Road Trip - Day 4 (AM - Almost There!)

Ok...this post is for Saturday morning. I'm posting these a day late if you haven't figured it out yet :) but seeing as how I'm on the road...I'd say that this is pretty good. I pay for access to AT&T WiFi Hotpots. I normally use this at the Barnes & Nobles down the street from my house (when I want to be by myself with my laptop and surrounded by books). Out on the road, I realized that every McDonald's has AT&T WiFi as well...and you KNOW there is a McDonald's everywhere on the highways and byways. This has made getting online fairly easy - as long as I convince my husband to wait to fill-up until we see a gas station near a McDonald's :)

If you recall Thursday we were in Arkansas and spent the evening and all night driving. Friday, our road day, my hubby was supposed to let me drive so he could rest. He didn't. What can I say? He's a trooper! We ended up driving all day and then finally he pulled over at a rest stop when we were in West Virginia...about five hours away from our destination. We spent the night there and woke up the next morning to finish our trip.

Here is the chronicle of the last leg of our trip on Saturday morning:

I didn't even bother to get Sumo out of his pjs. What's the point? We'll never have to see these people again anyway (what an attitude right :)

This rest stop was SO beautiful. West Virginia is a gorgeous place - so lush, green, and picturesque




I just stared out of the window much of the morning. I didn't want to miss anything. People who know me well in real life are quite aware that I ALWAYS have a book on my person. A road trip is the perfect time to get good reading done. But let me tell you folks, the book was closed and put away this morning. I can read anytime...but to see such natural beauty...this doesn't happen everyday.

I tried taking photos from my seat...the shots didn't do the view justice.




Then I started sticking the camera out the window (dangerous I know). So many natural rivers, lakes, and such! Coming from Texas, it's a wonder to behold.

There were so many tiny towns nestled in the rolling hills. I wish we had time to stop. Maybe on the way back home...




And then of course, the picturesque farmhouses. Wonder what they were cooking up for breakfast :)




I should enter the next one in a contest. I've never before seen anything like it. Imagine the probability of this happening again...that right as we drive by...a train is just in the right position.




Breakfast on the RV - We try and do breakfast on the road because, it lets us drive a little longer, it is so easy to do (granola bars, cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit), and because it saves mula. The kiddos just grab whatever they feel like eating when they wake up. Sumo's always up first (even at home) so he gets to enjoy his food in peace and quiet - and enjoy all the beautiful sights with Mommy...

This was one of those days that made me appreciate just being alive and able to take in such beauty direct from God's creative hand. Do you ever just want stop life for just a second and breathe in fresh air and take in beautiful sights? I hope you can pause for just a moment and enjoy the views I'm passing along to you.

Make a space in your day to look and find something beautiful to take in. Go for a walk, stop by a park, step outside your front door and look up at the clouds. Stop by the grocery store and pick up some fresh flowers, burn a candle, play your favorite music. Take a break from the hustle and bustle and find that "sweet spot" - that space that makes you feel that God is near.

You do know He is near don't you?

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
Psalm 145:18

Our Reason to Give Thanks

Our Thanksgiving holiday started with a family outing to the Dallas Turkey Trot. We did the 3 mile race. The boys rode in the stroller, hopping in and out every now and then.

Back home to shower, change, and pack for our trip out of town....Can you say RUSH!!! We are gonna have to figure out this for next year.

Off to my in-laws for TONS OF FOOD. My binge apparently had one last leg (sigh)

Then off to Pine Cove for the holiday weekend. This is a favorite place for our family to be. We grew up going here every year. My Dad would be the featured guest speaker and we'd also get a family vacation out of the deal. Even now, as adults, we love going back and being together as a family.

As the weekend drew to a close, the females in our group decided to take a trip into town while our littles one slept. We left them in the cabin with "Poppy" (their granddad) and took off about 2:30 pm.

At 4:00 pm, my Dad called me and said that the front door to the cabin was open and Sumo, my 3yo wasn't in the house. He checked everywhere and my son wasn't there. Within 15 minutes of his phone call, Sumo was found and returned by the POLICE....he had been gone for TWO HOURS.

From what we can piece together, Sumo must have run out of the room and out of the front door, trying to catch us as we left for shopping. My Dad was in his room with his door open and still didn't hear Sumo leave. The police picked my son up at 3:15pm from some folks who had him for 30 minutes already.

Sumo walked out of the cabin, off of the campgrounds, and onto the main road - a two lane rural road on which vehicles travel fast. He was wearing a diaper....no socks, no shirt, only a diaper. A car passed and he ran out into the road behind the car. The car stopped, picked him up and took him to the nearest house on the road. From there the police were called and the search began to try and find who this kid belonged to. He wasn't taken immediately to the police station b/c this is a small town and he couldn't have come from too many places.

