Hiya Bus

Beckett's love of trains is well documented on this little blog. He was lucky enough to live in a place where we saw a real train almost everyday. We had to cross the railroad tracks to get most places, and I never cared if we were stopped by a train because Beckett enjoyed it so much. However, since moving out east we have not seen a single real train (granted we've only been here for a week and a half). What we have seen are a lot of buses. This area is obviously very into busing. We don't just see one bus a day, we see about seven. We can see a bus or two pull into our cul-de-sac every school day.

We are hearing lots of "hiya bus," "another bus," "look a bus," and "bye-bye bus." (Beckett's sitting next to me saying "hiya bus" as I finish this post.) I'm glad we have something to fill the train void, at least a little.

From KS to MD

On our last Sunday in Kansas we took some pictures of Beckett because he was looking especially handsome. The following Thursday we loaded up the car and said a sad farewell. We will miss Kansas and all the good friends we met there. On our way out of town we stopped for breakfast at Fritz's so that B could enjoy the food-delivered-by-train one last time.

We took a detour to Chattanooga on our way east to see my cousin Wendy and her family. It's been a really long since the two of us got to hang out, but when we were kids I used to spend as much time at her house as possible during our trips to Utah. It was great to see her crew.

 On our way into town we stopped at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Beckett was thrilled to be out of the car and visiting a train.

The next morning we went with Wendy and her family to Chattanooga's river walk. The kids played on these animal statues.

 Beckett loved the river walk because of all the bridges crossing the Tennessee River. He thinks bridges are really awesome.

Consequently, he was absolutely thrilled that we got to walk across one of the bridges spanning the Tennessee. He ran at top speed across its entire length.

The reward for crossing the bridge was delicious ice cream. Kate talked about the awesome ice cream all the way across the river.

The kids all took turns sitting on the horses in the ice cream shop. Beckett thought this horse was a little scary.

After Wendy and her crew left to go home, Nate and Beckett and I went to the Hunter Museum of American Art, located right on the banks of the Tennessee.

Then we took Beckett back across the bridge (bye-bye bridge, bye-bye bridge) and let him play in the spray ground before we got back into the car and drove to Virginia.

On Sunday we spent some time in the Shenandoah. The views were lovely, and our stop at the picnic ground was really fun.

Someone was thrilled to be out of the car.

On our way into town, we made one last stop at the D.C. Temple.

All in all we drove for about 22 hours. We went through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland. We spent the night in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Luckily, Beckett is an amazingly good road tripper.

Hanging Out with Dad

When Beckett hangs out with Dad he gets to do all sorts of fun things...

like line up all the cars on the floor of the CVS

and swim in the wheelbarrow.

Serious fun.