ROAD TRIP!!!

Our first long drive together! We are in Nebraska now for a Habel family reunion of Christina's immediate family. Christina's sister Ginger flew in from Portland and drove down with us. Carter loved playing with her and attacking her with his new favorite snack, Gogurt! Christina stocked up on early birthday presents from Kid 2 Kid to try and entertain him. Some toys didn't last too long, but he got a hang of the drums pretty quick. He must be his father's son! :-)

We stopped at a gas station in North Platte, and it had a comical sign that just sums up Nebraska...You are NOWHERE. Which is it?! No where or Now here?? We also got a good look at our massive bug killing frenzy that our Jeep made by the time we hit North Platte. Disgusting!



Overall Carter did pretty awesome. for the 13 hour drive. We were only about 11 1/2 hours on the road, but with the stops it took longer. We left Utah around 3pm and got into Nebraska at 4:30am (UT time). So we were all pretty exhausted, but luckily Carter feel back asleep for a little while longer to give us a few hours of shut-eye.

After we awoke from the land of the dead, we showered brushed our teeth, and finally felt a little refreshed. Then we jumped in the car and went on another hour drive to see Winter Quarters. This is one of our favorite places. It is absolutely beautiful and you can just feel the history that took place on that land.
We were quite the crowd for the little trail center, but they missionaries showed plenty of patience and we had a great time. They were smart and started us off with a movie in a room by ourselves. :-)

The museum had clothes that the kids could dress up in to look more like pioneers. What a sight to see all of 13 kids dressed up. It was amazing that they had enough clothes!

After rushing through the visitor center since we were quite a bit louder than everyone else there, we went out to the cemetery. There is a beautiful spirit there, even with all the kids running around. The garden was amazing and Carter especially liked the bright yellow flowers.
It was awesome to have so many cousins around for Carter to play with. He did relatively well, and enjoyed the attention. After the cemetery, we "hopped" the fence to go the Winter Quarters temple that is next door. Dad had all of the kids touch the temple because of an experience told by the prophet.
This temple holds special meaning to Christina since this is where she received her endowments and was able to take part in the open house and dedication. Christina's parents also served there before they moved to SC. It is a beautiful temple filled with history in every corner.
It started to rain a bit on us, but we captured a few family photos, before it was off to McDonalds for much needed "nourishment." They actually pulled off our order of 30 people pretty well.

Even though we way tired from driving so much, Christina couldn't pass up the opportunity to drive by the house she grew up in. Her parents haven't lived there for 3+ years, and Dad was always meticulous about the lawn so it was sad to things had been let go a bit. The trees were huge compared to what Christina could remember, and it was nice that they hadn't taken them out yet. There were so many memories in that house that she just wanted to ask about looking inside...anyway, it is definitely good to be home.