Nonfiction

Samantha's Grandma Susan found three big boxes of books in a long-lost closet she had forgotten about for several years. They are the old-school, hard cover books that Brian had as a kid... probably hundreds of them. Grandma Susan decided each of the kids could pick ten books when they came over. She told us about this a few days ago, and Samantha has been super excited to go to grandma's so she could pick her ten books.

Today was the big day! New/old books for Samantha, Spence, and Natalie. Well, we got home, and the first book Samantha pulled from her bag was a big encyclopedia of insects, with huge color pictures of grasshoppers, katydids, bees, etc. She was thrilled, and had me pause my work to look at several large insects. Next, she showed me her "things that fly" book, all about airplanes and helicopters of different varieties. And then, she started reading aloud to me about woolly mammoths, from her new book about prehistoric animals.

After awhile, she stopped to look over her complete collection of books she had just acquired. "I guess I like nonfiction, Mom," she told me. "Seven out of ten of my books are nonfiction, and only three are fictional story books."

Is this normal six-year-old behavior? If it's not, I'll take it anyway! I love our inquisitive little school girl!

Road Trip Details -- THE BEGINNING

I know it's already old news, but I HAVE to take time to write about our amazing trip across the country. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime type of trip. (I hope. ha!)
-- 4500 miles
-- 16 states
-- 14 days
-- 3 kids, age 6, 4, and 2
-- 6 to 10 hours in a car each day
-- fast food and sandwiches for most meals
-- 9 hotel stays
-- 5 nights with friends or family
-- 3 national parks
-- 8 state capitol buildings
What a trip! See, I planned to blog or at least post fb updates as we went along. But then, it seemed like I was just EXHAUSTED by the time we got to our hotel each night. And well... it just didn't happen. So, now you get the less exciting "after" version, in however many installments it takes me to write about this wild and crazy adventure.

Day 1: Leaving Harrison
Saturday, Sept 29

I didn't get a last picture of our empty house the day we left. But Brian did get this funny one of all three kids in a box together, as we were packing up. It was sad to say goodbye to our house, but such a relief to FINALLY get everything packed up and all the last cleaning done. Whew!

We stayed the last two nights with our sweet friends, the Anguses. They let us stay in their basement apartment -- two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom. Such a nice place to regroup! Thanks to Spencer, sneaking the camera for a quick photo shoot, you get this lovely view of the living room area...

You also get this close-up of Spencer's shorts, as he was hiding under the table, taking pics of the room, sneaky boy!

Tuata Angus and me, as we were heading out. I will miss her and her husband. They had us over for Christmas dinner last year, and always made us feel so welcome in their home, and at church. They're from Australia/New Zealand; I will miss hearing their fun accent.

We stopped at the house one last time, so the kids could see it all emptied out. Then, on to Harrison Library to check out books for our trip. What a clever idea, eh? We checked out several books on CD, plus some "real" books, then mailed them to our friend to return to the library. (Thanks, Lindsay!)

The kids played in the nearby gazebo and park, while Brian and I took turns in the library, picking what we wanted to read...

 Samantha, "posing" in front of the war memorial at the park. I will miss our little Harrison town. It really has a charming feel. And it has a Dunkin Donuts. My kids will miss that, too.

We headed over the Tappan Zee Bridge and into New Jersey. Within the first 50 miles, Brian taught Natalie this fun trick. It's called "put your diaper on your head!" Samantha and Spence thought it was hilarious, so of course Natalie did it quite often throughout our trip!

That first day, we had plans of leaving bright and early, making good time, and stopping to see Gettysburg and drive through Hershey, Pennsylvania. Well. We reinstated our family motto that day: Everything Takes Longer. (Not the most inspiring motto, I know. But true to life, and helpful to remember when starting a two-week road trip with kids.)

We did NOT see Gettysburg. It is still on our "next time" list. And our drive through Hershey was short and the chocolate museum was closed. So, we scooted along to Harrisburg, PA, where we stayed in a nice hotel downtown. They were having an atheist convention at the hotel that night. Interesting. Brian took the kids swimming, while I went to get us some dinner somewhere. I got lost, drove through some sketchy neighborhoods in Harrisburg, and learned that my GPS does NOT hunt down "grocery stores" very well. But it did eventually lead me to a Walmart... not the best dinner, but edible.

Back at the hotel that night, I went swimming after the kids were in bed. Some drunk people from the atheist convention were swimming in their undies. ahem. Security people had to come kick them out of the pool, where they proceeded to dress and flirt and swear, right beside the pool. Not the best swim, but I pretty much had to pool to myself after they left.

