(kids sing)

My parents said that firefighters have been in the area

all around their cabin, there's tons of smoke,

and it's from a forest fire that's in the area.

You start screaming "I have to poo!"

Everybody say "good morning."

- [Together] Good morning!

- We slept so well in the hotel last night,

and now we're gonna eat some breakfast and get on the road.

We just hit the road and we start cruising along.

It's been a good 10 or 15 minutes,

and tell them what happens.

- Well, I was going about 75 miles an hour

and the freeway here, I don't know what the speed limit is.

- [Kendra] I think that might be the speed limit.

- Anyway, we drove by two police cars

and they flipped on their lights right when I drove by

and the adrenaline just starts, you know,

coursing through like "oh no, I don't want a ticket."

But so far, they still haven't chased me down, so

- I got out the glove compartment, I got the registration,

I got the insurance, I was like

"Where's your wallet, let's pull out your license."

And, knock on wood, we're still good.

- So right behind me right now is a police officer.

I'm driving very carefully, I'm trying to get past the

semi trucks, so I'm going a little bit over the speed limit.

Go ahead, Mr. Police Officer, drive by us too.

- Here comes the police officer, guys, there he goes.

- [Girl] I can't see it!

- [Boy] Now that was a close one.

- [Jeremy] That was a close one.

- See that cop over there, guys?

And this is why you follow the speed limit.

So you don't have to live in fear of

driving past police officers.

- This is why you need to make sure you know

what the speed limit is.

- [Kendra] Yes, it's true.

Apparently the speed limit is 70.

I had to vlog this moment because no one is currently

whining, complaining, fighting, or screaming, yay!

Let's see, Laura's got Silly Putty, we're gonna regret

that one, but she's happy at the moment, so I'm happy.

Lisi has this dohickey, it's kinda mesmerizing.

Issac, show us what you've got.

I don't even know what those things

are called, but they're cool.

And Caleb, what are you working on?

- A drawing.

- [Kendra] Can you show us your picture?

Whoa, what is it?

(Caleb mutters)

- [Kendra] A what?

- A blane blaster.

- It's a blane blaster.

We made it to Texas!

(kids cheer)

I don't think Laura realizes there's still a long way to go.

So I feel like the snacks on road trips

are always just messy and annoying,

and so I decided to try something new this time.

I packed our cooler full of pre-packaged snacks.

It's a 12-hour drive, so I got, I don't remember exactly

if it's 10 or 12 snacks, but I pre-divided them up

so that they're all ready to go.

And every hour on the hour, my plan is

to say "here's a snack" and now you don't

have to wait until next time.

(baby yells) I better go.

- So on a 12 to 14 hour drive,

you start doing kinda silly things.

We're playing a game right now where we're counting

every semi truck that passes.

- [Everybody Else] 11!

- That was number 11.

- [Kids] 92, 93, 94.

(gentle music)

- So we left the hotel at 9:30 this morning,

which was six hours ago.

- So six hours down, eight hours left.

We're almost to that halfway point.

After that it's just downhill from there, right?

- It's a long way.

So being at Albuquerque, I can't help but think about

a major life decision that we faced.

I got a job offer to work at a firm in Albuquerque

and we had an offer in Arizona after law school

and I decided to turn down both of those offers

and to go to Kansas City where I didn't have a job offer.

Have you ever wondered what our life would be like

had I accepted the Albuquerque offer?

- You know what, I haven't thought about it much.

But, it would be different, I'm glad we went to Kansas City.

- [Jeremy] Me too.

- Hi, I have glasses on.

- All right, I am introducing the kids to a Whopper Jr.

They've never had one before.

I love Whoppers, it's my preference, for the poll today,

if you had to choose between a Whopper, a Big Mac,

or a Wendy's do they have a specialty sandwich?

A Wendy's hamburger, which one would you choose?

Post it on the poll.

- [Kid] It's so good, guys, I gotta open it.

(guitar music)

- [Jeremy] We're champions of trips.

- So for this drive, Issac got a new football stats

sticker book collection, and he's been looking at it

pretty much the whole time, he loves football statistics.

Pretty much we think he has a future as a

sports statistician, how do you say that?

I'm excited because I thought we had five and a half hours

of driving left, and it's only four and a half hours!

People, that's a whole hour less.

I'm thrilled about that right now.

