5000+ miles and loved it.

On August 18th at 10pm we started our two week cross country vacation/adventure. We went from Idaho to Washington DC and back and it was great fun. To be completely honest, I was sad to have it end and I am looking forward to another BIG road trip sometime soon.

We drove through Yellowstone National Park and saw a ton of wild life....too bad we had to keep our speed down to avoid a hitting them and sadly it took us five hours to drive just 250 miles. We over came, continued, and conquered the beast (Yellowstone Park driving). By 11am the next morning we were ready to party...

First Stop, Devils Tower, Wyoming. The local Native Indians used to worship on the top of this thing and they still hand prayer ribbons all around it in the trees.

nice wildlife huh...

Two hours later, Mount Rushmore or at least Rapid City, South Dakota.

We LOVED Rapid City SD. Tons of free parks, museums, and activities for the kids. Below are way too many pictures of the Story Time Island park and pretty much heaven on earth in Clovers opinion...she was in love with this place.

Another park, this time with paddle boats and ducks.

South Dakota was established by Scandinavian immigrants who migrated from Massacchutes to escape the harsh weather. All over Rapid City you could see their influence especially in this church.

We did pay for this activity and it was worth every cent. Snake charmers , crockadile wrestlers, and bird tamers. ...loved it.

Biggest Crock in captivity...he was HUGE!

This fella is 150 years old.

He seems a little too wise if you ask me.

Rattle Snake

Something very venomous.

Viper. He was SO aggressive...hated him.

True Story! Stevey suddenly panicked because he couldn't find Sunny. He started hollering for her and frantically started looking for her. The rest of us just looked at him like he must be crazy because she was that she right there in his arms the whole time....he WAS going crazy. Her new nic-name is Velcro baby, she would not leave Stevey alone the whole time.

OMAHA, NE

The early Mormon Saints came to America on ships with beds like these and they would sleep three to a bed. They are narrower than the door frames in our house and our three skinny kids didn't even fit.

This temple has the most beautiful stain glass windows I have ever seen.

Pedestrian bridge over the Missouri river.

Hotel sleeping time in Omaha.

NAUVOO, IL

Joseph, Emma, and Hyrums headstones.

Love this temple

Love this picture.

Joseph and Emma homestead.

Throwing rocks in the Mississippi River.

SPRINGFIELD, IL

This is Abraham Lincoln's old stomping grounds. This is the state capital that he worked from.

this is the new one.

Lincoln's house. When we toured it we had to be sure to only walk on the designated path and don't even think about touching the walls. We were under a lot of pressure especially with the little girls.

A free museum. The other children were lost at the time of this picture.

Springfield (crappy) hotel.

SAINT LOUIS, MO.


The arch was awesome and the whole city oozed cool.

In our pod to go to the top of the arch.

Sunny ready for the all nighter.

RICHMOND, VA

We drove all night and made our way to VA. While coming through West Virginia we drove down the Blue Ridge Mts.....mistake. Hours and hours (in our opinion) of hair-pin turns at 15 to 20 miles per hour. The scenery was incredible, but after driving all night this was brutal. Everyone in the car got car sick including me and I NEVER get car sick.

At the end of our trial was a loving and gracious former Arkansas, Little Rock mission companion who opened her home to us right there in VA. We love your family and THANK YOU for making us feel so welcomed.

Our kids got a long great and her children were very generous in sharing their space and toys with my kids.

Playing in the James River in Richmond.

Christmas card worthy family photo.



WASHINGTON DC.

These are out of order a bit.

We spent several days in DC with our dear friends who took in the whole Conder clan and didn't complain about it at all. They were the best tour guides ever and they definitely kept us well fed and entertained....thank you so much!

Day 1

We decided to stay late and do DC at night and it was so worth it.

At the base of the Washington monument. You can see the joy in all of the kids faces.

Can you believe we had this out in public. We didn't realize how dirty she and Clover were until we looked at the pictures later. They were having fun though.

U.S. Capital in the back ground.

Domino's delivers.... even to a bunch of ya'hoos on the National Mall So fun! Has anyone else EVER done this?

Dirt Angels...no wonder the girls were so filthy.

National Air and Space Museum.

Smithsonian (I think). This requires a month to do to fully enjoy.

This is actually how we started out our day in DC. We took family names that we found from new.familysearch.org and Stevey and I had an incredible experience there insidethe temple doing work for our family.


MOUNT VERNON

Day 2

George Washington was a genius.

Fun tid-bit. Our friend actually ran into his former Mission President's wife while visiting Mt. Vernon this day. She absolutely remembered him and had come into town for day 3's event.

Day 3

I have never really done anything like this before and I was a bit nervous about it, but I couldn't not go. The Restoring Honor Rally by Glenn Beck is something I totally believe in and I am grateful to have participated along with the other 500,000 supporters there too.

Everyone really was so kind, courteous, and patient. Example. We were literally standing shoulder to shoulder with people and moving around really wasn't an option. Guess who decided to go poop in their diaper... Honestly, there was no where to go and a couple of us had just got back from using to restrooms and knew that was not an option. I apologized to everyone around me for the dirty deed I was about to embark on and honestly, there was not one criticle eye or judgemental vibe from anyone around. One perfect stranger even helped ease my burdon (pressure) by saying, "She's smelt worst things before" May I just say that Stevey and I have never changed a poopy diaper together faster than this time ever before.

May I just point out that the whole entire time we were in VA and DC that the Lord tempered the weather for us. From the time that we made it down the Blue Ridge mountains vortex into VA there was almost no humidity and the temperature was very comfortable. HE also took care of the DC traffic for us too. The traffic DJ's on the radio even kept saying how unbelievable it was. Well, I for one do believe in miracles and recognized this one immediately.

KANSAS CITY, MO

The Great Wolf Lodge with indoor water park. Idaho Falls area definitely needs one of these.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO


More friends took us under their wings and opened their home and refrigerator to us.

The girls went to Happy Orchards and picked a ton of apples and dreamed of operating an apple orchard farm of their own one day...did I mention that this was the dream of the Mother? These apple were delicious....Gala, perfect off of the tree. We also picked rasberries and I bought some homemade peach and raspberry jam from the store.

Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, this was amazing and free.

Sunny was crying because Stevey wasn't holding her...poor picked-on girl.

I LOVE the Olympics. Guess what is in Colorado Springs...the Olympic training facility! We toured it and our tour guide was a petite little girl who maybe weighed 90 lbs and competes in the weightlifting competitions. She lifts over her head 150 lbs and must eat over 4000 calories a day.

In the SLC 2002 winter Olympics I was a torch runner, so I got to run with one of these torches. At the time, I could have bought the torch I ran with for $350, but one of the other runners claimed it first. This has bothered me ever since.

DENVER, CO

We stopped in Denver and played for a couple of hours on the 16th Street mall and rode the free electric trains up and down the street and then ate at this burger joint.

After Denver we stopped in Laramie WY for the night and then made it home by 6pm. I was grateful to finally clean out the van, but other than that I could have kept on going. Seventeen states in two weeks.... what memories.