And the Journey begins...

So the journey begins! We left a little or a lot later than we originally wanted to. My wallet got stolen on the Saturday before we left...so not fun. So not only did we have to cancel all my cars and replace my drivers lic but also my dod ID card. Needless to say it was a rough few days. We ended up leaving a day later than we wanted and ended up staying in a hotel in Dayton since we had already scheduled all the utilities to turned off when we wanted to leave. So like I said ...rough.

Izzy went into the trailer flawlessly!!! We were all surprised! We loaded up and headed out of town from the barn and set out towards Indiana.

The MetLife blimp followed us...or we followed it from Dayton.

Checking on Izzy at the first either rest stop or gas station...I don't remember. She was doing great, however the cats were hiding.

I know silly picture but we thought it was cool.

Our first stay was in Chicago.

Our first stop had no rooms available so we went a little further north to this Best Western.

You would have thought no one had seen a real life horse before. People kept driving by really REALLY slow so they could stare. Granted how often do you see a horse eating grass outside of a hotel in Chicago?

Izzy was so aware of EVERYTHING that was around her. Never spooked though, she even let Kadi walk around her while she ate grass. Such a good pony!

If you had noticed the picture above of where the trailer was parked you'll notice it wasn't here. So after we had parked the night before people had parked on either side so Travis (the professional bus driver, back-up extraordinaire) had to back-up the trailer to the front of the hotel. If you saw the video you'd know how impressed we were.

Mom and Amelia had never been to Lake Michigan so we made a pit stop to look around.

Grammie Tracy and miss Kadi

After our pit stop we headed towards Minneapolis...our next stop.

Just checking on our fuzzy 4 legged babies...still alive!!!

We finally made it to Minneapolis!!! 

This is a VERY tall building. Mom and the girls were on the 7th floor looking down at us. I have a pic looking up at them but I can't find it. The hotel let us use the dirt lot so we could let Izzy have a bit more room. It was nice to let her stretch her legs.

This was the nicest hotel we stayed at. Trav got really good prices everywhere we stayed...under $100 a night for each I believe. Kadi loved this one though!

The continental breakfast was made to order type...it was nice to have a broader menu and made fresh.

And don't forget the pool! This little girl is going to be a fish just like her daddy and Aunt Jessica. And yes I was in my clothes...I wasn't planning on getting in but I was convinced.

It was POURING down rain when we headed out in the morning. We had the girls wait in the lobby while we packed the cars and trailer.

This was our planned longer day. We have been wanting to play at the Mall of America since we moved to the Mid-West...now was our chance.

Yes...he is wearing a Lego Movie shirt.

Mom and Travis took Kadi on her first amusement park ride. She had SO much fun!!!

Kadi's favorite ride I think though is carousels still. She likes to choose the animal she rides. She yells "Weeee" the WHOLE time!

This was one of the roller coasters that Travis, Amelia and I rode on. Somehow mom caught images of the rides while watching us with Kadi.

This one was my favorites. You sat facing each other and then it spun as it went down the track...AWESOME!!!!

By this time Kadi was starting to melt down. It was my turn to walk with her and find lunch while the others rode a ride. It basically circled the park. Such a fun group of people we are!

Just some other random pictures...

This was the first 2 days of travel. We were only allotted 350 miles a day and 5 days of traveling. It was a long trip, especially since we couldn't go as far as we normally go when we're traveling. We had fun though, stay tuned for the trip to Bismarck ND and to Billings MT!