North Dakota--Day One

 The six younger kids and I ran away from home took a trip to visit my brother

who lives near Bismarck, ND.

A dear Christian lady that God put in our path

packed us a little lunch so when it was time for something to eat

we stopped at this park in Lisbon, ND.

This trip was rather monumental for me because

I. don't. drive.

Well, I drive the1/2 hour to the grocery store

but I DON'T drive in any city.

I'm a big chicken.

For this trip, I stayed off the interstate

and took any alternate route I could,

using my map and trusting that all roads eventually lead somewhere!

My dad drives a delivery truck for a John Deere dealership

and his route takes him through Lisbon every day.

I called him and he suggested this park.

Though it had some new playground equipment,

the kids were drawn to the giant slide that looked just like the kind we used to play on at school when I was a kid.

 They spent about a 1/2 hour just going up and down

on this slide!

For fun, I even went down.

I was feeling ever so independent.

The kids about split a gut laughing at me going down

and when I reached the end,

Christopher kindly informed me, "Mom, I don't think it really fits you."

I'm not exactly sure what would make him say that,

but it could have had something to do with the screeching sound

made by my hips and the backs of my abundant thighs.

I'm just guessing on that, though.

 My darling baby who always makes me feel like I'm her favorite person

sat on a blanket and soaked up the fresh air and sunshine

and giggled at her brothers and sisters.

 action shots!

 all lined up!

 as the kids piled out of the van stepped out of the van,

I noticed Ivy had no footwear.

We found these shoes packed away in the suitcase.

 Ruby, however, was dressed to the nines in her sparkly shoes and ballerina skirt.

 WOW--do you see that??????

All six of them are looking at the camera and have decent expressions!!

Let me mark that on the calendar.

 There was a pavilion sort of thing so they ran circles in it.

I was all for that, as I had hours of driving ahead of us and I wanted to wear them out.

 The kids didn't know, but I was also secretly keeping them busy.

Remember that route my dad drives?

He was coming to Lisbon soon and when I called him,

he said he's stop by to say hi for a few minutes.

When the kids spotted a John Deere truck drive by

and a man who looked an awful lot like Grandpa...

boy, it didn't take them long to put two and two together!

 One thing I love about my dad is that no matter what,

he always greets the kids with open arms and gets down on their level.

They know how much he loves them!

 As a matter of course, the kids then had to show him all the things they had just been doing,

including the teeter-totter.

 (Can you tell it was a bit warm?)

Ruby and Boppa

Since that was a ton of pictures from just the first leg of our trip,

I think I'll split this into a few posts!