Trip to WI, days 1 & 2

I've been using a Mother's Helper this summer, just a few hours a week, so that I can get stuff done, run errands, etc without a toddler and a baby around/along for the ride. I used her the day we left so that I could pack my stuff and the boys' stuff without any interruptions. It. Was. Amazing. Three hours in my house completely to myself!

Making a mess while attempting to pack.

We left for Wisconsin, a 16-hour drive per GoogleMaps, after Seth got home from work on Thursday night. We stopped for dinner at a Fuzzy's taco stand and fed Graham a bottle and kept going. We made it to our hotel, north of Oklahoma City, about 11pm and put the boys down. It took Austin quite awhile to settle down and though it took Graham hardly anytime to fall asleep, come 2am, he was wide awake and screaming his head off. I slept through most of this part, but Seth got up, put Graham in the carseat and drove around for 45 minutes. When he got back to the room with him, he just left Graham in the carseat and he slept the rest of the night in it!

The actual Oklahoma state sign. 

What should be the Oklahoma state sign. ;-) 

This place is huge. Seth says that it's the second biggest casino in the world.

Austin did end up falling asleep in the car on the way to the hotel...

But was great about helping us take stuff inside once we got stopped! :-)

The next morning, our goal was to get up and get going first thing. Unfortunately, with two small children and only two adults, "first thing" means like 9am.

This is how Austin looked when we woke up. lol

And since he didn't get much sleep the night before, he was passed out by 10 in the morning. 

We stopped in Wichita for lunch. We got McDonalds and took it to a park complete with a swing set. It was a great chance for Austin to burn some energy and for us to stretch our legs, change diapers and feed Graham his bottle.

There was a Frito Lay there. Good thing Kim doesn't work at this location; that'd be quite a commute!

fun clouds

Graham passing the time by chewing on his foot. lol

We stopped at a Dairy Queen in Des Moines for Graham's afternoon snack bottle. We ate dinner early and gave Austin his first ice cream cone. It was an interesting Dairy Queen because it was right next to a house. Like, neighbors with Dairy Queen.

I love his expression in this picture!

It was sprinkling outside, so Graham ate his bottle on the floor of the car. 

We put a movie on at the end of this very long day, and Austin calmly slept through most of it.

We stopped in the cities for gas, food, hot water to warm a bottle for Graham, and to clear the bugs off the windshield--we were in the home stretch, now, and we I got in a bigger and bigger hurry! We made it to my Grandma's house about 10pm and we were SO ready to get out of the car and unwind. We unpacked the car, stretched out and then went to bed. 14 hours in the car was a LONG day. But we had made it and it felt so good to be "home."

For us, the roundtrip (including stops on the way up and back and all the driving around once we got there) totalled 2,986.3 miles!