Cross Country Road Trip (part 3): The long trek home

We debated about which way to head home from North Carolina.  We were thinking about going further south through Atlanta, Georgia and up or going up to Chicago and down.  We knew we definitely didn't want to go the way we came!  We wanted to see something new!  In the end the Chicago route won out!  And it was so much fun!  I really loved Chicago!!  I would love to go back when I have more time and money! 

On our way we went through Virginia,

and West Virginia,

and Indiana.  There were miles and miles of wind mills in Indiana. 

We stayed the night in Indiana and the next day we went on to Chicago. 

 We went to Millennium Park. 

 The iconic Chicago high rises, that I had only seen on TV shows until now!  It was awesome!

 The Great Lawn and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

 Taking a breather in the shade, it was really hot that day!!

 The AT&T Plaza with the giant jelly bean!  This thing was so cool!  You'll see that I thought it was awesome by all the photos I took! 

 Lily kissing herself!

 Can you find us in there??? 

This is probably our best family photo ever taken!  LOL!

From there we went to the Crown Fountain which was so cool!!  I wish I would have gotten more pictures, but I was too busy playing in the water!  There were two huge pillars that had holograms on them and they kept changing pictures and there is just tons of water pouring off of each of them.  The kids loved it!  They got soaked!

After the fountain, we decided to get a good old Chicago style hot dog for lunch.  At the hot dog stand, this sign was posted. 

And here is Cory putting Ketchup on the girls' hot dogs!  Not ours, we had ours "Chicago style"

 The girls enjoying their hot dogs with ketchup, no matter how offensive they may be! 

 Cory and I enjoying our non offensive hot dogs!  Delicious!

More iconic buildings and another veiw of the jelly bean.

Then we went to this tent that had all sorts of fun things to do, it was for the Cultural Exchange: Explore Swedish Tradtions.  I don't know how Swedish these things were but my kids enjoyed themselves. 
Building with blocks,

 Hula hooping,

 Bean bag toss,

 Ava had great aim!

 Hop scotch, giant tic tac toe and puzzles,

Seriously, how much more Swedish can you get???

After Chicago, we knew we just had two boring days to drive home and we were all pretty sad about it!  We drove throught Illinois, Ohio, (tons more corn)

back down through Nebraska and through Wyoming.   Here's Will wearing Ava's shades. 

We had to stay our last night in Laramie, Wyoming.  At least they had a Taco Bell for one last quesadilla! 

 Ava running to the Taco Bell.

Jumping on the beds at the hotel.

And they did have a really fun pool! 

We had so much fun swimming!  The next day it was only a "short" 5 hour drive.  We did see some baby deer at a gas station. 

All and all, it was a pretty fun and adventurous trip.  We were sad to see it end, but were also ready to get back to real life.  One of my favorite things about the whole trip was that at almost every stop (and there were a lot!) without fail a trucker would say to me "You got your hands full, lady!"  Every time!  Ususally I had all three with me, but once I just had Will, and I thought, you don't even know! We also drove over 5,000 miles and only got pulled over by a police officer once!  Luckily, we got out of a ticket!  So I'd say it was a pretty successful trip!