After days and days of traveling, and a day or two of rest, we finally reached Minneapolis on Friday night. It's nice to be here and just sit around doing a little bit nothing for a day or two before Ben heads back to St. Louis and then to the Netherlands.

Since we had very limited internet access since leaving McLeansboro, IL, here is a little recap of our past week and the final leg of our big drive:

On Tuesday afternoon, we packed up the doggies and set out for Ben's Uncle David and Aunt Julie's house. We stayed in their basement for a few days and had a really nice time seeing everyone for Thanksgiving in Springfield. David and Julie live in the country so whenever we took Bella and Spud on walks they had lots of interesting things to sniff and see, especially cows. Spud didn't really notice them at all, but Bella DID NOT trust those things one bit.



















She didn't even like standing there for the picture. She had to keep looking to make sure no sneaky cows were going to pop up and get her.

After a big Thanksgiving with lots and lots of delicious food, we got on the road yet again early Friday morning, just in time to fight the crazy shopping crowds on our way to a gas station. Our final day of driving was pretty uneventful except at one point, when we were leaving a gas station in Wisconsin and Spud popped up in the back window and started growling and then barking at something. We looked back to see what he was barking at, thinking perhaps there were squirrels frolicking in the parking lot, but instead saw this:















Yes, a statue of a deer. A fake deer. Spud was pretty sure he could chase it down and kill it, if only we would let him out of the truck.

So now we're in Minneapolis with nothing much to report. We've done Burgett family portraits (but we don't have them yet), gone Christmas shopping, spent time with the family, eaten some good food, gone to Target, and enjoyed several walks around the neighborhood because the weather has been really nice, in a slightly chilly sort of way. On the schedule for tomorrow: truck maintenance and maybe another trip to Target, just for fun.