A Birthday Road Trip!

So, with it being my birthday, I was feeling quite blue.  I hate that day more than ANY other day of the year!  But Matt was in no mood for the “Becky Blues” and was going to have no part of it.

He woke me up to breakfast in bed, which consisted of Egg in the Bread, Bacon, fresh doughnuts and coffee.  Okay, so far so good.

Then Matt told Emerson to go get a bag out of the kitchen.  This was the gift from just “The Girls”.  Inside was a CUBS shirt, a CUBS umbrella, an Electronic Hand Held Word Search Game, two of my favorite chocolate and caramel candy bars and a $25 gift card to Old Navy.  Alright…  This is getting pretty good!

After opening my gifts and eating breakfast, Matt told everyone, “Get dressed, we’re going on a road trip!”.

We got into the car and Matt told us all that we’d all be going to Dyersville, Iowa to where they filmed the movie, “Field of Dreams”

Now, I have to tell you, I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed as hard as I did on this trip!  Everything was cracking us up!

It all started with a bag of Combo’s that Emerson got at a rest area we stopped at. 

Emerson had been eating them and Matt asked her, “Hey Em, do you have any Combo’s left that I can have?”  She looked in the half eaten bag, put on this “thinking about it” face, looked at Matt and said, “No!”

Without missing a beat, Matt said, “Thanks a lot ya little ass!”

Now, Matt doesn’t swear a lot, especially around the kids.  So I can’t tell you which was funnier, Matt saying it or the complete look of shock on Emerson’s face!  I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop laughing and it just made everyone else laugh even harder.

Our first stop on this trip was in a town called Freeport, IL.  We were going to see something called “Little Cubs Field”.  It’s a little league park built as a miniature Wrigley Field.

Well, our next bought of laughter came when we saw that the Freeport High School’s mascot was “The Freeport Pretzels”.

We all looked at each other with a “What the #$%@???” look.  Who are their rivals???  The Dubuque Doritos?

When we made it to “Little Cubs Field” it was really cute!  The game of the day was the Mini Cubs vs. the Mini Cardinals.

Our next fit of laughter came when we were almost to Galena, IL.  Everyone refers to IL as the great flatlands.  Anything larger than a mole hill and we think we have to downshift our cars to get over it.

Well, The Northwest corner of IL, had us all saying, “Flatlands our butt!”  I’m NOT a heights kind of person!  All of the hills and corners had me hanging on for dear life!  Even the girls would scream every once in a while from the backseat as we’d crest a hill and go down the other side.

This time it was Matt that was laughing so hard he was crying as I said, “EVERYONE SMILE!”  “Why?” Matt asked. I said,  “Because our picture is going to be taken as we go down this hill, just like they do at Disney World when you ride the roller coasters!…  There’s a kiosk at the bottom where we can buy it!”

After our roller coater trip, we finally made it to the Mississippi river. This is where Matt had to quote a line from one of his favorite movies, “Vacation”.  “Look kids”, he said, “The Mississippi river!  The mighty Mississip… The old man…  The ‘ol Miss…  Oooold man riverrrrrrrrr!”

The more I think about it, the more I’ve come to realize the fact that I think I DID marry Clark Griswold!  LOL!

After crossing the Mississippi it wasn’t long before we were in Dyersville, IA.  We followed the signs all the way to the “Field of Dreams”

Here are a few pictures from there.

Of course, Matt has to recreate the ghosts coming out of the corn field with the kids.

After playing on the field and looking at the farm for a while, we bought some T-shirts, hats and a refrigerator magnet and it was on the road back home.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had Prime Rib as my special birthday dinner.  Matt made sure this would not change.  We crossed back over the Mississippi once again back into IL and we stopped in the town of Galena.

There we stopped at the “Log Cabin Restaurant”  And I have to say, it was one of the BEST Prime Rib dinners I have EVER had!

After dinner, with our belly’s full, Matt downed an energy drink ,while the girls fell asleep on the ride home.

After we got back home, I sat back on the sofa and thought to myself.  What a great birthday!  I got to spend it with my family, had a LOT of laughs, had a great dinner and a lot of fun!