Finally someone was found who knew that the speaker for Pine Cove was my Dad and that he had brought his family with him. The police brought Sumo back to the camp. When I arrived and went into see Sumo he said, "MOMMY, I FOUND YOU"!.

The police said he was a happy kid. They could tell he had been crying b/c there were dried tears on his face but from the time they picked him up...he had been smiling and laughing the whole time.

Later that evening, I asked Sumo why he left the house. He said, "I had to find you Mommy".

Can somebody say JESUS!!!!!!!

We are so grateful. Words cannot describe how thankful I am that we are not still looking for him, that he was no killed on an open country road, that he was not picked up by some evil person, or that he did not drown in the lake less than 100 yards away.

Our son was in a perfectly safe place, with a perfectly safe person, in a perfectly safe area and still found his way into a dangerous situation. It could have been so much worse.

We truly have a great reason to be thankful this holiday. My son is home, safe in his bed, and I have the privilege of being his Momma one more day. My husband has his son, and his siblings have their brother.

If you are reading this....make sure you kiss your babies. When I left my son that afternoon, I didn't know that my kiss to him before his nap would prelude such an event. We just never know what's coming...make every moment count.

Road Trip - Day 3 (On the Road)

So let's recount...We started on Wednesday afternoon, making it into Rodgers, Arkansas by evening. We spent the day, Thursday, in Rodgers, hanging out and enjoying the town while hubby took care of some business for his job. Thursday night we all hopped into the RV and settled in for an all night ride. Friday morning, we woke up in Illinois and spent the day in the RV, passing through, Indiana, and Ohio. Here are some shots of our day spent covering a piece of America by daylight.

In the morning, Sumo plays quietly with his toys (Cars, Toy Story, & Madagascar figurines) while everyone else sleeps. He is the early riser in the family.






The girls slept til well after 11am....teenagers need sleep :)



We drove all morning then stopped to get a break from the road and to eat lunch...Kano is serious about his food :)







Then into Walmart to pick up some things for the RV - more bread, some water, etc. The girls look at this as their fueling station for snacks. Because of my own sugar addiction, I always struggle with how much junk to let the kids have even though we are on vacation...See that crazed look in their eyes...



Walking out of Walmart...back to the RV...



a view of the road...




Everyone had a good nap for the afternoon drive. They had no idea that we had a blow out and had to be delayed for over an hour to fix a tire. Thank God for keeping us safe on the highway.




When everyone finally woke up ...we stopped at Denny's





More crazed looks because of Coke Floats...I'm trying to find the balance between raising healthy kids and letting them enjoy themselves...I haven't found it yet...

Jessie still wanted to drive (unbelievable) so we got everyone settled down. Gracie and Bessie started a scrabble game. The boys got their bedtime story from Mommy and then spent a little while looking at their books.

GOOD NIGHT!

If You Blink, You'll Miss It

Recently, my family hit the highways and took a weekend roadtrip. In Texas, a road trip includes lots of flat land, miles of pastures, and rows of crops. It can get monotonous. When you are sitting in a car (or a minivan in our case), the view can seem all the same. The temptation would be to stop looking and to stop taking in the scenery. A good book or a few minutes of sweet "car" sleep might seem a whole lot more enticing then staring at the same old mile after mile.

The photo above is what I almost missed because I was engrossed in some book I had brought along to read. I happened to glance up mid-page and caught this sunset. I grabbed my digital camera and proceeded to break all safety laws as I stood up and leaned as close as I could get to my husbands window without obscuring his view (yes...as he drove). I just had to catch this beautiful sight.

It's a pretty good shot considering the fact that we were moving at about 70 miles per hour. The picture is good but not great. It's enough for me to have a memory but not enough to actually show the detail. We were just moving too fast.

Life moves fast. Even when it feels like it's moving slow. It moves fast...it just does.

And we get busy...we get busy doing so many things that aren't bad or that even make sense for the journey that we are on. But...when we look up and realize that something beautiful is happening, our ability to capture and remember the details may be limited because of the speed at which we travel.

My lesson from this photo...S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N.

Now this is a photo, that I took at a standstill. We were traveling on a dirt road...somewhere in between two teeny-tiny towns. Because the road was so rough, we had no choice other than to proceed at a snail's pace. Because we were moving so slow, I did not miss this:


In fact, I asked my husband to stop the RV. I leaned over him, completely obscuring his view to catch the shot. This is the driveway to someone's home. Gorgeous. I captured this sight on my camera and in my memory because we stopped to gaze.