Harrisburg's capitol, with the green dome. It's right next to a big river, which is a nice setting, we thought...

Day 2: Maryland and West Virginia, flat tires and rain
Sunday, Sept 30 -- Happy Birthday Jenn Hone (we thought of you!)

We didn't know it at the time, but our second day we drove through some of the most beautiful scenery of the entire trip. We passed through the Appalachian Mountains (wow! I actually spelled that right on the first try, pretty impressive, eh?!). Rolling hills, red barns and white farm houses, bright fall colors, etc. It was gorgeous. I snapped a quick pic as we drove. Now I wish we would have stopped for a real pic instead....

It was Sunday, so we went to church at a ward in Cumberland, Maryland. (I wondered if that's where the Cumberland Gap is, but Brian said he didn't think it was. Anyone know??) The kids were restless, and we still had a lot of driving to go, so we hurried off. But then... bad news for us. We had a nail in a tire. We pumped it up and tried to drive on, thinking it would be hard to get it fixed on Sunday. But it went flat again quickly. So we had to stop and buy new tires... FOUR of them, since our tread was fairly low. Bummer.

Yes, I took a picture, while we waited to get our tires changed...

And then, I took several pics of this cutie, while I changed her diaper and blew raspberries on her tummy in the change room at the tire place. (Did I mention it was quite a wait??)

I think that was probably the least desirable day of our trip. During church, one of the speakers mentioned how grateful they were to have the blessing of spending eternity with their family. I silently added to myself, "eternity... but hopefully NOT in a minivan!"

In the evening, as we tried to make up time after the tire incident, our kids were out of control, screaming and fighting and whining like wild banchees in our back seat. I told Brian, "I think you can just drop me off at the next airport, and I'll meet you and the kids at home when you get there in a few weeks. Hey, I'll even take Nat with me, since she isn't two for a few more days." I was serious. We eventually pulled over, and Brian and I stood outside the car for a full five minutes, while our kids continued to scream and fight and cry in the car. They would open the door occasionally, but we made them close it again until they were ALL DONE. That was probably the lowest moment -- for everyone. See why I was thinking "eternity -- NOT in a minivan?"

We spent the night in Charleston, West Virginia. Nice place, even in the rain.

Day 3: West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee
Monday, October 1 -- Happy October! (Brian 'got' me.)

We drove by the capitol building first thing in the morning, before we left Charleston. It was also a nice city, built between two rivers, I think.

I wanted to get a picture of the "Welcome to Kentucky" sign, because Brian had never been to Kentucky. But I missed. So I got this lousy shot of a water tower, and a semi...

Lots of driving meant lots of "thinking about what to do" for our kids in the back seat. Natalie liked taking off her clothes. Not sure why she does this, but she is quite skilled at removing her shirt while in her car seat...

We made it to the Kentucky capitol building, in Frankfort. (Aside, Frankfort is tiny, and the capitol building may be its only claim to fame, in case you wondered.) I already posted a few pics from the inside, but here are a couple more. Check out that massive set of stairs, and that little Spencer head at the very bottom...

And here's the champ, at the top of the stairs. I'm sure he would have hummed the Rocky theme music, if he knew Rocky, eh?

Next stop, Nashville, Tennessee. We had our best swimming pool on the trip that night. I wish I would have taken pictures of it, it was that nice. There was a big hot tub, too. And we had the place all to ourselves, for over an hour. Good times!

Stay tuned for more. I promise it's coming, even though there's so much unpacking still to do around here! I'll be back!

Today

Here's what I did today:
-- Enrolled Samantha in her new school, met her teacher, and sniffled away as I left her in the care of strangers, again. She was fine, of course, and had a great first day at her new school.
-- Found a preschool for Spencer, hooray!! He starts tomorrow, and he thinks it is super cool that his teacher's last name is McDonald, just like the restaurant.
-- Put bunk beds together, twice! (First the wrong way, and again the right way).
-- Emptied, moved, and refilled three dressers with all the kids' clothes. Ended up with four bags of giveaway clothes, whew!
-- Moved out two beds from Samantha's room, then assembled the queen bed in her room.
-- Had help from Dalana ( bless her!) and Brian for lots of this stuff.
-- Unpacked three big kitchen boxes of dishes and wares.
-- Found the salt, finally. (Turns out three days is a loooong time without a salt shaker!)
-- Found, washed and put on all the bedding for those three beds.
-- Unpacked all the kids' suitcases from the trip, into their dressers and closets, finally.
-- Unloaded two big suitcases of my clothes into the closet.
-- Did three loads of laundry.
-- Cooked and cleared dinner and tidied the kitchen to the point where it actually looks like civilized, organized people live here.

