Day 12

We’ve now been here in Norfolk for a few days and are starting to get settled in. Ella is a big novelty and Emily can’t stay away from her. She is always wanting to help feed her, give her a drink and wondering where she is if they’re not in the same room together. Heather is probably getting sick of having a "helper" along everywhere she goes. I’m hearing “Mine! Mine!” a lot more now that she has to share toys and I’m starting to wonder what age the concept of sharing sinks in. Emily is starting to sleep better at night – thank heavens. Since we are all in the same room and she can see us from her crib when she wakes up, she just wants to get in bed with us … not a good cycle to get into. But with the worry that she’s going to wake up Brad & Heather – and even worse, Ella – with her crying, it’s hard to come up with any other options to quickly quiet her.

The weather is a bit warmer here so we’ve been able to enjoy the outdoors more than we would be able to back home. There’s a cold front moving in right now, so it’s not the warmest, but I’m told we should be back to the 60’s soon and soon thereafter the 70’s (yeah!). Last night was a really nice night so we took the opportunity to take Emily out back and swing. She LOVED it. We stayed out there longer than we normally would have because neither of us wanted to deal with the tantrum that was likely to follow.

Jeff is enjoying his internship so far… although it is a lot more work than any of his previous ones. He has a lot of research and studying to do (on top of studying for his upcoming boards) and I fear that a lot of our evenings are going to look like this:

The ipod is just to drown out the noise of the kids, right?

Day 9: The Holbrook Hotel

Well, we made it. Our drive is now officially complete. We stayed at Stan & Mel’s in Christiansburg till Saturday and then made our last leg of the trip across Virginia to the coast. We all enjoyed the day off from driving, but I think Emily was the most happy about it. When going in to get her from her afternoon nap (the first one she’d been able to take in a house and crib in the last week) Jeff found this…

Apparently she thought she’d celebrate the momentous occasion by learning how to undress herself. Her socks are always pulled off and occasionally she gets an arm pulled out of her sleeve when she takes a nap, but I’ve never had her completely strip down. We’re just glad the diaper stayed on (and I’m sure Stan & Mel are too).

I'm grateful for the uninterrupted reading time the day of rest provided so I could read my Darcy book (thanks mom, for letting me bring it with me) and Jeff, as predicted, spent the day on the Wii. Emily also showed her enthusiasm for not being strapped into a car by dancing at all of her meals. Here she is with a big grin, eating the rare, and extremely nice, home cooked meal.

Some of you may have already heard about my reservations about our current adventure. As much as I love Brad & Heather and enjoy spending time with them, how can one be excited about 4 adults and 2 kids sharing two bedrooms and one bathroom for two months? However cramped the quarters may be, we’re extremely grateful for their hospitality and glad they have a sense of humor (I’m sure we’re all going to need one at some point over the next several weeks). Upon entering our room, we found this on the bed...

Thanks Heather, we feel truly welcomed. I especially liked the added touch of the mints.

Day 6

We are finally nearing the end of our driving (and we’re ALL feeling it). I’m running out of ideas to entertain Emily and I think she is too. We left Ohio today and drove through West Virginia. We did pretty much the same drive last summer with Jeff’s family. It was prettier then - although we could now see past the tree-lined highway and know that houses exist in West Virginia. I kept seeing really run-down buildings the whole drive and I couldn’t help but think of The Glass Castle.

I am very proud to say that we were only 20 minutes outside of Virginia when we pulled the DVD player out for the first time. Of course we had to listen to “Buzz! Buzz!” the last 10 minutes of the drive because the movie wasn’t quite long enough to get us to Jeff’s brother’s house.

We arrived at Stan & Mel’s and were able to enjoy a home cooked meal and a night full of Wii. I’ve already been hit up for one twice since we got here. I just keep telling Jeff to get a job. I have a feeling that’s all Jeff’s going to do tomorrow. Anyone care to disagree?

Day 5

We went to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum today. Anna is right – Salt Lake’s doesn’t even come close. Emily and Grant had a blast. We saw the dinosaur & train exhibit. Then we rode the carousel and Emily didn’t like it when we tried to pull her off. After going three times we finally were able to distract her by pointing out a miniature house that she could go in and play. There was a cupboard with dishes and a table and chairs inside so of course she was in heaven. We had to be clever yet again in order to coax her out of the house to go see anything else though. We went through a maze on our way to another exhibit. There were lights and mirrors everywhere. Jeff & Anna pointed something out to me so I followed around the corner to see it. Emily suddenly realized I wasn't right next to her and freaked out and ran towards me .... well, ran to where she thought I was anyway. We suddenly heard a thump and Emily start crying and I turned around to see her laying on the floor in front of a mirror that reflected where we were all just standing. There wasn't too big of a bump.

We then went to the area designated for 5 years and under and spent our remaining time there. Emily and Grant went right to the sand table and we had quite the episode trying to get Emily to explore anything else in the museum. After a big fit and a time out (apparently that's pretty typical), we finally got her to climb around on a rock wall, raft & bridge before discovering a slide. We found another house with even more dishes & food where Emily enjoyed playing for a while before she decided to clean up and put everything in the fridge. We ended the afternoon when we decided it was way past naptime.

After loading the car up again we headed to Columbus, Ohio to see the Perry’s. Emily loved playing with their dogs and Sherri was kind enough to show me a thing or two about blogging. Thanks Shayne & Sherri for the bed and I hope we didn't distract Shayne from studying too much!

