4th of July 2013

We spent another 4th of July in Kansas.  The weather was wonderful, surprisingly not too hot!  The 14 hour drive, while very long, was not terrible.  Our strategy for the long drive was to put the kids all the way in the back of the van with their movies, I sat in the middle with my book and all the food and Matt drives while listening to books on tape.  We stayed a night on the road each way and everything worked out pretty well.  The kids had a lot of fun swimming, fishing, riding 4-wheelers, doing fireworks and playing with cousins, dogs, toys and grandparents.  What more could a kid ask for?

Jake loved seeing all the trucks (real and toys).  He even got to ride in the truck without his carseat (on a dirt road).  Grace loved playing with all the dogs (7 different dogs on our trip) and lighting fireworks. A highlight for Grace was going to be sleeping in the backyard in the bed of the truck with her older cousins (it was supposed to be a tent, but that was forgotten).  I wasn't too sure about this idea, but they tend do things in Kansas I probably wouldn't let them do anywhere else.  She ended up coming inside at 10pm because there was some talk about how "black holes in space could suck up the earth and shred it to pieces."  In hindsight, probably not a good idea.  Other than Grace nightmares, we had a great trip.