Headed to Chicago today. Clearly this stop is for Sydney. Upon arrival in Chicago we do not pass go and our first stop is the American Girl store!!!! Sydney picked out her very first Am Girl doll (We are still waiting for her to choose a "permanent" name, decisions, decisions). After spending 2 hours and an obscene amount of money in the store (Stu & Trevor left for a bit on their own little adventure and who could blame them) we FINALLY head to the hotel where Stu has opted for the "American girl package." Sydney gets to register herself and [View Full Entry]

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Headed to Minnesota and the Mall of America today. A bit of a drive but looking forward to getting together with a friend for dinner with the fams. We did run into the most traffic by far since the beginning of our trip: chicago to wisconsin, whoda thunk? Not the most exciting drive. Lots & Lots of corn and construction. Finally arrived in Minnesota. GPS couldn't find the hotel, not sure if that was operator error or what but eventually we did find it. Met Heidi and family at the Mall, Haven't seen her in over 20 years. What a beautiful [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 After a 7 hr drive we finally arrived in Ohio. Yeah! Stu; the worst passenger on the planet; actually let me drive. I guess that's what happens when you enjoy time with family a little too much :) Now off to bed, fun filled day of sight seeing ahead of us. Day 3 First stop today, the Football hall of fame. Fortunately we missed all the induction festivities which begin on Wed and go on through the weekend. (Sometimes through no fault of your own you dodge a bullet). After enjoying the football hall of fame, we drove the [View Full Entry]

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We are headed back home. Our return trip will take about 10 days. Not exactly looking forward to the long car ride but looking forward to getting back home. Lots more sight seeing to do. Our first stop is NJ for a Allaway family reunion of sorts. The kids are excited to have a chance to meet their cousins. Almost everyone was there, the Wilsons were missed. Thanks Jean for hosting and the hospitality. We really enjoyed ourselves. Lets make sure we do it again soon! [View Full Entry]

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Day 4 : Texas to Tulsa today. Today is a "short" drive, only 7 hours. Looking forward to seeing Family. It's hard to believe that we have already driven 1500 miles. That puts us about 1/2 way to Charlotte already. Looking forward to seeing everyone and spending a few days out of the car :) Stu is a driving machine. He really likes the 75 mph speed limit. He is chewing up the miles like Pacman (wacca, wacca, wacca). Arrived in Tulsa well actually Collinsville OK; yesterday during the day no less, that is a first for this trip. We all [View Full Entry]

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Day 3: We Started Day 3 in Flagstaff, AZ. Went to Galaxy Diner on Historic Route 66 for breakfast. The food was good. It was nice to have a hearty breakfast before heading out for the long drive ahead. We actually have a 8 hour drive ahead of us however we didn't realize that we will change timezones TWICE today (Pacific time in AZ to Mountain time in NM to Central time in TX) thus loosing 2 Hours along the way. Oh NO! No "real" destination today, just driving. We will take some time to stop and enjoy some of the [View Full Entry]

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Day 1: We are off. Finally! We ended up leaving a little later than expected. Packing the car was a bit more involved than we had originally thought. The car is packed. Snacks for the kids, Movies for the kids, Music for the kids (notice a theme here?). Hopefully this will keep the kids occupied during our drive to Las Vegas. Wishfull thinking. It took about 2 hours for the first "are we there yet?" to arrive from the back seat. If they only knew they still have about 6 more hours to go. We have arrived in Las Vegas. The [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 We had a great time at Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. We spend some time on the South Rim at approx. 7125 feet elevation. It was Awesome! I am so glad we decided to take this trip and have the chance to see some of this beautiful country with the kiddies. The kids were a little tired but no worse for the ware. They were very excited to see the family of Moose having dinner when we were leaving the Canyon headed to our hotel in Flagstaff. Arrived safely at our hotel. Had a bit to eat then off [View Full Entry]

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Here we are on the eve of our great cross country adventure. The kids are all tucked in; hopefully the excitement will not keep them up too late. All the research has been done. The bags are packed, the car is gased up and we are ready to go. Tomorrow we will head out on our own Griswald type cross country vacation. Hopefully we will have less happen to us then the Griswalds did. :) Over the next 8 days we will drive from CA to NY stopping along the way to visit friends and family all the while enjoying [View Full Entry]

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