Whew!! No wonder I don't really feel like blogging tonight. :)
All this, after spending the day yesterday whimpering around the house all day with a rib in my upper back out of place. Ouch!! Chiropractor popped it back in late in the afternoon ... Must have worked, eh?

More to come, soon. Promise. But tonight, I'm off to bed!

Road Trip -- Capitols Tour

Hello from the road! We have been in our minivan, travelling for NINE days now! We've put more than 3000 miles on our little van. Fun times. We've decided to call this our "Capitols Tour," since, it turns out, we've been to LOTS of capitol buildings. We didn't really plan it, but well...

Here's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capitol building, our first overnight stop. Kinda hard to tell, but the dome on top is green, and Spencer loved it because of that...

Next stop, Charleston, West Virginia. Nice, classic...

Frankfort, Kentucky.First time in Kentucky for Brian and the kids.

We actually had time to go inside the Kentucky capitol. It was gorgeous....

In the rotunda, there's a huge statue of Lincoln. The front desk lady told us to be sure and touch Lincoln's toe, because it's good luck. Even Nattie wanted in on the lucky charm...

Brian was trying to "educate" the kids a little bit, as we walked through the different rooms. When we were looking at Lincoln, Brian asked Spencer, "Do you know who that statue is?" With no hesitation, Spencer said, "Yes. It's Joseph Smith." ;)

On to Nashville. We had planned to go inside this one, too. But it was closed for renovations...

Here's another pic, from the front angle. Nashville's capitol sits up really high on a hill overlooking the city. It was a good, long walk for the kids to stretch their legs...

Not a capitol, but also in Nashville is this beautiful piece of architecture. The Parthenon! Yes, it's an exact replica of the really old, famous one in Greece. Kinda cool, eh?

We had to skip Alabama's and Mississippi's, sadly. Montgomery and Jackson were each a couple hours' travel in the wrong direction. And we had a tight schedule, trying to make it to New Orleans for dinner. So, we'll save those two for some other trip.

On to Louisiana. The very enthusiastic desk man at the museum across the street (where we stopped to use the bathroom) proudly told us Louisiana has the TALLEST capitol in the country, 27 floors. Of course, with that kind of info, we HAD to go inside and ride to the top, right??

 Views of the mighty Mississippi from the top of the Louisiana capitol.

 Views of my cuties, on top...

 City of Baton Rouge, looking down. Nice garden around the capitol, eh?

We also stopped in Austin, Texas. Their capitol is quite large and impressive. But they've planted so many trees up close around it, we really couldn't get a good pic of the outside...

We went inside for a few minutes. The rotunda, looking up...

 Natalie, looking up... hee hee. She's so cute!

Oklahoma City's was closed when we drove by. But it looked nice...

Only, they had these huge replicas of oil derricks put up all around in the front lawn of the capitol -- two or three of them. Kinda weird and tacky looking. Maybe they're not for show, but they're really drilling for oil in the front lawn of the capitol??

And here we are, in Santa Fe, at the last scheduled capitol stop on our trip. (Well, unless you count Salt Lake and Boise, I suppose. But we've been to those, so we don't really count them.) Santa Fe's capitol is the most unassuming building we've seen. We couldn't really even FIND it for ten minutes, WITH a map! But here it is...

Kinda smallish, and plain, huh? Oh well. Maybe they've never SEEN Louisiana's, so they don't know what they're missing??

Anyway, that ends our Capitols Tour. I know it's kinda  weird to put up a whole bunch of pics of all these capitol buildings. I have lots more trip details to share, and I'm working on another post about the trip. But for now, I thought I'd just put all these together here, because I think it's fun! And honestly, I LOVE to see capitol buildings. I've wanted to visit ALL the 50 states' capitols since I was a little girl... ever since I first got to see the capitol building of Idaho, in Boise. Plus, Brian likes capitols, and our kids LOVE capitol buildings. They really do! So... it's been fun to do, gives us something to look forward to, in many of the cities we've passed through. 

Next post, I hope I'll have time to give more of the details of the trip. I'm sure you're all dying to know what it's like to be in the car alllll together, crammed full of stuff, driving, driving, driving along, for weeks on end! Let the good times roll!!