Road Trip!

We made a short trip to Stockton, MO last weekend with Nick's family. It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive. Nick and I both took half a day off on Friday. Our master plan was to drive during the kids' nap time so they'd be sleeping for the whole drive.

We got off to a bad start......... I realized half way to Towanda (to pick up the kids) that I had forgotten to leave out a few props for my friend to borrow for pictures she was taking for a friend. I felt horrible, but was getting ready to text her and let her know when I started thinking about where MY camera was. I realized I had forgotten it. I begged Nick with my saddest sad face to go home to get it and VERY reluctantly, he did. Even though it added 30 minutes to our trip. But I'm SO glad we went back. I got lots of great pictures from the weekend AND I got to set out the photo props for my friend. Thanks honey!

The kids did good. Tessa fell asleep pretty quickly and slept almost the whole way there. However, this guy..............

.....stayed up for the whole drive and LITERALLY talked the whole way. Literally. Exhausting. I was so looking forward to a nice quiet drive, but that didn't happen. But at least he was happy!

We went out for dinner when we got to Stockton and then settled in for the night. The next day, I wanted to explore a little bit. Nick and Tommy had been there over the summer, but I missed out on that trip, so there was lots to see. We drove down to the dam. The kids loved it! But it was really chilly, so after I played with my camera a little, we headed back to the car.

After we left the dam, we drove around to see what else we could find. The scenery was awesome!

We found a little playground area and the kids were getting restless, so we stopped to let them play for awhile. The wind died down and we had the perfect weather!

I think the picture of Tessa above might be my favorite picture of all time!

Nick found a little ledge that had me scared to death admiring the beautiful lake. I've developed a fear of heights in the last 3 years and this drop off was at least 30 feet (probably more, but I'm horrible at estimating distance and time :). I felt nauseous the whole time, but it WAS gorgeous.

The whole ledge was covered in lady bugs. They kept flying and landing on me and Tommy. He was SO happy about that. I was a nervous wreck, imagining him plummeting down the cliff because he was trying to catch a stinking lady bug. We got off the ledge after the kids had both thrown a few acorns into the water (from the death grip safety of their parent's arms). The lady bugs followed us and Tommy was mesmerized.

We decided to head back to the house, but we passed one last AMAZINGLY beautiful tree that I HAD to take a picture of.

Go ahead and try to tell me there's not a God. Who else could have created THIS kind of beauty? LOVE the color, LOVE the size, LOVE it all. So refreshing to the soul. I hadn't gotten my camera out in awhile, so it felt really good to take some pictures of things that make me so happy!

We spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing with the family. Tommy got plenty of play time with his cousins.

They all had a blast together and it was fun watching them interacting. They're all finally (mostly) to the age where they can play together and have fun! We headed home late that night. It was a long drive, but the kids slept the whole way and Nick and I got to enjoy each other's company (in the moments I was actually able to stay awake!). It was the perfect ending to our mini road trip.