Road Trip

The official title of this post should actually read: Really Fun Road Trip with Only a Few Pictures. But I thought that probably wouldn't do much to draw in the readers, eh? But it's true, the kids and I decided to take a really fun road trip. And we took very few pictures of all that funness.

It all started a few months ago, when I was looking at our summer plans and I realized how CLOSE we are to Indiana. Why not road-trip ourselves over to South Bend and spend some time with my cousins who live there? While we're at it, let's invite sis-in-law Alysa to join, so she can take her kiddos to see their grandparents who are serving a mission in Indiana. Sounds super fun, right?... twelve hours in the car, two moms, five kids, including two one-year-olds who refuse to sleep in cars. (Well, actually, maybe it was only my one-year-old who refused to sleep. But it still felt like a car full of restless wee ones.) Who knew Indiana was NOT actually so close as it looks on the map!?

Anyway, it was fun trip, and it went down like this...
Sunday night: meet up in New Haven, CT to pick up Alysa, Aftyn and Bronwyn (who were joining us from their home in Mass.) Bad traffic. Super bad traffic. Our 2-hr evening meet-up plan turned into four and a half hours in the car, with no snacks because I figured the kids would just go to sleep, and they did NOT. Not the best start to our trip, eh? Oh well.

Monday morning: Leave bright and early (9 a.m. -- that's early, considering I was up packing until after 1 a.m.!) Drive to Pennsylvania. Drive through Pennsylvania. In fact, spend the ENTIRE day driving, driving, driving across Pennsylvania. Long state, P. Long to spell, long to say, and long, long, long to drive across. We stopped in Gettysburg, just a 20-minute detour from our route. These are some of the only pics I took of our almost week-long trip, so savor them.

A very beautiful monument/memorial, where we stopped to rest and look around...

Two cute girlies, chasing each other near the monument..

Oh, little Bronwyn, I could eat you up, baby girl!

There were names of soldiers all around the plaques on the outside of the monument. Very touching and moving (but not so much, to Natalie, who was more excited about the steps)...

 Spence and Samantha, "posing" with the overlook of the battlefield behind them...

 The battlefield, oh how I would have loved to learn about it a little bit more, really take time to appreciate its history and its sadness...

On the monument, our little climbers. We went all the way to the top, and down again. These three wanted to climb the 60+ steps again, but there wasn't time, and it was super hot!

(Note to self, and ti others who may be considering Gettysburg: small children don't really "get it." Would love to go again, maybe when they're a little older, or something?)

We made it as far as Columbus, Ohio on Monday night.  A loonng day, on the road from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Natalie was very unsettled all night long, poor thing, so we had a tired morning -- swam at our hotel and got on the road by noon. We dropped off Alysa and her girls in Dayton, where she got to meet up with her parents. yay! (Their plan was to fly back to Boston at the end of their trip, so we didn't see them again.) Then the kids and I drove on to South Bend that afternoon. We had such a nice visit!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: We stayed with my cousin, Nathan, and his wife, Kristina, and their four kids. An extra special treat -- my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Brad (Nate's parents) came at the same time, and stayed at a nice Marriott hotel less than a mile from the house, and my cousin Candice and her family came from southern IN to join the party. We ate delicious foods, slept in every morning, stayed up late chatting each night, and swam at the pool at the Marriott for several hours, three different times. Fun! My kids were in heaven, to be in a big house (well, bigger than ours!), with new-to-them toys and friends to play with, and THREE trips to the pool!?! What's not to love? (Except that Brian couldn't be with us. sad.)

Can I just say, from a perspective of someone living far away from family for many years off and on... it was sooooo nice to be with family for a change! Even though Kristina and Candice and I haven't spent tons of time together, and we didn't grow up together, I just loved visiting with them and watching our kids play together. Candice told me a sweet story about her twin, Kim, who passed away a few years ago. The ending of the story was, "Everyone needs a sister." And I felt a lot of that sisterly love from both Candice and Kristina while I was with them. Such a great feeling, family.

We went on a quick little walking tour of historic Notre Dame University while we were there. Sadly, I only took two or three pictures of that gorgeous campus...

Touchdown Jesus, from a distance. (A bit sacrilegious, I know, but it does look like he's making the touchdown sign, and it's close to the stadium.)

Us, and the Basilica in the background. Sadly, I didn't get a pic of Nathan or Kristina, but three of their darling kids are in this pic with us...

 The gold dome building... Very pretty!

Oh, and Spencer, running away, crying and screaming and throwing a HUGE fit in the middle of the campus for 15 minutes, with loud shouts of "I DON'T LIKE THIS!!!" and "I WANT TO GO HOME NOOOOOWWW!!!" Yeah, maybe college campuses are not the best places for small tired children, either. sigh.

Friday morning: We left. And it was hard to say goodbye. Samantha especially really wanted to stay one more day. But we got on the road headed home. We made a ten-minute stop in Michigan, to say we've been there. And we stopped in Kirtland, Ohio to see the Kirtland Temple, landmark for our church. It was closed. My camera was running out of battery. I got this pathetic drive-by pic...

Maybe we'll have to redo Kirtland some other time, I guess?

We grabbed Subway sandwiches for dinner, then drove to a park overlooking Lake Erie. As in THE Lake Erie, massive, gorgeous Finger Lake. It was a happy stop...

With happy kids...

 And happy water...

 Samantha started a big rock collection, with rocks she was pulling out of the lake. She picked out five MASSIVE rocks to bring home with us, one for each member of our family. Brian's was the biggest -- a reddish rock the size of a loaf of bread. She named it The Bread Rock. I didn't get a picture, but here she is with Natalie's little rock...

We stayed that night at a somewhat smelly Motel 6. The kids thought it was fabulous, I thought it lacked charm and had a loud A/C that kept me up all night. Oh well. Price was good and we survived. The rest of the trip included driving alllll the way back across Pennsylvania, again. But we took I-80 this time, which is a prettier route, if anyone wonders. And I listened to "The Help" on CD while we drove, so it seemed to go a little faster.

Saturday night: Home by 8 p.m., kids in bed by 9 p.m. A road trip well executed, happily enjoyed! Almost 1700 miles in the car, 30+ hours. Whew!!

The sad part is the bit about Brian not joining us. Not only did he NOT come along, but he worked like a maniac while we were gone. It was very sad to come home to the crock pot still on the counter from a week ago, the load of laundry I left on the couch still half folded, just as I had left it. That's totally NOT Brian's style; I know if he'd had even a few extra minutes, he would have spiffed up the place. He literally worked like a dog the ENTIRE time we were gone. Poor man. We're hoping he'll get a BREAK soon, and that he'll get to JOIN us for the next road trip!

Looking forward to even more fun when we head to Idaho in a couple of weeks. Oh, but we'll do that one by plane this time! :)