News
- News
Sep 2007

Family

It is amazing that we seem to not value family as much as we used or we should. When we were flying yesterday we had a long lay over in GA and an Aunt drove on over to the airport just to be with us. Not only did she just drive over but brought dessert (brownies, the rest of the family loved them, me well you know what I think of chocolate), fruit, and drinks. This was so special! To go through all this work for just little old us, and all cause we are family. It is amazing that we forget just how special and amazing family is and what they really mean to us.

When we got here in IL we had rooms all ready sure enough this morning sweet rolls were ready to be baked as a special treat for the family as well as cookies for lunch that were baked in anticipation for us.

Just had to say we forget sometimes that family is amazing and in cases where our family is special we forget just how special they are.

Reminded me of 2 weeks ago where for one night in honor of us and as we got appointed for our new job we had both sets of parents, a brother, and our kids god parents (and our very special friends) there cheering us on.

We just have to say WE LOVE YOU to our family.

Drink your Soda

How often do you have to tell your kids to drink their soda and sit while they refuse to do so?

Joshua got sick today and has had an upset stomach all day and well we don't need to go into details with what can happen etc. But as we are on the road traveling to visit Grandparents we wanted him to drink some Sprite to calm his stomach some, but he hates soda so it was odd sitting there trying to get him to drink it. He just didn't want to drink anything at all esp the nasty Sprite that he hates and has never liked.

Just hope this continues for the rest of his life.

Hannah meanwhile was asking to have soda as she loves it

Visiting Family via planes

Not sure if Road Trip is the correct category as we are not driving this time but flying.

We flew out to IL yesterday all 6 of us (our family and Meemaw and Baapaw) to visit Chelsea's grandparents. The flight was nice, though the planes were small enough that the only carry-ons allowed would be really small back packs.

Joshua on the way in started to feel really sick and with some medicine was well enough to travel without looking like he was about to die. When we walked out to our first plane he brightened up as he saw the plane has actual propellers. He was so happy his jaw dropped and he stopped walking. He thought it was the coolest thing. When we got on the plane it was even better as he had a window seat which looked out on the propeller!

The second flight (after a 4 hour layover and a visit with an Auntie) was a bit stressful as our seats were every which direction. Hannah was in row 1 Joshua in row 2 Chelsea in row 7 and David in row 11! How they expected us to sit that way i am not sure. But when we asked those sitting near us if they would be willing to trade they were more than happy. One gentleman even said "I am just glad you didn't as me to watch them!" As if I would ask a stranger to watch my kids on a plane.

Other than that the plane trips were uneventful. So we are in IL now visiting family

And Hannah said...

We were 30 minutes from our final destination and Hannah was really trying hard to fall asleep. We had travelled through 14 states, 3,586 miles for 19 days. She sighed, "This a LONG drive," she observed. And she was right.

People marvel when they find out where we have been. "This is exactly what we wanted to do," I say to them. And we have had a marvelous time. We are spending as much time as we can with loved ones. We spent a month with David's parents, spent time with both of his grandfathers, saw his aunts, uncles, and a niece. We spent a week with Jackie and Marcus and Eli, then they accompanied us on our trip. We arrived in North Carolina and were reunited with my parents, my brother and sister in law and their son William.

The first night we all got together I felt like a grandparent whose children and grandchildren had come home. All of Joshua and Hannah's cousins sat with them at the table at our friend's house. I knew that everyone was together there in the house because of us. David's parents from the other side of the continent, cousins from both sides of the family had come to be with us. It has been a time that I will never forget.

I bought my last set of postcards today. North Carolina.

Updates

Well with the road trip being done these updates have gotten sparse and not that detailed like some of you had begun to enjoy and like. I apologize but I do not have the time like I did when we were on the road trip. Also we are preparing for a week of meeting and interviews for the new job. As a result we are getting our things ready, getting stuff ready for the children as they will be with Meemaw and Baapaw for the week we are traveling from one meeting to the next.