Oh it's pretty in this direction too.

And I'm also excited because Jeremy is driving again.

I prefer to have Jeremy drive,

not just because I don't really love driving so much,

but because he is the worst back seat driver ever.

I don't know if you guys know what a back seat driver is,

it's a person that sits next to you when you're driving

and tells you how to drive.

- I'm seeking help. (she laughs)

- [Kendra] He really needs helps.

- Yeah, I'm really bad at back seat driving, I'm sorry.

I'll try to do better,

Kendra just drives very differently than I do.

- [Kendra] I drive safely.

- Pretty safe, but different than I do, and it's hard.

- As a side note, when we were calmly

discussing that he's a back seat driver,

he claimed that I'm a back seat parenter.

Apparently when he's parenting, I'm like telling

him how to parent, so, touche.

We'll work on those things and we'll have marital bliss.

(rain pounding on windshield)

This is the brightest rain storm ever.

- I'm wearing Kendra's sunglasses.

It's helping a lot.

(Kendra laughs)

And then it stops, it started that way too.

You could see the wall of rain that you were driving into.

There wasn't rain, and you could see in the street

light, there's the wall of rain, and then it just ends.

- [Kendra] There it is, there it is, the rainbow!

- [Child] I knew there would be a rainbow.

- [Baby] I didn't see a rainbow!

- [Kendra] I know, here you guys,

I'll show you on the vlog camera.

This is getting gorgeous.

(happy guitar music)

So a couple days before we left on our trip,

I put a post up on Facebook asking for suggestions

about how to keep the kids busy on the drive

and one of you suggested that we should change

the seating arrangement up a couple times.

So we've done that, letting the kids sit by other people

and it's really sweet to see them interact

and play together and stop fighting and see a new face.

So we are switching it up yet again.

Hey Laura, who's sitting by you?

- Caleb.

- [Kendra] Caleb, has Caleb ever sat by you?

- No.

- [Kendra] Whoa, this is gonna be fun.

You two are cute.

Are you guys buddies?

How's it going back there, big kids?

- I'm winning, I got two!

- [Kendra] You guys are playing checkers?

- Yeah.

- [Kendra] What's up next after checkers?

- Hangman.

♫ Pat it and roll it

♫ Throw it in the oven

♫ For Laura and Caleb

(parents laugh)

- It changes different colors.

- [Kendra] That pen does?

- Yeah, so, every time you do, it matches.

- [Kendra] Let's see.

- And now for the body, I'm gonna do this.

- [Kendra] Good job, miss Laura.

So I don't know if we ever told you guys where we're going.

We're going up to the mountains of Arizona

to my parents' cabin, which I'm so excited about.

Unfortunately, we just got a text from my parents

and it sounds like there's a forest fire in the area.

Not like, right at my parents' cabin, but kinda close by.

Anyway, so, that's a little alarming.

- [Jeremy] Look at the sunset!

- [Kendra] There is a great sunset.

- [Kids] Yeah, it's so pretty.

- [Jeremy] Arizona!

- [Kendra] Guys, we are officially in Arizona!

(cheers)

- So we were driving along and Caleb yells out

"I have to pee!"

So we pulled over on the side of the road,

and took care of that.

- One mile after Caleb had to pee,

he starts screaming "I have to poo!"

And we are in the middle of nowhere.

So we're now on the side of the road.

Because what else are you supposed to do

when somebody really, really has to go?

I don't know if you guys can see,

but there's tons of smoke, oh my goodness.

And it's from a forest fire that's in the area.

You know, everybody's cleared that this road

is safe to travel, we're just getting the smoke from it.

It smells like a campfire, whoa.

It smells like a campfire, a really really big one.

- [Jeremy] So the visibility sometimes is to

where we can't see even 10 to 15 feet in front of us.

The camera views actually through smoke and fog

a lot better than our eyes do.

- [Kendra] And snow, yeah.

Thanks for going slow, Jeremy.

(calm guitar music)

We made it and we are safe and warm

tucking the kids in bed.

We have a big day tomorrow, J House out.

Hey guys, that city up there is Oklahoma City.

- So I've had rocky mountain oysters before,

but this is my first time to have lamb fries.

- She like was tearing up, she was crying

because he passed away recently

and so she was here by herself

and so it was just so sweet to be able to be with her.