hit the road jack

Two weeks ago, we left on our family summer road trip to Connecticut!! My extended family lives in Connecticut and we haven't visited them there in several years so we were very excited to make the trip. We decided to drive because it's so much cheaper then flying. We've made the drive to Connecticut straight thru before (a FULL 26 hours...!!!) but we learned that lesson the hard way and this time decided to make the drive over two days and stop and spend the night at a hotel in between. It made all the difference in the world. You just have to take a break from a full day in the car. We left the house while it was still dark outside, just after 4AM and got a good start on the road before even having breakfast.

We wanted to stop somewhere for lunch that the boys could play and get all their wiggles out and so the first McDonald's we saw with a Play Land we pulled over and had some lunch!! It was nice to stretch our legs for sure!!

The boys were excited when we crossed the mighty Mississippi!!

And then we made our way thru St. Louis!!

We stopped for dinner at The Cracker Barrel. It was nice to have some down home cookin' after eating fast food all day.

We discovered as we sat down at The Cracker Barrel that we were having dinner with my dad...and he didn't even know it!! Ha!! Everyone has always told my dad that he looks like Dunn from Brooks & Dunn and there was a poster of him right there on our table!! We were disappointed, though, when he didn't offer to pay...but I guess he didn't eat that much so he shouldn't have to...Ha!!

Before stopping for the night we crossed into Ohio...

and the stop couldn't come soon enough. The boys were starting to show signs of road weariness.

Once we were in our hotel, it didn't take long AT ALL for the boys to pass out. Brandon and I were quick to follow.

Only one more day...Grampa and Gramma here we come!!!!