The Kelish Family Epic Road Trip of 2016

It has been a little over a month since we returned home from what we dubbed our "Epic Family Road Trip", which took us through Nevada, Utah and Wyoming to our ultimate destination, Colorado!

So what brought this trip about? Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not the biggest fan of road trips. As a child my family took an [almost] annual road trip to Nebraska to visit my grandparents, an adventure that I loved and looked forward to all year, but long road trips lost their luster somewhere along the way to adulthood and I have spent the last decade and a half avoiding them. However, having a large family that loves to travel as frequently as we do, I realized I had better learn to like road trips. After all, there are only so many cruises sailing out of Los Angeles. ;)

Early this year we received a Save-the-Date for my cousin's wedding in Westminster (Denver area), Colorado on June 11. Since we also have friends in that area, it presented the perfect opportunity for our first big road trip... and a big one it was to be, at over 1100 miles!

Our epic journey originally consisted of five parts... the drive to Colorado, a full day in Fort Collins, CO to visit my good friend Abiah, a full day in Erie, CO to visit our friends and old Clarksburg neighbors, the Jackson family, three days in Westminster to spend time with family and attend my cousin's wedding, and then the drive home. We were only three hours into our trip when Shaun and I decided to spontaneously add a 6th leg to the journey, as we wistfully drove by our beloved Reno on I-80. Since we had three free nights at the Peppermill available to us, we decided then and there to top off our busy trip with a couple days of resort-style R&R on the way home. 

Before I get to the photos, a little spoiler... we had a FANTASTIC time! You'd think that schlepping three kids aged six and under across five states, through four hotels, and countless new places and faces over the span of 10 days would be stressful at the least and disastrous at the worst, but the trip couldn't have been more smooth or more pleasant. It was wonderful to spend time with so many friends and family, and wonderful to see so much of our beautiful countryside along the way. I'm happy (and very surprised) to report that my position on long road trips has completely changed and I'm ready to go on another one, tomorrow! Well, maybe next week. As you can imagine, readying this family of 5 for such a journey does take some significant preparation and packing time. :)

And now, without further ado, the pics! In this post I will cover "phase one" of our journey, the drive to Fort Collins. Our trip began bright and early on Monday, June 6th...

A shot of the kids several hours into our first day of driving. Ellie is working on a puzzle while Eddie looks at a book and Avalon catches some shut-eye (with an open mouth, lol!). I'm happy to say that the bulk of the drive really was as peaceful as this pic suggests. I have to give Pinterest most of the credit for the success of our drive time... it gave me some fantastic ideas to keep the kids entertained without turning them into zombies from too much screen time.

I brought almost every touch-and-feel, lift-the-flap, noise-making, "interactive"-type book we own to keep Eddie entertained on the drive... and once he got bored with all that, he had fun putting books on his head. I love how easily entertained they are at this age. :)

Shaun took the wheel for the first part of our journey... and never left! He ended up doing ALL the driving for the ENTIRE TRIP! I was fully prepared to drive my fair share, but he decided that driving was actually the easier job (as opposed to keeping the kids in constant supply of snacks and activities). As a result, I got a lot of reading time in while on the road which was AWESOME!

I took this photo as we drove into a storm about an hour from Salt Lake City, but I had NO idea how crazy the storm would turn out to be. The weather abruptly went from 70s and sunny, to gray and raining, to 30s, thundering, lightening and hailing in a matter of miles. The hail was coming down so furiously we could hardly hear each other talk!

While Shaun and I worried that our windshield might crack from the hail, the kids remained so immersed in their activities that they didn't even notice the craziness going on outside the van.

After 10-15 miles of hellish hail storm, it was back to blue skies and 70-degree temps as we neared Salt Lake City. Crazy!! 

Eloise wanted me to take this pic of her getting comfortable in our Microtel in Salt Lake City. This was our pre-planned stopping point for the day, thank goodness, because Shaun and I were ready for a drink after coming through that freakish storm!

Meanwhile, while Shaun and I investigated our pizza delivery options, Avalon made "signs" on the hotel stationary that declared it "Party Time!"

After getting the party started, our imaginative first-born decompressed from the 660-mile, 9ish-hour drive by doing some work on her pretend laptop (the hotel's welcome binder propped up against a gallon of water). I just adore this kid! <3

Silly siblings ready for another day of driving after a good night's sleep

Gorgeous GREEN Utah country side greeted us on Day 2 of our journey

Shaun and I enjoyed the changing topography of Utah; everything was so beautiful! Funny thing... when we told Abiah that we took I-80 through Utah, she remarked that we "didn't get to see the pretty part of Utah." WHAT! Utah was our favorite state to drive through, and now we DEFINITELY plan to explore more of it someday!

On to Wyoming! I loved the sight of all those windmills on the horizon.

The kids got a little lesson on wind power right around the time I took this photo :)

The main entertainment of the day came courtesy of Eloise, when she decided to take a blue marker to her face to "make freckles like Anna." Once I noticed what she had done and attempted to take a pic, she flipped out and refused to give me a good shot...

Why didn't she want me take a picture of her "freckles"? "I'm embarrassed!", she cried.

 It took a couple rest stop bathroom scrubbings to get all the blue ink off her face.

As we drove through Wyoming we noticed lots of random fences in various configurations along side the Interstate...

Shaun became particularly obsessed about figuring out what they were for and we spent many a mile brainstorming (as we had no signal with which to ask Professor Google).

Once we had access to the Internet again we got our answer... snow fences!

Shaun took advantage of a very flat, uncrowded stretch of I-80 in Wyoming to take the van to 100 mph for "fun". I didn't even notice until he motioned to the speedometer and said, "just for the heck of it."  Naturally, Mama Bear insisted that he slow down immediately! (after a quick pic, of course!)

The topography changed again as we neared Colorado... hello again, trees! The 60-some-odd miles between Laramie, WY and Fort Collins, CO on Hwy 287 was one of the most beautiful drives ever! I took this pic before we really got into it and was looking around too much to even think of taking more pics.

"Take my picture, mom!" Eloise said again as she kicked back in our room at the Quality Inn in Fort Collins. "Part 2" of our journey had begun!