Hometown, USA Trip: Part 1

I figured that since AJ is napping I'd get some of my pictures uploaded and let you all see what we've been up to since we got to Ohio yesterday afternoon.

We started out the drive early, which ended up being a good thing because it took a lot longer than I was expecting to make the drive. I was hoping that AJ would sleep in the car in the morning since I woke her up so early.

Early in the trip I decided to stop for breakfast so I could take my Poison Ivy medicine. I have to eat with it, so I figured a stop was warranted. We somehow chose the only fast food restaurant in the world that doesn't have high chairs (awesome! Thanks, Bo Jangles in Greensboro, NC!) and AJ face-planted into the table.

Shortly after recovering from that we got gas and hit the road again. I was hoping to get some miles behind us and may have exceeded the speed limit a bit and a friendly state trooper spotted me and issued me a ticket. Hooray! The trip was really starting out the way I was hoping!

Here I am, happy the sun has finally come up.

The picture above was taken right before the speeding ticket. We made a few more stops, one at a rest stop so AJ could run around and play for a bit. Then we stopped and got some snacks so we wouldn't have to make a lunch stop.

Right after the stop, around 10:45 AJ finally fell asleep.

Only took her 6 hours to finally fall asleep!

She spent some time reading.

We drove through lots of tunnels.

After we made it through all the tunnels, we were making pretty good time, things were starting to look up. That is until we pulled up to a toll booth and I only had $0.48. Luckily they wrote me an IOU and I was able to get cash at the next exit and pay the first toll with the second, but it definitely added an extra stop that I wasn't planning on making. But seriously, who doesn't realize that they're on a toll road until they get to the toll booth with no money? Fail.

And finally made it to Ohio!

AJ had to catch up on her email and twitter.

We visited with AJ's great-grandma.

And her great-grandpa.

AJ got her first taste of Skyline Chili!

And I enjoyed some, too.

After Skyline we went to Jeni's for ice cream!

I got the Salty Caramel and AJ had the Wildberry Lavender.

We liked the decorations in the shop!

Pretty flowers in a Mason jar.

As you can see, we've been having a great time here in Ohio! I'm so thankful we've got family here to let us crash in between legs of our trip to Hometown, USA. Its nice to see everyone and spend some quality time with my baby. I feel like we get in such a rut back home that its fun to switch things up a little bit.

Tonight we have dinner plans with AJ's other set of Ohio-based great-grandparents and one of my cousins and then tomorrow morning we're heading West for our second leg of the trip.

I know I'm excited to see my parents and the in-laws, plus a new baby, lots of friends and familiar surroundings in my hometown.