Roadschooling America: Happy Birthday, Brighton!

It was a gorgeous sunny day when we opened our eyes this morning. Brock decided to do a quick wash of the car and trailer before we left this campground since we had an empty space next to us and we could use that water spigot. While he started on the Yukon, I started cleaning up the grill from yesterday's use so that I could put the griddle on it and make Brighton's requested birthday breakfast, pancakes and sausage. (Well, his first choice was waffles, but we didn't bring a waffle iron along so he got his second choice.) I love being able cook this type of breakfast outside where we don't heat up the trailer and capture all the cooking odors for the rest of the day. Plus, it was just beautiful outside.

Bri's pancakes were specially made with "15" outlined in chocolate chips in one of them. We then put raspberries and peaches on top along with maple syrup and a Jimmy Dean sausage patty on the side.

As part of his family birthday gift, Bri got a reprieve from his dog chores today so Brock, Brynna and I picked up the slack there.

After breakfast, we cycled through the shower and did the trailer clean up and prep for moving jobs while Brock continued his quick scrub around the trailer.

Just when we were ready to hook up the car, we all gathered at the picnic table and Bri opened his presents and cards from us.

So grateful for our beautiful kids! It was fun seeing everyone make an effort to get along today in honor of Brighton.

Then, we hooked up and commenced our five hour drive. Not too exciting a birthday plan, but Brighton was a great sport about it and we have had some pretty fun activity days recently. It was great weather for the drive and the road Tom took us wasn't too bad. We chose to avoid tolls. ;O) It is amazing the difference in road surface between different states. Illinois must not put too high a priority on smooth roads, but oh well. We put on one of our downloaded sermons and had family church along the way. We discussed what we learned afterwards and then all the kids pretty much got really quiet with their electronic devices.

We stopped once for gas and once at a rest area for a stretch our legs and use the restroom break and I grabbed some crackers and cheese for snacks and off we went again.

We arrived at our new campground which is not fancy, but it really nice and with the Passport America discount is only $16.50 a night. Big score! We got all setup in the site and took Heidi out for some romping and then tried to figure out where to go for birthday dinner.

It turns out that the campground is a little further from Springfield than I thought it was going to be, so we focused our restaurant search on the nearer small town of Litchfield. Brighton chose Ruby Tuesday since we've never eaten at one and there weren't too many other choices. Turned out Brock's dinner wasn't that great, but everyone else was happy with theirs. Our server was excellent and very attentive. She even brought Bri out a free red velvet cupcake after dinner.