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It must take a certain level of insanity to even consider a cross-country trip with so many young ones, but we figured the trip itself would be a grand adventure.  What we didn’t count on were all the difficulties we’d have with our third oldest child who was recently diagnosed with Autism.  

I thought it was neat to see the changes in landscape next to the state signs: The first real problems we had with Nicole were at our first stop at Martin’s Cove.  She didn’t want to go into any of the buildings because she thought there was fire in all of them.  Zach ended up taking the older kids through some of the buildings while I stayed outside with Nicole and the younger ones.  Nicole also panicked about the public restroom.  It was the first of many unpleasant public restroom problems along the way. There was a rainbow ahead of us that looked really neat with the blur of the clouds ahead:
At some point during day, Nicole got very upset and I rode in the back with her for awhile.  I moved back up to the front thinking she was settled enough for awhile. We had to pace ourselves walking up to Mt. Rushmore because Nicole was nervous around the crowds of strangers. The sun was setting as we arrived which made it very difficult to even look directly at the mountain and hard to get a picture of it. We had much more success with pictures once we found objects and places that blocked the setting sun. Thomas refused to cooperate with all my picture demands, so he’s not present in this one.  I didn’t expect the kid who is always photo-bombing pictures of the girls to be suddenly camera shy!Our first night was spent in a very cramped Motel 6.  There was no place to make a bed on the floor, so we managed to squeeze all 5 of the kids into one bed for the night.
Story-time was a little crowded, but still manageable.We actually ended up pulling Thomas out and letting him fall asleep in the other bed before moving him over.
Our first stop on day 2 was at Wall Drug.  It’s a funny little store.  They’re probably most famous for ridiculously large amount of billboards advertising the store for miles.  It’s a little like an old time mall with lots of weird statues throughout. Ila kept asking to have her picture taken with the statues: I sat next to Nicole in the back for most of day two.  When I wasn’t paying attention she opened her cheese and sticks, put all the sticks into the cheese and then started spreading the cheese on cheese-its to make sandwiches.  She didn’t eat any of it and I ended up throwing it all away and vowing to never give her cheese and sticks again. The next stop was the “World’s Only Corn Palace.”  I had seen it once as a kid, but we had been driving cross country and arrived in the middle of the night.  I remember being really tired and only looking at it out the window.  This time we arrived in full daylight and were able to go inside.  Unfortunately, they were in the process of recovering it with corn, so we didn’t get the full effect. Inside was like a school auditorium full of vendors.  we bought matching shirts, a gift for my parents, that giant pink cowboy hat for Nicole and a few other trinkets.  Below you can see some of the finished corn murals.  They’re made out of Indian corn. I thought it was neat that even the lamp-posts had a corn theme. I tried sitting up front again for a little while after the corn palace, but Nicole started yelling that Charlotte stole a crayon and Nicole wouldn’t be settled.  Nicole leaned over and bit Charlotte really hard.  We had to pull over and have a talk with Nicole.  After spending a long time talking to Nicole and telling her that she couldn’t come back into the car until she apologized to Charlotte for biting her, Nicole finally calmed down and agreed.  As soon as she got in the car, Nicole said “I’m sorry Charlotte stole my crayon!”  It was hard not to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Thomas carried around a toy garbage truck for most of the day and even raced it across the floor in the bathroom when we stopped.  Nicole continued to be afraid of every public bathroom.  She especially hated the ones that flushed automatically.  I had to coax her onto each potty and if someone next to her flushed while she was going, she would jump up mid-stream and pee all over her clothes. Nicole was scared of these statues.  She thought that if we touched them or the stone they were on that we’d turn into statues.  Even after we touched the statue, she still wouldn’t come near it. Winter Quarters Historic site: Night two was at a Super 8 in Keokuk.  The room was more spacious, but we decided to sleep them all in the same bed again instead of making a floor bed. They had a nice continental breakfast that included a waffle maker. We started day 3 in Carthage with a tour of Carthage Jail where Joseph Smith was Martyred. Thomas was a bit of a pill in the jail, the tour guide was kind and asked him to open the door for him: Then we stopped in Nauvoo.  We could have spent a whole day there, but we were eager to make it to Ohio that night so we had to just stop at a few sites in Nauvoo.  We started with the Nauvoo Temple (Thomas wouldn’t pose for my pictures): The kids ran around in the field across from the Temple: This is where they learned about the brick making process and got a Nauvoo brick: After Nauvoo it was straight on to my parent’s house.  I was sitting in the back with Nicole, so my pictures of the signs weren’t as good: We made it into my parent’s house just after 10 (I think, it was late, but not super late).