Missouri & Oklahoma: The Ilberys go West, Part 1

Who takes a small child on a cross-country road trip?

We do.

Who packs activities in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada all into one week?

We do.

Who has a 1 year old who has been to:

The Painted Desert
The Petrified Forest
The Grand Canyon
Petroglyph National Park
The Hoover Dam
Las Vegas
The Oklahoma Aquarium
The Amarillo Botanical Gardens
 AND
A meteor crater?

We do.

This year, we did vacation, and we did it BIG.

I'm going to take a minute to brag on my little guy- it was a 20+ hour drive from our house to our cabin in Flagstaff, Arizona. We took the drive over the course of 3 days, trying to drive 8 hours each of the first two days then 4 hours the last day.

All things considered, this little guy took being in his car seat like a ROCKSTAR.

I'm going to try and keep this as short and sweet as I can, but it will probably be a little bit long regardless. 

*EDIT: I actually decided to break this trip into sections, because I would like to talk just a little bit about each spot we stopped and visited*

We started our adventure Saturday July 28th, with the goal of reaching Oklahoma City, OK to spend our first night. Our first stop was at Uranus Fudge Factory in Uranus Missouri. 

It's...your average side-of-the-interstate "tourist trap".

 

 Complete with photo of cutouts, playgrounds, concession stand style eatery, and the Fudge Factory was just a general store with a counter that sold fudge. Nothing factory about it. Which disappointed me a bit, since I was hoping to see how they made their fudge.

We spent about an hour letting the "kids" play, and right before leaving, Thatcher peed through his diaper and all over Papa, so Papa had to buy a Uranus t-shirt to wear for the rest of the day ;)

We stopped for lunch and gas, but other than that we didn't stop again until Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we paid the Oklahoma Aquarium a visit. 

The only aquarium I've ever been to was the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and that's been....at least 10 years, so I was excited for this stop. 

I think Thatcher enjoyed looking at everything. He loves colors and things that move, and fish do both!

Our "state picture" for Oklahoma :)

Blessing the rains down in Africa. 🙄

 Probably my favorite part was the shark viewing tank. They had a tunnel you could walk into the shark area and watch them swim all around you and above you. A little disorienting, but very very neat. We stayed in here for almost 20 minutes.

After a quick dinner we were back on the (toll) road, and made it to Oklahoma City, where we stayed for the night.

After breakfast (and some Little Baby Bum) we headed for Amarillo, Texas.