL border. We chose the Jellystone Campground in Ft Atkinson. Nice campground - lots of activities. Pull in around 4:30. Get tent set up, start some laundry and decide to head into town to grab some pizza for dinner. Get gas - $2.39 a gallon. Get back to the site about 7:50 and learn everything, I mean EVERYTHING,closes at 8. Kids can't swim or play the cool mini golf course - a little disappointed. Take a walk and try to get a fire going and play some cards by the lantern light. The kids and Dan see fireflies for the first time ever...something I never realized and I guess I took for granted 'cause I have seen lots of fireflies in my life!

And we're off...

Mike has 122,843 miles on him today. The real trip begins...we have breakfast with Dennis & JoAnn. Leave Bozeman at 10:15am. Get some gas in Billings ($2.57 a gallon). Make pb&j sandwiches in the car. My allergies are still awful! Benjamin only asked are we there yet about 6 times before we even got out of Montana, once before we even got out of Bozeman! Hannah even asked a few times, she must have forgot what 9 hours in a car is like! We stopped and had dinner in Rapid City, SD at Arnold's Classic Diner. There was a rabbit in the parking lot, later Benjamin told me he knew why that city was called "Rabbit City". We were trying to get to Kennebec, SD but Dan got one of those 5 hour energy drinks and was ready to keep driving on. Got gas in Reliance, SD ($2.64 a gallon). Dan drove all the way to Sioux Falls, SD - he finally stopped at 12:40. We stay at some seedy (is that the correct spelling) motel. 793 miles logged today!

Day 2 - State Tourney

Dan woke up this morning at 5:30 to go fishing. Hannah's first game isn't till 1:15 - the KOA is tye dying t-shirts this morning so we bought the kids a tshirt and let them have some fun. Swim for a little bit before we head to the game. Grab some lunch at our favorite take out place - Costco! Girls beat the Electric City Heat 15-3 and then Great Falls Selects Green team 13-8. Dennis and JoAnn get to Bozeman around noon. Brittney hit a foul play that landed in my lap - ouch! We have dinner with Jen & Callie at Santa Fe Reds. The girls then get to play under the lights. First time, pretty exciting! Lose the game 5-12. Stinks they lose but means we can get on the road tomorrow! Allergies were horrible today!

Let The Adventure Begin...

I want to blog our trip but not sure how to. I took pretty detailed notes everyday and I think I'm just gonna start with the first day and go from there. So we left for Bozeman today for Hannah's (well The Lady O's) state tournament. It's Dan's birthday and I feel bad because that is pretty much forgotten. We need to pack for the trip ahead of us and get through Bozeman first and forge on. We leave home @ 8:10 with 122,485 miles on Mike. We have Kendall with us for the trip to Bozeman. We stop and have lunch at Wendy's and hit the fields. Girls play the Belgrade Wolfpack first. We lose 7-2 - Hannah threw 8 strike outs though! Their coach was horrible and screamed from 3rd base the whole game - really rattled our girls. We should have won that one. Not another game till 1:15 the next day. We are staying at the KOA and Dennis & JoAnn will join us tomorrow. We have dinner at Old Chicago with a big group of the team - the girls sand Happy Birthday to Dan. Afterwards we head back to the field to watch the older Lady Osprey - I sprain my ankle and literally fall flat down on my knees. *OUCH* Can't remember the last time that happened - bloody and all! What a bloody mess!

Lady Opsrey Dugout Team

Tonight the Lady Osprey were the dugout team for the Osprey game. The girls each got to run out with the player that plays their position. How fun for the girls!


Hannah then got to try and outrun Ollie the Osprey (if you recall Benjamin did this last year - she beat him!)

I'm Proud To Be American

Last night as I watched the fireworks go off I really started thinking about being an American and Independence Day. I can't even fathom living in any other country - we are so blessed to have our freedom and to have people fight for that freedom every single day of my life and yours. You watch the news or read the newspaper and it is so scary in other countries. I don't even think I could last one day in a war driven country. I'll keep my good old USA thank you very much and the men and women who fight for me every day to stay safe.

We did our usual 4th of July celebration. Hannah, Benjamin and I hit Splash Montana for a while with Betsy, Jayden, Josh and Jesse. It was a hot one and just fun to hang out in the water. And as always we follow it up with a BBQ at the Muellers - this year the Simonichs came which was fun. We ate, drank, played kickball (I think the parents beat the kids this year - oh wait no that's next year :) ) and watched the fireworks together! Good times, good times!

Am I having Mid Life Crisis???

Am I in the middle of a mid life crisis??? I'm only 38!! Two weeks ago, well 13 days ago, I gave my two week notice at work. I relinquished my position on the school board, after a lot of thinking and praying. And our house is on the market. Am I crazy? What am I doing by making all these changes?? I'm hoping I'm destressing and making my life more, well, liveable. I want more time for my family, my house, for me. Remind me this next time I volunteer again or consider a not full time job but 35 hour week. Send prayers my way that this all works out for the best!