We left Leslie and Richard's at about 9:15 am and are stopping for a small fill up of the expensive stuff before heading to the border. Our plan is to head to Fargo and then take the nice divided highway to Seattle, before jumping on the ferry to Victoria. Luckily, I learned from Susan last night of another outlet mall in Seattle, and so I happily forsee another shopping excursion, which seems strange as I am really not a shopper. Speaking of strange, it seems a little strange, if not a whole lot quieter, without Holly in the car. I feel great about Holly being at the RWB and she was glowing after her day there yesterday. Cooper is already fast asleep - pure exhaustion after two days of playing with his cousins and having had the excitement of getting his first buzz cut last night from his Auntie Leslie. He loves his fuzzy head and I keep catching him rubbing it. He looks so cute. Just finished lunch with soup, salad, and breadsticks at the Olive Garden and happily paid the 30 dollars, including tax and tip. I cannot write about the current conversation going on between Brooke and Cooper, but it is strange and quite humorous and, if anything, reminds me to loosen up and lose some of my seriousness :). On to Target where I hope to secure a white waffle shower curtain for a steal. As we pull into the parking stall, the sky unleashed an insane amount of heavy rain and thus we sit and wait. We (when I say we I really mean me....at least in this case) are highly disappointed to be pulling away from Target sans white waffle shower curtain:(. However, my heart is lightened as I hear Brooke and Cooper happily munching away on their Scooby Snacks (for those of you who don't know, Brooke and Cooper are semi-obsessed with Scooby Doo and these snacks from Target are in the shape of little dog bones). I feel optimistic that I will get my white waffle shower curtain by Christmas (everyone take notes here). I must share my shock and outrage with you here when I disclose the following ice cream conspiracy: Breyers icecream is 8.99 for us in Nova Scotia and i got a tear in my eye along with a surge of disbelief when I espied (not sure if this is a real word or not, but I like it and it is my blog so I win) Target selling Breyers for ......... Pause...... $2.54!!!!!!!!! Now everyone sit down before I disclose the full extent of the ice cream conspiracy ...... that is NOT even a sale price.... That is "gulp"... Regular price! Did I mention we are considering a move? Really!! On my wish list is four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a big yard, and walking distance to ...... ummmmm.... A Target ;). We continue to whip the prairie scenery around us into washes of swirled earth tones and greens using the speed of our van with fingers crossed we won't be receiving any visits from the boys in blue. I have revived myself temporarily with some raspberry sorbet gum with which, I am also happy to say, gained more "great mom" points from Brooke. Cooper remains in hypersleep and we should be at our hotel in less than two hours. It will be our first Hampton Inn, but we cannot, as a family, seem to refuse a pool, wireless, and a free breakfast. Thankfully I have a little more than two weeks to talk Brooke out of buying the giant foam fan pointing finger for her American Girl doll when we get to Minneapolis. She has been so carefully saving her allowance for so long for the American Girl store that my obsessive compulsiveness is having a wee bit of trouble remaining in check .. that being said this also gives Brooke a little more than two weeks to convince me that it is her money and that is what she will be buying. More importantly I will subdue my OCD with a lovely milkshake at the old fashioned ice cream counter in the American Girl store. Well, we are all settled in at the Hampton Inn in Bismarck, North Dakota following a great supper at the Space Alien bar and grill and a dip in the pool for the kids. I, most unfortunately, just discovered that the 30 second call I thought I just made to my parents on James' cell phone was actually over 15 minutes long as I did not press the hang up button hard enough, and so we now are the not so proud owners of a 30 dollar charge for calling my parents and supposedly hanging up quickly when I realized I forgot about the two hour time difference. But, I am choosing to look on the lighter side of things when I remember I am only just over a quarter way done this trip, so many more good things will happen to make this simply be less horrible :). At least my dad got a good chuckle out of the never ending answering machine message ;)