Smell How it Tastes: Cross Country Trek

We were off on a grand adventure!

Day 1

One last picture in front of our old house.

YCF prepared an amazing package of gifts for us to open each day. We opened day 1 on the sidewalk before getting into our car.

A super fun license plate game, and a road trip notebook - so perfect! And last but not least...

this hula turtle, which guided us across country well.

We were officially out of Maryland.

First stop was the Price's home in Pittsburgh. Dear friends from seminary, it was the perfect landing spot after an emotional goodbye.

We love their sweet kids - Ella, Josh, and Sam.

It was such a gift to have a night with them!

Day 2

Our longest drive of the trip - 12ish hours from Pittsburgh to St. Louis.

We made it to West Virginia!

Caden took great care of Addy along the way. We were so happy she was able to make the trip with us. Just a month earlier we had learned her kidney's were failing. After two weeks of IV fluids, she was a new pup, so we decided she was up for the trip.

Ohio! We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch.

We eventually made it to Indiana.

New state meant opening a new package - these sweet gifts from the Schick's were a huge hit.

It felt so good to make to Illinois. We were streaming non stop movies on the ipad at this point.

And then FINALLY to St. Louis. I vaguely remember some meltdowns as we were crossing this bridge.

Day 3: We hadn't been to St. Louis since Dave's graduation from seminary 10 years ago. It was so fun to be back!

We had a great breakfast at the hotel, and then it was off to the Arch.

The view from up top - it was fun to peer into the Cardinals game.

We were most excited to bring them to the City Museum. This was a favorite spot in seminary days, and we had always imaged how fun it would be to bring kids here.

Andrew going down one of their fun slides while Will and Caden watch from an old firetruck.

Next stop was Washington University, where I worked while we were in seminary. My office was on the second floor of this building, the 5th window to the right of the column. It was so fun to watch my boys run around in the courtyard I used to look out over as a prayed for and longed to have kids.

With my boys in front of Brookings Hall.

Next stop was Forest Park - we loved this place.

Taking it in.

We did ice cream before dinner - at Jenni's in Central West end, another one of our favorite spots.

And then finally, a drive by our old seminary apartment. So many sweet memories in this place.

Day 4

We drove by/through the seminary campus on our way out of town.

And picked up some necessary fuel for the rode. We were so thankful for gift cards!

YCF's activity of the day, with specific instructions that mom got her coffee first - making sculptures out of tin foil.

Caden got pretty into it.

This was his final masterpiece.

Another package for the day - some yummy cookies from Trader Joe's

We drove through Kansas city, and then turned North to head up into Iowa.

We stopped that night in Sioux City, Iowa.

The greatest surprise of our trip was walking into the pool area at our hotel, and running into the Otey's!

Sweet friends from Seminary, they were on their way from Montana to St. Louis for a conference, and just happened to be staying at the same hotel. This was SO fun!!

Day 5

We drove the plains - and it looked the same for a loong time.

We stopped at the Corn Palace for lunch, and took in this midwest treasure :).

We fed prairie dogs! Dave took much better pics, which now I can't seem to find, but they were so incredibly cute, and our boys loved every second of it.