The Trip of a Lifetime! Part 1-The Drive

Last year Syd's husband, we'll call him Cy (mostly because that is his name), joined the Coast Guard.  Due to that fact, they learned that they were going to be moving to Woods Hole Mass. where he would be stationed beginning the end of September 2015. With all of the excitement that ensued and the planning that began, somehow it became decided that Kortney and I would drive Syd's car across the country for her because that would be much cheaper than paying to have it shipped over.  And also it gave Kort and I a chance to drive across the country with no children.  A win for us!!!  Neither of us had driven cross country and we were both excited.  I can't speak for Kort, but I was way more than excited!



So on the afternoon of October 1st we dumped off volleyball practice (we co-coached Ainsley and Bria's volleyball team) on our husbands, loaded up the teeny tiny Toyota Scion (with no cruise control) that was soon to become our best friend and headed off.  Until I realized I forgot my phone and so I drove back home and got my phone and then headed off again.  On the trip of a life time!!!

Our first night we only made it to Wyoming.  Where we stayed in a run down hotel full of Indian people.  It was strange.  When I called ahead to get the reservation and I was talking to an Indian person he was making all sorts of crazy claims, so I asked him if he was actually in Wyoming.  I was not aware that there had been a large exodus from India to Wyoming.  But apparently there has been.  I got yelled at for assuming this man wasn't in Wyoming, and then to my surprise there were multiple people from India working at that hotel.  Who knew!?  This was just the first little fun fact I learned while traveling across the country.

We made it through Nebraska our second night.  Our drive across the rest of Wyoming and Nebraska were pretty boring. Lots of cornfields.  And a lot of straight roads.

On our third day of driving we headed straight into Iowa.  Which I loved.  Somehow the cornfields there were beautiful.  The hills rolled and I loved driving there.  That is until they sent me a speeding ticket in the mail.  Now I'm not sure how I feel about people from Iowa.

We crossed the Mississippi River.  Stopped for a picture.  And then got back in the car.  We still had a long drive ahead of us!

By that evening we had made it to Michigan.  We took a few minutes to stop in and visit some old friends, the Ashby's, and took a few minutes to see Lake Michigan.  I had seen it from the Chicago side years ago. But seeing it in the daylight again was pretty amazing!  It is so beautiful there!

And aren't Kort and I beautiful too...after 48 hours in the car.  I literally wore the same pants for 3 days in a row.  We were super classy.

On our way our of Michigan we learned fun fact #2 on our trip.  We needed dinner and were running behind schedule and thought it would be a good idea to grab a pizza at Papa Murphey's to eat in the car.  Kort went in and ordered a Hawaiian pizza.  I went next door to get gas.  And Just FYI...you can fill a tank on a Scion for like $13 and drive forever. 

Anywho, I went back over to Papa Murphey's where we waited and incredible amount of time for our pizza.  Our first clue that something was wrong should have been when the girl working the cash register looked confused while pushing random buttons on her screen while repeatedly asking if we wanted a Hawaiian pizza.  Our second clue should have been when I was watching a guy make a pizza with the weirdest combination of toppings I had seen in my life and I thought, "who would order a pizza like that?"  Unfortunately we didn't realize anything was wrong until we were on the freeway and opened the pizza box and the stench hit our noses.  Our Hawaiian pizza came complete with BBQ sauce, pineapple, bacon, 2 pieces of sausage, a few pieces of grilled chicken, and piles of onions.  Not onions dispersed.  Piles of onions.  It was disgusting.

And now we know there is no such thing as a Hawaiian pizza in Michigan.

And then late that night, at like 1:00 in the morning, we made it to Canada. We barely made it across the border because Kort was tired and chatty and giggly. And apparently border patrol people don't like chattiness and laughing late and night.  Fun fact #3.



We pulled into our hotel in London, Ontario that night exhausted.  But our hotel was so nice!  I wish we had been able to stay there for more than 8 hours.  It was hands down the best hotel and breakfast of our entire trip.  We loved Canada!!!

Family 5K

In May I happened upon some information about a family 5K that would take place in the fall.  They ran a special one day where kids could sign up for free with their parents.  I decided that my family needed to do this.  We were going to train and get healthy and become runners.  Not only that, I invited my sisters family to run with us, and my mom to walk the race with Emmie.  This was going to be a big family affair.  We were all in good spirits with 4 months to train and prepare for the race.

But the whole training thing didn't really happen.  A few times we went hiking or running as a family. The kids hated it and whined and complained the whole time.

And then the race day came.  A little more quickly than we had expected.  And on the 5th day of my week of prescribed shingles meds. And a week and only 5 days before I was going on my cross country trip.  Had I known how stressful and busy the summer and fall would be I probably wouldn't have signed up.

But, ready or not, we picked up our shirts and race packets on the 24th and went to bed early to get ready for our race the next morning.  The weather was gorgeous.  There was quite a crowd, and I actually loved the route we ran.

Others did not.  Some people thought they were going to die.  But they didn't!  Everyone lived!  Unfortunately no one wants to run another race with me though...

I love this picture of Owen!  He looks so determined!

