Tickets Please!

We made it! 3300 plus miles in the car and it was all well worth it! I have to say I was pretty worried about being in the car for so long and I wasn't sure the boys would do so great. Happily, I shouldn't have worried. I did have one magic tool that worked like a charm and it didn't involve alcohol or muzzling children! The tickets. Ticket Time!!! Lucas and Ben both had wallets and for each leg of the trip, I gave them enough tickets for however many hundreds of miles we would be traveling. Every hundred miles, they could trade in a ticket for a surprise. Surprises consisted of small lollipops, a cookie, and an occasional big ticket item- a book, bubbles, small toy. I am telling you, it worked so well! It wasn't until the last day, about 50 miles from home that Ben asked if we were almost home. It was pretty funny too. Jake would yell out, "Tickets Please!" and we would look back and see both boys reaching in their wallets for a ticket. When they gave us their last ticket of the day, Lucas would get all excited because he realized it meant we were close to getting to wherever we were going. I will definitely use this trick on our next long trip.
The trip consisted of lots of visits, all of which were amazing. We left EARLY Saturday morning and stopped off at my aunt and uncle's house in Indiana on the way for a night, which was fun. The boys got to see and feed all the animals and I got to visit with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Then it was off to New Jersey for the Krueger Sibling Trip. We went to my sister's house and spent the week with her family and my brother's family. It was awesome having all 6 cousins together, they are quite entertaining. We then turned around and stopped back in Indiana for the weekend with our friends, the Sensenig's. They have two kids a little older than our boys so our kids were completely entertained. It was wonderful to have the chance to catch up with some of our old Davis friends. Our final stop was Door County, Wisconsin. What a beautiful place! The boys and I spent the day on a beach on Lake Michigan while Jake was out in the field doing research. It was a perfect spot for our kids- the lake is extremely shallow and clear. We literally were in the water ALL day! Then yesterday, Tuesday, we made the final drive back home. A great trip, followed by the thrill of being in our own house again...perfect!


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