Rewind: One Adventure Ends...

After stopping in Nauvoo, we drove to Omaha, NE. We were really planning on staying in Council Bluffs right outside of Omaha and seeing the Church History site there, but our map of the area was NOT very detailed and as we were trying to figure out where we were and where we were going, a huge thunderstorm opened up on us. We turned on the radio to hear about the weather, and they were giving tornado warnings... not the most comforting news. So our primary goal was just getting off the street. But wouldn't you know it, as soon as we checked into the hotel, the storm stopped.

The next day (Day 4 in the car) we went from Omaha to Cheyenne, WY. In Cheyenne, we missed a turn looking for our hotel and ended up in Colorado (a state I had never been to), so we added ANOTHER state to our already epic journey. Day 5 was from Cheyenne to Salt Lake City. In SLC, we were able to see lots of people from Sam's family: his sisters Becky (with husband Eric and son Isaiah), Connie, and Tedi (with husband Doug). It was so great to be able to see family... especially since most of them hadn't seen Levi since he was less than 2 months old (it had been even longer since they had seen Sam). We even got to pick up Sam's mom at the airport the next morning before we headed out!

On Day 6 we drove from Salt Lake to Boise where Sam's brother, Abe and his wife Ann live with their little boy, Tag. While there, we all went to dinner at Richard and Ericka Andrus' house (one of Sam's best friends dating back to their childhood). And finally, on Day 7, we traveled from Boise to Richland, WA... OUR DESTINATION!!! Amazingly, Levi did an awesome job for being in the car for 7 days. He only came close to having a meltdown once. The trip really wasn't that bad, because we kept the days short and went swimming every night at the hotels.
Oh yeah, one funny story I forgot to share... We drove past a SUV that had vanity plates that read BLNDSXY. As we passed the driver, it turned out to be a big, dark, hairy guy. Talk about false advertising! We're guessing that it was his wife's car. Here are a few pictures of Levi in the car.

We bought this toy for Levi specifically for this trip. It completely held his attention for the first 2 or 3 days, so it was well worth it. It didn't take him long to discover that the microphone really works. We were thoroughly entertained by his being entertained, so we had to catch it on film.