Road Trip

Dear Baby Waider, Well, we made it on our BIG cross country trip! I have decided that the easiest ways to tell you the story of your trip is through pictures. Because I am still pretty beat from our trip I decided that I would just load the pictures from the phone and not worry about the order that they show up in. Not really the best attitude to have, but I want to tell you the story of our trip before the details begin to fade from my memory. You had a wonderful time and were just the best little baby! Mom and dad were so proud of you. Everyone commented upon what a good little girl you were the entire time. You partook in most events and I think had a pretty good time. So, here is a snapshot of our trip, not necessarily in this order.

This is a shot taken of the St. Francis River leading into Lake Wappapello. It was at the coolest campground I've ever been to!! It is called Greenville Campground.

Here you are with your second cousin McKenzie. Her mom, my cousin, Kim is behind you. McKenzie LOVED you and wanted to hold you all of the time. It didn't last long, but she held you quite a bit.

Here you are at Greenville Campground. It is the first time you got to swing at a park! You loved it.

Here you are with mom eating and snoozing at the reception.

Here you are with Super Cousin Kammie. She was a big fan of you and you were also a fan of her! Here you are filling your pants just for her! ;)

Here you are at Super Aunt Cathy and Super Uncle Mike's house. They gave you a special gift. A GIANT rabbit named Max. Legend has it that your Super Cousin Chris won this rabbit. For some reason, he's convinced that he does not have space for this beloved creature. Luckily for you your dad LOVES stuff like this so he snatched Max up for you when Super Aunt Cathy offered him to you. I'm guessing that Max has had a wide range of travel and has enjoyed a good life. I'm hoping that we can give him a life just as good. Thanks again, Mike and Cathy for the gift of Max.

Bath time in the camper!!!

Watching fireworks with daddy at the fire station. More of a story to come...

Cousin Finn cutting a rug!

This rather blurry picture is you in your bouncer in the camper. We had to take down the dinette and put you up there because we didn't have very much space. You loved it, but really missed all of the space you have at home to crawl around.

Here you are with Super Cousin Jennifer and Matt. They are the reason that we took you 17 hours away from home in a truck with sketchy air-conditioning and made you sit next to a very smelly 145 pound dog. They do look fairly happy that we made it so it was worth it. Although we never did get to dance with Cousin Jennifer we did see her walk down the aisle which was an event we didn't want to miss.

Okay, the 4th of July story. Promise not to think I'm a horrible mama, okay? First, mom wasn't crazy about going downtown. We were in Kansas City and mom and dad had been lost pretty badly down there on the WRONG side of town a few days before. We had decided not to go. You were tired and so were dad and I. Anyway after hashing it out your dad and I decided that we needed to take you to fireworks on your first Fourth of July. It is a cool holiday and fireworks are the best part. So we loaded up the truck and took you downtown Kansas City at 9:30 at night to see fireworks. Naturally we couldn't find parking anywhere. What were we thinking?!! It was totally crowded and people everywhere were trying to get downtown. Dad drove around a little and went down what appeared to be a rather sketchy looking road. As he was driving down it he even said, "This looks a little sketchy, but I'm going to see where it leads." Low and behold it led us to a tiny parking lot with two spaces available. Your dad pulled in and so did another car. We didn't know what the parking lot was to, but when we looked we noticed it was a fire station. There were some friendly firemen having a BBQ and getting ready for the fireworks. Luckily it seemed safe enough. So we started our trek downtown. As we headed downtown we ran into some pretty sketchy folks. No one who would seem sketchy to me before I had you, but I was full on mama bear at this time. Oh, I forgot to mention that grandma and grandpa Halter were also down there and we were hoping to find them. I thought we were walking towards them, but turns out I wasn't. We had actually gotten on a bus leading to where I thought they were. (I was trying to make my moving dot on my google map meet up with their green dot that wasn't moving.) Alas as we were on the bus auntie Katie called and told me where they were and I finally figured out we needed to head back. We got the driver to let us off of the bus and we ran to the green dot on mama's phone screen. I thought the area looked familiar, and it did. The green dot I was looking at was the spot where we had parked that I had marked as our current location. Luckily, the firefighters were really nice and let us watch from their lawn! It was the PERFECT SEAT. Not too close or loud and we could just jump back in the truck and take off right after it was over. You loved the fireworks too. You just watched and watched. Now for the bad mama part. As we were walking back to the car I drove you off of a curb and you flew out of your stroller as in head first. Fortunately you landed on your new BFF, Jesse, and you landed on your side. Phew! I was so worried that I hurt you badly. You cried a little and once I picked you up you stopped. The firemen were there and we all decided since you were hardly crying and had no marks that you were okay. Lesson learned. Buckle baby in stroller ALWAYS. Oh, and this is a picture of a firetruck coming back to the station as the fireworks were going off. It was very cool. We never did meet up with the others until we were on I-35 South, that is, on our way home.

Happy 4th!

This was your favorite exhibit at the Kansas City Zoo, which was what we did the morning of the fourth. There were Chimps that would come up to the window. Grandpa took some pictures of that.

This is at the reception. Your cousin Vern was quite the dancer! He went right up and danced with this little gal!

Cousin Vern. This kid has mad dance skills.

I love this picture because it was this morning after you woke up from sleeping in your own bed! You were so happy to be home! You crawled and crawled and played with all of your toys! It was really cute.

This little guy, well 900 pound polar bear was one of your favorites to watch at the zoo too. He was so much fun and kept jumping in the water to catch fish!

Here are more pics of Greenville Campground. It used to be a town, but they moved all of the buildings because they kept flooding. The sidewalks are all still there and it is just the coolest place.

Okay, so mama gets a pretty hard time for wearing some short shorts. Now that I look at this picture these shorts are a little too short and maybe need to be retired, but we had a wonderful walk an you LOVED riding in the Moby.

Sleepy baby! This is after you fell out of your stroller at fireworks. You were sleeping with your BFF Jesse who earlier had broken your fall. Jesse has been a good purchase. We got her for you at the Disney Store Outlet in Branson. Branson was an interesting town. Your dad is determined to take you back there to go on go carts, zip lines, and to play minigolf. Personally, I see NO POINT to going to a town where they charge $100 to listen to a cover band and eat dinner, but maybe it will be fun.

This is your Super Cousin Billy and his FIANCE Ashleigh. They have you and Harry. I'm pretty sure they are ready to have twins. We will hopefully be taking Mia and the camper out to their wedding in CALIFORNIA next summer.

Ah, Titanic! One of my many obsessions that I will love to share with you. This is a replica of it and it is 1/2 the size. This is how bit it is compared to dad's truck. It is huge! I can't imagine how huge the real one was. I WOULD return to Branson to show you this for sure. It was wonderful. Oh, and we all survived our journey on Titanic.

This is another pic of Greenville Campground. It is gorgeous. Our trip was a really great experience.I learned quite a bit on our little journey. First, it is okay to be adventurous with a baby. Especially a good baby that is a good traveler! You more than exceeded my expectations which you do daily, so I am not surprised. Also, your Super Aunt Cathy and Super Uncle Mike shared a very good lesson about "writing a better story." And I really think this trip was all about writing a better story. This summer would have been good no matter what. However, by taking this trip we got to write a better story. At times it was hot with no AC, mom wanted to just go home, or just go to bed, but instead we got to write a better story. It is funny how things work out. All of the things I thought would be so horrible really weren't. Even though you cried from Kadoka to home yesterday (and that is a LONG WAY) it wasn't too bad. We made it, and for the most part, we had a blast. Love, Mama