Shingles

I don't have a picture for this post.  Too bad for you.  But I just need to make it known that apparently I am akin to an 80 year old woman.  I guess I've been a little stressed over the last, oh, I don't know, 6 months or so....because I got shingles.  I had them for over a week before I finally relented and went to the doctor.  Had I not been planning a cross country trip I don't think I would have gone.  But I did.  And they declared my illness and then promptly started me on meds.  And I finished the day before I left on my trip.  Yay me!

Murder Mystery Party

So this is Brooke.  I may have mentioned her in the past.

 She has a birthday in September.  And while we were camping this summer we decided that we would have a murder mystery dinner and John would smoke some meat for her birthday.  And that we did.

It was a 50's themed party.  I had fun decorating.  And I learned that I'm lame and don't have enough place settings for a dinner party of 8.  I'm lacking 2 spoons and 1 knife.  But what I lacked in silverware, I tried to make up for in decorations.  I thought it turned out cute!

 Brooke was a prom queen and the murdere, Aaron was a  media mogul, I was a news reporter, and John was a music/dance sensation.  

It was fun to get all dressed up.  John and I rarely do that.  We ended up having a fun night.  And now I'm hoping I have a need to throw a 50's party again! I mean, I've got all the stuff!

First Day of School

Summer came and went quickly.  To be honest...I was ready for school to start this year.  Not because I was sick of my children, but because the summer was a rough one and I just wanted it to end so that our problems would!

This year Ainsley started middle school.  She didn't appear to be nervous at all.  I was terrified.  Probably because my middle school years were quite possible the worst years of my life.  I was so relieved and happy when Ains came home happy and excited and loving middle school after her first day! I was literally checking her schedule repeatedly throughout the day wondering what she was doing and how it was going.  We're 2 months into school now and she still loves it.  I'm so relieved!

Owen started 4th grade this year and had Mrs. Noel. I'm assuming he's doing well and liking it.  I don't seem to get the same daily reports from him that I get from Ainsley.  But he usually says that his day was "good" so I guess that's something.  And also I haven't heard from his teacher.  So hopefully that means all is well!

And Emmie is my big kindergartner this year!  She is so excited to have school every day like the big kids but she gets to come home at noon and play with her friends every day.  She's living the life I tell ya!  With all of my worry about Ains starting middle school I didn't really have time to worry about Emmie starting kindergarten.  But she did great!  I believe that there is a reason youngest and oldest children are so different.

The birthday that just wouldn't die....

When we got home from camping my mom wanted to do something for Owen's birthday so we went to their house for more cake and their gift...which was a golfing lesson from Grandpa.

So the next night Owen got to go on a golfing outing. The jury is still out on whether or not Owen will go pro with that one or not.

And then the next day was his friend party.  My kids only get friend parties every other year.  So lets just say that for Owen this party was much anticipated.  It was literally the  easiest party I have thrown to date.  I'm learning that boys really don't care about any of the fluff.  And I love it!  Owen's friends came over.  We drove to Jumptime.  The boys jumped their little hearts out.  Then we came home for cupcakes and ice cream and presents.  And then their parents came and got them.  They went home tired and sweaty and happy.  It was awesome.

And then after what seemed like days and days of celebrating the beginning of Owen's ninth year of life...it finally ended.

Owen's Birthday....That was in August...Oops

So....Owen's birthday happened. Just over 2 months ago. And I'm just now documenting it for posterity. Just a bit late.  We actually spent the weekend camping over Owen's birthday.  We went back up to warm lake with Kortney's family.  Of course the rope swing was the main event. So much so that when we first got to the lake everyone was searching for life jackets etc. so they could jump in.  In all the rush I somehow ended up digging through a complete strangers bin full of life jackets asking Kortney and Dan which one was Bailey's.  While the owners of the bin sat literally 2 feet in front of me looking at me like I was crazy.  I just started laughing and apologized for being the crazy lady at the lake that day!  I am still getting made fun of for that and I have a feeling I will for at least the next 3 years...

Anywho....

Owen lucked out and one of his buddies from school happened to be camping 2 sites down from us.  He had a built in friend for the week whenever he got sick of the girls.  Here are Owen and his friend carrying the raft back on shore after trying to walk under it in the water.  Clever boys.

We rented a canoe one afternoon and John and the kids paddled around the lake for a couple of hours.  I'm pretty sure John's arms were dying by the end.  The children's rowing skills were slightly lacking.

I was pretty impressed with the kids creativity while we were up there.  They raked aside pine needles and made their own house out in the wilderness.  You can kind of see the lines of pineneedles that were the room dividers in this picture.  They would even hang up all the towels on trees to create walls and everyone had their own room.  The "house" was massive!  A lot of hours were spent playing there on this trip.

We also hiked down to some natural hot springs. They were HOT! But it was a nice little bath....only lacking soap and shampoo....

We brought up all of Owen's gifts and his cake with us for his party.  

He chose hot dogs for dinner (how perfect is that?) and we made home made ice cream in a bag.  

The cold hands and salt water everywhere were worth it. I thought the ice cream turned out pretty good!