Needless to say we have some very gracious and wonderful hosts that are allowing us to stay in there very spacious and wonderful home. We get to look out to the mountains everyday and if we ever choose to get up with the sunrise we would have a most spectacular and wonderful view, which I am thinking we will do when we get back from our week of meetings. Might even have to get up and bring Chelsea some tea and drag her to the porch so we can read our favorite book together out there. The house is very wonderful and whoever designed it did a wonderful job. There is a slide from the children's deck to the sand box. Near the sandbox are tunnel for the kids to play in, as well as swings under outside stairs, and a dammed creek where they can look for salamanders and play in a small pool of water. The hosts built a wing on to their house for their children and grand children when they come to visit and that is where we are staying.

Other than getting ready and filing out all the forms we need to and finding all our nice interview type clothing we are just relaxing with both sets of family. It is wonderful to have them all here at the same time and watch them interact. We are so blessed that we have families that enjoy one another without having to rely on us. Today the fathers took the moving truck back and it was not stressful for them, but a rather enjoyable time for both. That warms our hearts as we see our families enjoying one another.

Well I need to get some rest so I can get up and pack and make sure all the kids are packed as well.

Pictures are coming soon I just need to sort through them so hold your breath for a few more days.

The road trip is done and with great joy and sadness we close this wonderful time in our lives. We had an amazing time on the road traveling with Papazai, Mamazai, Jackie, Marcus, and Eli. It will memories that even our children will remember for the rest of their lives. Memories like this are precious. So plan a road trip and have fun, just be careful when you plan one from coast to coast. Which yes we drove from one coast to the next! Well ok we are a few hours shy of the East coast but hey it was close enough :)

Travel Tidbit: Travel well and make memories. Road trips are memories you will never forget or regret.

Summer Edition

We have a new updated news letter for everyone.

You can view the PDF here.

We Arrived

Just a quick update to say:

WOO HOO We are all here safe and sound. Off to dinner with everyone on the road trip as well as the rest of the family here in North Carolina.

More to come later tonight.

Long Drive

Well we wanted to get going earl as to get a good long day of driving in, and Papazai wanted to see what it would be like driving 900 miles.

Start 6:30 we wake up to get ready. Early enough of a start but that is what time breakfast opened so we figured by time we got down to eat it would be ready.

Update 7:15 we are on the road and I promptly fall back asleep while Papazai starts the long trek.

Update 12:00 we stop for lunch at Long John Silvers. Not sure what the big attraction to this restaurant is, as all they have is fried fish. Personally I like my fish warm off the grill or broiled not fried in the fat of some animal. Papazai really likes it so no problem we eat there, sort of. As we pull in there is no where to park this extra long covered wagon so we park in the parking lot next door. There are 3 businesses there one of which is closed and the other are not so we take turns waiting in the truck while we get our food.

Update 14:00 I take over driving and Papazai soon is fast asleep. During this time was the only "exciting" activity. Don't get your hopes up too much as all the activity was when for about 30 minutes I was sandwiched between Semi-trucks. For some odd reason traffic hit a bottle neck, but it was not one that slowed traffic to a halt just had everyone lined up in lanes with no room to pass. As a result I was behind a semi-truck with another behind me and then ten to twelve on my left passing me. Rather than just passing and then being done with it, it was more like a someone signing star. As one lane speed up they would pass and then soon our lane would speed up so we would pass them. All in all not too exciting but the only really exciting thing that happened.

Update 19:00 the other party stopped for the night and so we decided, to my great joy, to meet up with them. We will get in rather late but I get to spend the night with my lovely wife and that honestly is all that matters. I asked Papazai about 5 times if he was okay with this plan just to make sure, as we will arrive at about 23:00 our time or 0:00 hotel time as we will cross the last time zone change.

Update 23:15 we arrive at the hotel. It took forever to get to the hotel as we had to drive through a ton of construction. We were at stop and go traffic for about 3 miles sandwiched between a row of semis. Then our exit was closed so we had to drive 3 more miles and the pull a U-turn to get back to our exit. It then took us 30 minutes to find a parking spot and then we finally got to go in. It was great seeing my who was wonderfully surprised to have her husband with her this night.

