Nebraska...

Steve's dad and sister have been joking about us driving out to Nebraska all summer.  With his mom's birthday on August 3rd it seemed like a great time for a trip out there.  Steve's dad thought it would be great to surprise her for her big 60th birthday and offered to pay for us to go.  Not only was it a surprise for Elaine but we told the kids we were driving to Denver (thank goodness they're too young to know geography!) so it was a total surprise to them too.

We left Wednesday, July 29th bright and early, after being delayed an hour because of a dead battery, good times!  We drove the whole day before stopping at a hotel in a small town, Chadron, Nebraska.  I sat in the back with the kids for all of the driving to help out the older ones and because Kaley hates the car so that way I could try lots of different ways to try to make her happy.  The day thankfully went pretty well.  After a morning swim for Preston and Abby at the hotel we were on our way to drive the rest of the way through Nebraska.  We got to their house at about 6pm, Angie let us in and told Elaine that there was someone there to see her.  She walked in the room and just started screaming and screaming, she was so excited and surprised!  The kids were super excited too!  Angie hadn't told Tyson either so he got a surprise too!

My back seat buddies!

This random part of Wyoming had bright red rocks that looked just like St. George, very pretty!

We saw a billboard for a free train museum and it was the perfect spot for a break.  We got to go in three different train cars.  We all thought it was really cool.

We just hung out on Friday while the kids played and played.  On Saturday we drove to Lincoln, Nebraska (about 2 hours) to go to the children's museum there.  The kids had so much fun and we were there for a long time.  We got some dinner in Lincoln before driving home.  We were all exhausted!

Kaley was so stinking tired the whole day at the children's museum and just wouldn't go to sleep.  She was such a trooper and sat on Grammy's lap for a lot of it. 

My astronauts!

Sunday we went to church together and had a relaxing day.  Preston and Tyson got to go on a bike ride with their Papa, which they absolutely loved.  Angie took Abby and Kaley on a short walk to the elementary school to play on the play ground.  Oh how these kids love their extended family!  Sure makes us sad that we don't live closer.

Monday was Elaine's birthday.  We took the kids to Gobs and Gobs of Fun which is a fun indoor play place.  They had tons of fun and then we all went shopping.  Elaine wanted to get some things for the kids for back to school which was so sweet of her.  After lots of shopping we went to dinner at Perkins.  We topped the night off with the boys going on one last bike ride and getting all packed for leaving the next day.

Kaley loved spending time with her aunt Angie.  Angie would put on Disney music on her phone and let Kaley hold it.  She loved it!  She would just hold it and kind of bounce up and down to the music.

We left on Tuesday, August 4th, this time with their old camper trailer in tow.  They haven't used it in years and it has just been sitting in storage and since we were actually driving out there we figured we'd take it off their hands and tow it home.  It's old and needs a little bit of work but we thought it would be fun and make it possible for all of us to go camping.  About 2 hours into our drive one of the tires on the camper blew out.  We didn't have the right tools to change it so we had to leave the camper on the side of the road and back track about about 10 miles to a bigger town to get the right tools.  We grabbed lunch and Steve changed the tire.  He was so tired and worn out, poor guy!  We quickly made the realization that these tires were old and had been just sitting in the weather for years and that the rest of the tires weren't going to make the whole trip home.  We drove about 30 minutes to the next biggest city to find new tires.  We went to a Big-O and they told us the tires were too old and they didn't have any (oh no!), then we went to Walmart next door and they had them!  We got the tires and Steve put them on in the Walmart parking lot while the kids and I walked around the store.  Three hours after our blow out we were finally on our way again, oh and right as we got back on the road we drove right into a severe thunderstorm!  It's was scary bad and I was beginning to wonder if we were going to see a tornado!  Thankfully we made it through safely.  It all made for a long day and we stopped for the night 2 hours before we had planned to.

How we all felt on the drive home, lol.

The rest of our drive on Wednesday went well even though we were just so tired and ready to be home!  Let's just say that Wyoming and Nebraska are not the most exciting of drives!  They just go on forever and are so dang flat.  Some of the farms and small towns were so cute though.

What a great trip.  We loved being able to surprise Elaine for her birthday (and the kids too!) and had such a great time.  It was also nice to get away from real life for a little bit!