Life is beautiful. My desire is to take it all in and to move slow enough so that I don't miss it's beauty. I figure that if I move fast I may still arrive at my planned destination, but what good does that do me if I missed the moments of beauty along the way?

Lord, help me to slow down...help me to keep my eyes peeled for those memory-making moments that you provide. Help me not to blink. I don't want to miss anything that you have given me to enjoy along the way of my journey.

Road Trip - Day 12 (Going Home)

After driving four hour into the night, Jessie was pooped. We pulled over at a rest stop and took pause in our journey. After some rest, we carried on, through Tennessee, Arkansas, and into Texas! YEA!!!

My Dad used to take us on this same roadtrip every summer. I'm familiar with the freeways and with the views that let me know I'm getting close to home. I was so glad to see these familiar sights, signaling to me that we were almost there. I'm sure I looked like an idiot with my camera hanging out of the window.









We drove all the way home...well about 10 minutes away. After breakfast and lunch in the RV, dinner out sounded good, as did no dishes or mess at home :)




Just a few minutes later...we arrived home. Here's Jessie - signing off.



All the kids were happy to be home. We quickly got back to our familiar activities. Bessie and Sumo got busy using their imagination - building forts, houses, and a never-ending story line. This lasted until midnight. They were just so happy to be home. I didn't have the heart to cut it off. It was so nice to see them back to normal.



Uh huh...back to normal. :)



Thanks for taking this journey with us and for allowing myself to feel held accountable for doing a decent job of journaling. Now...whenever I get around to scrapbooking the trip, I won't have to think so hard about what we did, what I was thinking, and in what order things happened!

Road Trip - Day 2 (Swimming)

Well...we had a good nights sleep after wrapping up the first day of our trip. This night was especially restful for me as I caught up on a little more sleep and got rid of the last bit of jet lag. The kids went to sleep dreaming about the day to come which involved one of their favorite things to do....

We woke up...at breakfast...and headed for the POOL!



Sumo is invincible in the pool....as long as he has his tube :)



Kano shivered the whole time but kept getting in over and over again...



Gracie is such a sport for having such a great attitude while hanging out with a bunch of people younger than herself. Although this is the way it should be... good attitude and all...I was the oldest child and I remember how much I felt like it was a drag at times especially on vacation...when the more hands available to help...the better...She is such a blessing to have and to know...We all love her to death...



The best part was getting out of the semi-cool pool and getting in the warm water! Aaaaahhhhh...a moment for the girls....with no littles...



This is what happens when Mommy says it's time to go. One looses it and the other quietly looks on in frustration.



He got over it though...So did she..



Oh and I did swim with my kiddos...but I had to take lots of pictures first...

This was the first half of our day...more to come :)

Road Trip - Day 10 (Tennessee)

Jessie pulled it off again....He drove through the night, catching a nap sometime between 6 - 8 in the am. We made it to Cookville, Tennessee for breakfast at Shoney's, barely missing the all-you-can-eat-breakfast-buffet (RATS! - like I needed that anway).

We loaded back up on the RV and headed towards Nashville to hang for a couple of days and to visit my brother Anthony.

While we are pit-stopped here Jessie has to take a quick day trip for work, so knowing how much we enjoyed the last hotel stop, he put us up in our favorite - Embassy Suites and got me a car so we could get out and about. While he went to get the car, we got settled and put the boys down for a nap.

When it was time for Daddy to leave us :(..., I went down to the lobby with Jessie to wait with him for his cab. Unexpectedly, Anthony showed up and told me that he wanted to take my boys with him to a friend's son's birthday party. I asked him three times to make sure he really wanted to do that :)...he assured me he was up to the challenge!

The boys were overjoyed to be going somewhere with their Uncle Nee-Nee.

Completely free and unfettered, the girls and I headed for the nearest mall!
(I couldn't decide which picture of Bessie and I that I liked better so I'm posting both)






We basically followed Gracie around.




Then we headed to Anthony's to meet him and the boys there with pizza. We were responsible for picking up the pizza.






This being the girls' first visit to his home, they made it their business to show themselves around, looking in every closet and cranny. Gracie discovered Anthony's guitar and made good use of it.




Wow...boy...the Mellow Mushroom Pizza was really good!
(And yes...check out the background...my brother is a bachelor and keeps a very posh and neat pad!)




Uncle Nee Nee brought my boys home wired, full of sugar, and with new toys. Needless to say, his pad wasn't so posh when we got ready to leave. I tried, really I did but being as how he made it like Christmas with new toys, and made sure they were full of energy, I just did the best I could :)



More tomorrow!