Day 4: It's Only Been Four Days?!?

I think Emily’s learned that the driving goes a lot faster when she sleeps. For the past two days as we’ve started out on the road she’s passed out. Today she made it long enough to ask for her sunglasses first.

We stopped in St. Louis today and toured the Gateway Arch. We were here in May 2006 and were able to get some great outside shots of the arch, but weren’t able to go up it. So today we did. Emily loved riding in the little pods up to the top and was great for about 10 minutes as we looked out at the city below. After that she was done pointing out all the cars and we had to head back down.

When asking Emily what the Arch was she kept saying “Tem-pee” (temple) so we figured we’d show her the real temple before we left town. It was bitter cold so we didn’t tour the grounds long… but we took the time for a few pictures.

We made it through Illinois today and into Indiana. We’re staying with friends from the good old Winder 16th Ward tonight. Thank you Shirley's!!!

Day 3

We left Kansas today - it wasn't hard, we'd pretty much covered all but 60 miles of it the day before. We went across most of Missouri and skirted St. Louis. We're staying in Troy, IL right now. It's a nice, quiet hotel. We had the pool to ourselves tonight. It was great. Emily just loved the water & of course she was adorable in her little suit. I have such a cute daughter!

For some reason today seemed longer than yesterday. Maybe I was just better prepared to spend so much time in the car, but last time I checked, 5 hours is shorter than 11 1/2 hours, so why was today so hard? Maybe I'm just getting tired of it all together. That must be it.

Day 2: The Long One

Curious as to what we're seeing? The above is pretty much it. The first is Wyoming. The second is Kansas. And Colorado isn't much different.

Emily is very good at entertaining herself. That has been a lifesaver on this trip. Since we were in the car for 11 1/2 hours on Sunday, she got pretty creative. She spent over an hour playing with an empty water bottle, she dumped her cup of fish out and put them back in several times, and thank heavens I brought her princess books. She cycled through those several times. Cinderella, Beauty & The Beast, and Jesse (from Toy Story) are still the favorites.

Emily was great the whole time... till we had about 50 miles left. But I don't blame her, I was done too. We safely arrived in Topeka, KS and now only have short(er) drives left!

Day 1 (and a half)

So we really know how to start our trips off with a bang! Jeff became as miserable as I was earlier in the week and we therefore didn't even end up leaving town till today. It was nice to have an extra day to rest and pack ... but I have to admit, I felt like we were hiding out all day since we weren't supposed to be home anymore. Emily enjoyed the time at home to play and watch Toy Story over and over because mom & dad were too tired to entertain her ... that is, till she realized that she was feeling left out of the whole sick-thing and decided to get a fever too. We all therefore had a very short night of sleep before hitting the road this morning.

Besides a few outbursts from Emily when she dropped her bear or drink and none of us could reach it, it was smooth sailing all the way to .... uh ... well to Rawlins, WY. Due to unfortunate weather conditions I-80 is closed for the day/evening between Rawlins & Laramie. So we are now experiencing a long relaxing evening in our hotel. Which is great because we're all still sick, but crappy because it makes for a LOOOOONG day tomorrow. I sure hope we'll have better luck from here on out.

Day 1: In The Beginning

God said trying to pack up your family for a 2 month cross country trip isn’t enough. I will test you even more and see if giving you a fever and a body that feels like it’s been dragged down the street and back two days before leaving will strengthen your faith in me.

The verdict is still out on that.

But as we leave town today I’m hoping that even with my pounding headache and the fact that I feel like I swallowed a whole box of razor blades (and that Jeff & Emily aren't feeling so hot either), our journey will be a little bit more like this…

And not so much like this…

One can always hope right?

Tis the Season?

NOTE: For our morning routine I usually will empty the dishwasher while Emily has her breakfast. Then while I eat my breakfast, we sit at the table and read our scriptures - I have my Book of Mormon and Emily has a little picture Book of Mormon that my mom made for her for Christmas. The last month or so as we've been looking at the pictures I've been telling her who the people are. She now looks at the picture of the first vision and names "Jo-shuf", "Je-shus" and "Daddy" (after I told her Heavenly Father wasn't another Jesus and that it was Jesus' daddy). The next picture is of Jesus on the cross and Emily always says "ow" and kisses the page (she's such a sweetheart!). Emily also attempts to say Nephi but it sounds different every time ... but when asked what he's telling his brother's to do, she folds her arms and says "pay." She points to the picture of Samuel the Lamanite and says "Sam" (thanks to having a cousin named Sam she remembers this page really well).

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On Thursday I had to make an emergency run to the grocery store for some milk. As Emily and I were speed walking across the store we came across someone dressed up in a Keebler Elf costume and handing out candy. Emily sat there in awe as I slowed down so she could get a sucker. After the Elf walked away Emily looked at me and whispered, "Santa." Laughing to myself I told her it was an 'Elf' not Santa and continued on my way. Then on Thursday as we were "reading" our scriptures Emily suddenly looked up at me and pointed to the picture of Abinadi and said "Santa!"

I guess anyone with a white beard or red hat qualifies as the jolly old man in Emily's mind. To her credit though, the Elf did give her candy just like Santa did when she sat on his lap last December.

Oh, and I am currently trying to teach her that Abinadi is not Santa, but it hasn't clicked just yet.