A Pirate's Life for Me: July 2014

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Officially a Teen

Aeden is officially a teenager. We celebrated his birthday by going to glow-in-the-dark mini golf followed by lunch at Ah-So.

Friday, July 25, 2014

26 states; 7,244 miles

Aeden is home from his epic road trip. He traveled 7,244 miles through 26 states over the span of 24 days.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

We took Aeden on an epic road trip to commemorate his 13th birthday. Our trip started in Arizona on July 2nd and ended in South Carolina on July 13th. We were lucky enough to spend a week with Eric's family in South Carolina before passing the boy to Eric's parents and flying back home.

Here is the timeline of our trip:

July 2nd: Our travel started as we left Phoenix, Arizona and drove Zion Canyon, Utah.

July 3rd: From Zion Canyon, Utah we drove through Utah ending the day in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

July 4th: Travel from Idaho Falls, Idaho through Montana into Wyoming. We drove through Yellowstone from west to east. After Yellowstone we drove through Big Horn National Reserve until we got to our stay in Buffalo, Wyoming. Aeden kept commenting on how Wyoming is just like Minnesota (where he had never been) as we drove through the state.

July 5th: Travel from Buffalo, Wyoming to Mount Rushmore. After seeing Mount Rushmore we drove through South Dakota and stepped foot into Minnesota so that Aeden could see that it was nothing like Wyoming. Following our step into Minnesota we continued on to our hotel in Sioux City, Iowa.

July 6th: We traveled from Sioux City, Iowa to Joslyn Castle in Omaha, Nebraska. Then from there we drove down to Elwood, Kansas so we could have Aeden step foot in that state. After Kansas we drove through Missouri and ended the day in Quincy, Illinois.

July 7th: From Quincy, Illinois we drove to Great-Grandpa's farm then onto Decatur, Illinois where we spent some time with family.

July 8th: After leaving Illinois, we drove through Indiana to Columbus, Ohio.

July 9th: We spent the morning with friends near Columbus, Ohio before continuing on to Ypsilanti, Michigan where we stayed the night with family.

July 10th: We drove back through Ohio into West Virginia ending the night in Charleston, West Virginia.

July 11th: As we drove through the rest of West Virginia, Aeden commented about how much WV is like Ireland. Eric declined taking a detour to Ireland to see if Aeden was correct. We then drove through part of Virginia and on into North Carolina. We ended the night in Wilmington, North Carolina.

July 12th: We drove from Wilmington, North Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina.

July 13th: This was the end of our portion of Aeden's road trip. We drove from Charleston to the beach. Our portion was approximately 4470+ miles long.

We hit 20 states in 12 days. :)

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Beach Trip Day 7: Last Day

The last day of any trip is always bittersweet.

Eric and Riley looked for treasures:

We were lucky enough that Tap came over to take our obligatory family stair picture.

Then he took a beach picture...it amuses me that my bubble is so big it looks like my family just wandered up and joined the picture.

There was some boogie-boarding and crashing.

An impromptu gymnastics performance

Sweethearts

Birds

Family

Beach

Friday, July 18, 2014

Beach Trip Day 6

Everyone decided to play "Name that Tune" with their devices...

Spontaneous dancing to YMCA

Selfie!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Beach Trip Day 5

We were lucky enough to be invited over to see some of Tigtig's family and enjoy homemade ice cream in the evening. Before we went though, it was a day packed full of fun and relaxation!