Travel Tidbit: Calling at each stop to tell your spouse "I love you" is a very exciting and wonderful thing to do. Not only does it make the 300 miles you are driving all that much more worth it, but gives you something to think about as you drive. You let you eyes pass over the landscape and watch the horizon wondering if she is seeing the same thing, knowing full well she is not, and so you try and find words to describe the beauty of what you see only to fall short. Just marveling at the beauty of creation brings to mind the words about how all are held accountable. Nature itself screams to its creator and looking at that warms my heart.

Divergent parties

No human alarm clock this morning as he is a few states away. I miss my family already.

Start 7:00 as I walk out of my room there is Amanda and Soren in the hallway. Soren seeing me reaches out for a hug, so of course I give him one. Who can turn him down?

Update 8:30 after having some breakfast and coffee, thanks to our very generous hosts we head out to find boxes and some tape. However everything is closed until 9:00.

Update 9:00 we leave to go get the truck and some boxes after we got directions and our truck confirmation number. One problem the directions take us a very odd way and we cannot find the Public Storage where out truck is at all. So we call the store only to get the national number every-time we call. They give us directions and we try to find it. We arrive only to find it closed with a sign. So drive the other way as there is no where for truck to be at this location. We call back, again the national number the give us directions right back to the same store and tell us someone is there. So we go back only to find it closed with a sign saying back at 10:45 so we wait. Then we are at the wrong location GRR.

Finally with specific directions to the exact location we arrive and get our truck. We hope to get a smaller truck as there is no way we could even fill the smallest truck they have or hope they can help us get our car in the truck itself so we are not towing it. However, they say no to both so we take the truck knowing we will not use over 1/2 of it.

Update 12:00 we arrive home and are really sorry we are taking up so much time of the Stevens and they graciously said don't worry about it. They are a great family and I will greatly miss the face to face time with them. I was glad for the short time we did have and they will be those friends we always remember for how much they invested in us and for us. We love them dearly and can't thank them enough for all they have done for us. WE LOVE YOU

Update 14:30 we are done finally two and half hours later than we planned but we are done. We finally are on the road truck and car all loaded and here we go! Just 1492 miles to go or 23 hours and we will be in NC.

In actuality the trip might be longer as we are legally obligated to stop at the 1st weigh station in every state we drive through. This was really odd to be told, but apparently it is a new Homeland Security law. So we will be stopping at these weigh stations.

Update 18:30 we are in Kansas and as we pull into the weigh station, it is closed. So we continue on our way

Update 21:30 after passing a time zone change and arriving at our stop we are done for the night. It was as short day as we got started late so only about 315 miles today and 1177 to go. We will push it tomorrow hoping to get 600-700 done.

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The other party got off to a late start. They started 3 hours later then then wanted to but they made good time and arrived in Normal Illinois, making it not so normal :). In three weeks the Lutes will be back in this area making it once again not normal, as they visit grandparents or great grandparents for a wekk. They made great time and where there by around 20:30 only problem was the pool is not working.

They had a great time, stress level was down, the kids behaved, and the are now asleep. They are looking forward to another good trip tomorrow and hope to make good time as well. The children watched a couple movies and that helped them in the long car ride. While the parents relaxed and talked. Thanks Marcus for all the driving you did and will do.

Travel Tidbit: Two road diverged and two covered wagons travelled down them and will meet up again in a couple days in North Carolina. Not the best way to travel as I miss my family but we will all get there safe and with all our possessions. Oh this traveling tidbit is getting a truck larger than you need is not always as nice as you have to get rope to make sure stuff does not move, and need to pack the truck differently. So far each time I have moved to or from North Carolina with a truck I have ended up with something larger than what was needed. The first time they could not give me the truck I wanted and upgraded me to a 21' truck. Which was way to big, and of course we had rope galore all over the truck to make sure stuff did not move. This time I asked for a 16' truck as it was $300-$400 cheaper than a 12' truck. Both were way to big for what we needed, which was just a trailer to haul everything, but our car cannot haul anything so it has to be the one towed.

Good night I need sleep for a long drive tomorrow.

911

The day our party separates into 3 groups. Papazai and I are to fly back to CO to drive a moving truck to NC, Mamazai is to fly to NC to meet us all, and the rest (Chelsea, Jackie, Marcus, Joshua, Eli, and Hannah) are driving the covered wagon from MN to NC. We should all arrive on the 5th through out the day.

