Idaho Trip, Part II

Tuesday morning we left Minneapolis. It was hard to leave my mom's house. She rarely cries when I leave. Not when I left for college (or, rather, when she dropped me off at Concordia-Chicago), not even when I left for a year in Guatemala (www.ias-xela.org)... but she broke down in tears when we were leaving. Perhaps that's more because Kathleen will be so far away. Of course it made me cry.

I had just been thinking about how much harder it was to leave our friends than our family -- because I know that, at some point, I'm GOING to see family again. With friends I just don't have that guarantee and it's really hard for me to wrap my mind -- and my heart -- around that fact. \

We went for breakfast at IHOP with my dad and stepmom. K ate like a horse. Anything we put in front of her, she ate. It was unbelievable! I've never, ever seen her eat like that!

With our bellies full, I had plenty of energy to drive and K slept, slept, slept!! We stopped in Alexandria, MN (about 30 miles from where my mom grew up) because I had a pounding headache. We bought some tylenol at Walmart and then we were back on the road.

We stopped again at Jamestown, ND. I thought *maybe* she would be hungry since it was 1:30 or 2 p.m. I ordered a chicken McNugget meal for her. She ate one nugget. I ate one nugget and the apple slices (no dipping sauce). She screamed because I wouldn't let her hold the milk jug. When she did, she dumped most of it down the front of her shirt. Naturally. Oh well... Neither of us was very hungry, so we got back on the road.

Around 5 p.m. we finally made it to Bismarck, ND. http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=46.805371&lon=-100.779319&zoom=13&q1=Bismarck%2C%20ND
The hotel wasn't that great, but it wasn't that awful, either. We were on the second floor -- no elevators -- so that was fun carrying a toddler and luggage... UGH... but we survived.

We drove around town looking for a place to eat supper. We ate at Paradiso. (http://www.paradiso.com) K loved the free chips (I know, SHOCKING) and also ate some of the rice and beans that came with my chicken enchilada. What I really liked was that you can order just ONE enchilada. No huge platter of 3-5 different things! Just the right size. I also had a margarita. K got SO SO SO mad when I wouldn't share!

We got back to the hotel and went swimming. She LOVED it. We worked on jumping in from the side of the pool and putting her head under the water. She was SO funny. She wore her new baby Gap swimsuit. Adorable.

She finally managed to go to sleep around 10:30 p.m.!!! But she slept soundly and slept until 7 a.m.! YEA!!!