Major Road Trip

At the beginning of August, we took a major road trip. We basically drove from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Erie - well almost :). Christian was very hesitant to take such a long car trip (about 23 hours total) with 3 kiddos. We packed our stuff including lots of food for the road and things to do in the car - DVD players, coloring books, aluminum foil for sculpting ideas (that was pretty neat!), road scavenger hunt (Addison still points out water towers when we are in the car thanks to this game), etc. Our first destination was Hendersonville, TN (just outside of Nashville) to see my older brother and his family. We had a wonderful time hanging out and visiting.

This is what we saw in the backseat for the majority of the trip!

We went to the Opry Land Hotel. It is amazing. Unfortunately, my brother and nephew could not join us because he had a football game to play at in a neighboring town.

Us inside of the Opry Land Hotel.

Addison, Paige, Garrett, Kaylyn, & Eden

Tracy, Stacy, and the kids

Having fun at the pool... Dalton, Kaylyn, Bo, Garrett, & Paige

Next, on to Canton, OH to see Christian's Grandmother and extended family. We had a big family gathering with the Miller side of the family lots of food and card games.

Christian with his Grandma and Aunts & Uncles

We celebrated Paige's 11th Birthday while we were there. Yes, she got a cell phone!
We took the girls to the Harry London chocolate factory for a tour and shopping. We love chocolate! Can you tell that they are 3 little monkeys?

Now on to the Whitmer side of the family for more great food and visiting. Here are the girls with their cousins Mandy & Dave.

We spent a day in Amish country. It was neat to show the kids the different way of life. We went on a horse drawn wagon ride through an exotic animal ranch. It was wonderful. There were so many animals...huge mules, osterich, deer and other animals like them, water buffalo, lamas (this was neat because Addison has always said, "I want a lama for a pet" - I'm not quite sure why???), camals, bison, beeffalo???(cross between cow and buffalo), etc.

Mommy and Eden on the wagon

Paige feeding an animal

Daddy and Addison - yes, with a lama!

Grandma Miller

My big girls!

Group Photo

And the real news is that the kids were unbelievably awesome. No fighting, no extra stops, no problems at all. At one point we went almost 6 hours between stops. That is pretty amazing with an 11 year old, 4 year old, and 5 month old. The diaper was pushing maximum capacity at that point :)!