Journey back to Texas....

Roger's family decided to drive back to Texas with me, which I was very grateful.

They had some amazing stops along the way that we all had a great time experiencing!

Our first stop was Hannibal, Missouri.

Home of Mark Twain.

We learned about his life and Tom Sawyer.

Since none of my kids have read his books, this gave them an opportunity to learn more about him and hopefully read one of his books!

We also did a ghost tour!

My kids loved it!

We ended up in the cemetery with dousing rods searching for our own ghosts!

I'm a skeptic, so I wasn't convinced we would find anything, and I know the kids would rather have Roger with them to share this with.

He is a believer!!

After our "ghost hunt", we headed to our next stop, Bigfoot Inc.

Caleb was in heaven!

Especially when he got to see an actual monster truck, The Bigfoot.

He is now a big fan of Bigfoot. Sorry Grave Digger!

Since we were in Missouri, we decided to stop at the St. Louis Arch.

It was amazing!

I had no idea how huge it was!

You can't even take a whole picture of it!

I wanted a picture of my kids with the arch and this was the best we could do!

I told them to make gestures with their bodies so I could find them when I took the picture!

I thought the picture turned out fabulous!!

Our next stop was in Little Rock, Arkansas!

Not a big fan of driving through Arkansas!

We stopped at Little Rock Central High School visitor center.

My kids don't know much about the history of this high school so it was a great opportunity for them to learn about it. Emma remembered reading a book about it so she was able to share with the others about it.

Our last stop of our journey was at Crater of Diamonds State Park!

The kids were super excited to go searching for Diamonds.

They had great, big plans of what they were going to do with their diamonds once they found them!

But then it started raining, and then it poured!

We were wet......and muddy!

The field is plowed to help make searching for diamonds easier.

You fill a bucket with dirt and then head over to clean out the mud and see what treasures await you.

My kids lasted through one bucket.

They were cold, wet and muddy!

So they decided to play in the mud instead!

They had more fun playing in the mud then searching for the diamonds.

Caleb was covered from head to toe!

I did not freak out when I saw him and thoroughly enjoyed washing him off with a power wash hose!!

We did end up with some quartz and pretty rocks to bring home!

We all had an amazing time, but we ready to come home. It had been two weeks since we saw Roger and Sue and her family were coming down to visit us from Utah!!