I kept a travel journal but it's 13 pages long.
I think we have well over 1000 pictures.
Here is a photo summary:
Pioneers don't smile. Winter Quarters, NB
Winter Quarters LDS Temple
St. Louis - Just driving through.
Lucas doing one of his "taste tests" with olives and hotdog at the Williams Family Reunion in Vincennes, IN.
Sunday BBQ, eating butter dipped Indiana Sweet Corn
Williams Family Baseball! Ian hit and never quit running. It didn't bother him that Brooklyn had stopped on 2nd base. He just ran right past her and went for the home run! He wasn't going to let another runners base judgment stop him!
We visited the grave sites of both Rob's mom's family and his dad's. 
We rode go-carts and mini-motorcycles at Aaron's aunt and uncle's house. Only 2 wrecks. Lucas took a clutch piece to the back and Brooklyn dented in a door. Oops.
Sleeping quarters in Indiana at Rob's parents house. Nobody lives there anymore, but it served as shelter from the Indiana rains at night.
After Indiana we headed north to Chicago. Here are the cousins at the Field Museum with "Sue".
At the Art Institute of Chicago Brooklyn said, "I remember that painting from art class!" We took this picture to show her art teacher. 
"The Bean" - Chicago, IL
Lucas couldn't hack the 10:30 pm dinners we frequented. No wonder he woke up hungry every morning!
Chicago site seeing!
Playing in a fountain in downtown Chicago. All fun and games until Ian's head hit Brooklyn's front tooth and knocked it loose. Yes, it is her permanent tooth. But in the end it tightened back up.
Another fountain, at Liberty Zoo in Chicago. It's free! You can't beat that!
This was the best of our sleeping arrangements. Brooklyn and I decided the car was getting too squishy night after night, and we opted for the starlit sky. The mosquitos weren't too bad in Nauvoo, and it wasn't raining. It is too bad we didn't have more opportunities for this!
The mosquitos in Indiana beat Ian up. This was the worst of his bites, but his arms and legs didn't look much better. But as you can see, he's still smiling! The day this picture was taken he got into some chigger bugs and the following day his entire body was covered in spots.
Aaron's Parents, His Brother Jared, wife Caitlin, their 4 boys and us at the Nauvoo Temple
After Nauvoo we parted ways with the rest of the Williams clan and headed up to South Dakota for an extended trip through Mount Rushmore and Wyoming, taking us to Yellowstone Park.
On the way to Yellowstone we slept in the car on the highway near Devil's Tower. Not a bad sight to wake up to!
Our first Bison sighting at Yellowstone National Park.
We were lucky enough to see this Grizzly with her cubs and another bear the next day.
And here we are checking out an elk.
The kids were awarded their 7th Junior Ranger badge of the trip at Yellowstone. We had stopped at many National Memorials, Parks and Reserves along the way.
The grand finale to our trip was seeing Old Faithful. Which Lucas refers to as "The Faithful".Well, that's it in a nut shell. Now we are home and can get to the RELAXING of our summer vacation.
5 comments:
this looks like so much fun. i took a similar trip with my family when i was 10 or so. three weeks, 12 states and likely as many miles. i have never forgotten it. your kids likely won't either. the photos brought back so many memories! so happy you could experience that with your kids.
Epic!
Emily, I think our summer vacations were an exact match. We went back East also and saw pretty much everything you saw and we just got back from camping in Yellowstone for a week. What fun. You have a beautiful family.
That's cool Hillfivesome....don't know who you are by your code name... please reveal.
p.s. hillfivesome, did you sleep in any beds while you were on your trip? because if you did, you didn't have the same trip we did. :) It was the ground or the car seats for 3 weeks baby!
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