Chapter 7: Cheap Thrills

Chris and I love the following things, in no particular order: food, family, and travelling. Mix it all together, and you get… (drum roll please) our annual summer road trip! With more time, and less money than last year, we decided to invade our family members' homes all across Middle America. And to make it even more enticing, since a newborn and 2 year old aren’t enough, we decided to take our sheepdog/Lab named Cade.

We looked like the Griswolds, stuffed into our wagon, suspension sagging, as we rolled from Oklahoma to Missouri, and Ohio, then Kansas. There were moments when I thought I might lose my sanity – with Duke screaming, Eloise sobbing, and Cade reeking. But, then there were moments when we were sitting together – laughing at Eloise or cooing at Duke – and my heart swelled with happiness.

I used to get envious of my friends who got to take fabulous vacations. I would look at their pictures on some exotic beach – sun in their eyes, smiles on their faces. Then, I look at the picture of our luau at Lake of the Ozarks. We’re a thousand miles from the nearest beach, eating leftover fettuccini because the fish we bought was rotten, wearing cheap/plastic leis. Hawaii? Who needs it? We had each other.