The Incredible Trip

Well, I finally feel human again. It took two full days to recover from our drive back to New Jersey. We were stuck in awful traffic on Sunday in Pennsylvania. We had about 8 hours of driving to do and it took 15!!! The traffic was extremely heavy, it was pouring rain and foggy. I was so wiped out when I got home. Monday, I felt like I was in a daze and Maddie was home sick. During the night Monday night, Nick and Maddie were up with ear aches (shouldn't they be over that at this age??) and took both to the Dr. on Tuesday. They were both home all day. But today...today, everyone is at school and I am grateful.

Overall our trip went very well. We left on Friday the 21st as soon as the kids were home from school. We went as far as Toledo, OH. The next day we arrived at our destination at about 4:30pm. The kids did great travelling! I tried to think of as many ways to make the trip as efficient and comfortable as possible. One item I invested in was a luggage rack that mounts on the hitch on the back of our van. We stored all of our luggage in big totes on that rack. That allowed us to lay down the seats in the back and the kids were able to sleep. I also invested in E-Z Pass. That allowed me with go through tolls without having to stop. I think that alone saved an hour each way! The best idea was an empty liquid laundry detergent bottle for Isaiah to use. He thought that was actually pretty cool! He only needed his jug a couple of times. I checked out some new movies, packed a supper to eat on the road and away we went.

We spent the first couple of nights at my sister Sara's. Her blog is Don't Blink. She has some pictures posted of our visit (I forgot my camera). We had a great time there. Hannah was able to go to a birthday party on Sunday with her special friend Amanda. They went to the Mall of America to the American Girl doll store and restaurant. She was able to see a bunch of friends and had a great time. Sunday afternoon Amanda's dad took Nick hunting at a gamefarm and they had a successful outing. Nick was able to hunt pheasant everyday we were in MN.

Monday, I got my own pheasant with the van! Knocked out my headlight so I'm not so sure it was worth it. We headed up to Alexandria to spend the rest of the week at Grandma and Grandpa's. Cold weather had come early enough that the boys were able to ice fish with Grandpa! They both enjoyed that. While at home we played a lot of Rook, Spoons (I won), ate great food, celebrated birthdays, and the cousins exchanged Christmas gifts since they could all be together. It was a very wonderful trip until... that fateful last day of driving!

Charles is doing well at jump school. He jumped out of the plane for the first time Tuesday. They had two jumps yesterday. On the second jump he landed in a marsh. Oh - the trials he endures! They are to jump twice on Wednesday, once on Thursday and then graduate and fly home on Friday. Hooray!

Thought for the day: Travelling 15 hours in one day with a van full of kids is like being pecked to death by a bunch of chickens.