Thursday, June 18, 2009

Vacation Part 1 ... The Trip Begins...


Today we left for our traditional once-a-year vacation! We had originally planned to take it slow to get there, but since when are we good at that, right?!?

We went from TN to Mansfield, MO without a break. You may ask, Why Mansfield? What's there? Well, I'll tell you!

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Rocky Ridge Home/Museum is there. I'm a HUGE fan of the Little House books. I've read all 9 by Laura, and LOVED them. I have also read the Rose Years books which loosely follows Laura's daughter's life in the Ozarks. I've read most of the books to my girls, and figured that since we were headed out in that direction, why not make a stop and check it out!

Once we got there, Mike was ready for some sleep and Ema was already asleep, so we let them sleep, and the rest of us had fun!

The girls had so much fun looking through the exhibits and seeing things that belonged to Laura and her husband, and her family. Hand written letters between Laura and her sister. Clothes they wore. etc. Then we walked through the house. We were the last tour of the night. We got our own private tour... just me and my girls! Her Rocky Ridge Farm looks just as I imagined it.

Kaleigh enjoyed seeing real life stuff of the person she chose to do an oral report about for school.

In the gift shop, we picked out a pioneer bonnet for each of the girls. We got a rag doll for Ema for her birthday, and one for Kaleigh's birthday, Kaleigh also picked out a charm bracelet that shows off all the LIW homes.

While we were driving Mike saw a couple billboards for a restaurant he'd seen on the Food Network... Lambert's Cafe... Mike asked me if it was something I was interested in, and I said, SURE!!! Why Not!!! We're on Vacation nad Ema would love a place like that for her birthday dinner!!! So we stopped! Man...that place was busy!!! With a party of 6 it makes for a LONG wait. We were content to wait it out...it ended up only being about a 30 min. wait! Food was AWESOME!!! ROLLS WERE HOT AND GREAT!!! We tried a bit of Fried Okra...not bad...
We fed our ENTIRE family of 6 for less than $40!
They were NOT small meals either!!!














We left so stuffed! Onward from there to SLC! We wanted to get there to see Grandma Arnold for a bit before she had a business convention in Baltimore to attend for the next week.






We left TN at 8 am on June 18th and pulled in at grandma's house at 5:30 pm on Friday June 19th. Mike drove the WHOLE way! he managed to get 3 hrs of sleep in about 33 hrs worth of driving time :) Gotta Love that man!

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