Start 7:00 we get up and shower. Normally don't mention this but this is when the day really started though we didn't know it. At around 7:30 Papazai and I hear a crash and don't think anything of it as there are not cries and assume it was one of the kids playing or jumping upstairs.

Update 8:00 Jackie mentions she fell in the bathroom and thinks she passed out for 10-20 minutes as she woke up on the floor and doesn't know what happened other than her wrist hurts.

Update 8:30 at breakfast Jackie passes out talking to Chelsea. David yells for help as Marcus and Papzai hearing the cry run up from the basement. Papazai monitors Jackie with Marcus while Chelsea comforts Eli and then takes the kids upstairs to play while David cleans up the spills and helps where he can. Jackie is getting better but then passes out once more and so 911 is called.

Update 8:45ish an officer arrives on the scene and administers Oxygen to Jackie and gets some information from her and Marcus. While this happens the EMT from the fire department arrive and get some more info, until the Ambulance arrives. They take some readings and everything seems very normal. Blood Pressure and Blood sugar are normal and everything seems fine.

Update 9:15 after Jackie is on her feet she passes out again and the paramedics get her on the gurney and take her to a local hospital.

Update 14:15 they arrive home and the doctors don't know what is wrong but everything is okay and she was feeling better. Papazai and I leave in a rush to catch our air plane. We arrive plenty of time and the plane ride was short.

Update 18:30 we are picked up by our friends from Impact and we ride back to their house where our car is waiting. We have a nice conversation with them in the car and get to catch up with them.

Update 20:00 after arriving at their house and switching luggage and saying bye we arrive at CHIPOTLE for dinner. I get my fix once again and then we arrive at the Stevens. Even after a year they are not sick of us yet to allow us one more night in their very lovely and wonderful house.

Travel Tidbit: Not much to say today been a long day in prayer.

Packing and Games

Plan was to pack and go to church later in the evening, though plans changed part wary through the day.

Start 8:00 the adults being tired from a late night of playing games woke up late and gratefully the children were willing to sleep in or just stay in bed long enough for us to do so.

Update 9:00 Bev left saying her good byes and drove on back to WI. For the Isaksons it was a a good time catching up with her, and for the Lutes it was a fun time hearing her stories from her work in Ecuador.

Update 11:00 around lunch we decided to attend church Sunday morning instead of Saturday night. We wanted to worship with the Isaksons church body, instead of in a new place and we wanted that extra time with them to talk and fellowship.

Update 12:00 we play a game of Citadels with all 6 of us and enjoy the time talking and playing a game.

Update 17:00 we finally wake the last of the kids up and think about dinner. We decided dinner was going to be a local Chinese restaurant, local as in 50 steps from the driveway, which was pretty good, though there spicy was no hotter than mild salsa.

Update 20:00 we put the kids to bed and finalize some plans for tomorrow and the trip.

Update 22:00 we play another round of Citadels.

Update 0:00 we all crash for bed.

Travel Update: Don't try to update daily blogs the following day as you may forget things. Not that my memory is getting worse but you never know what is in store, and where the day will take you.

Day at the Mall

Today we get to spend the day at the largest outdoor mall in the nation, there is a mall in Canada that claims the title of world largest indoor mall.

Start 7:30/8:00 I forget what time we finally got out of bed and got up, but it was around this time when we got up and got the day started.

Update 11:00 after the kids play around the house while the adults do random different activities and get ready, we head out to the mall.

Update 12:00 we arrive at the food court to start our mall activities with some good old fashion food court food. Of course our kids wanted food we would never eat, and being a special day, we let them have A&W hot dogs to eat. Chelsea wanted some Asian food, and I had a burrito hmmmm. I do miss the good food of Chipotle and Qdoba. I miss getting together with David and Tyler and eating Qdoba at Aspen Grove and just talking. I miss them more than the food, but this burrito reminded me about our wonderful times.

Update 13:30 we walk to Sears to get the children's picture taken together. They were full so we had to come back at 17:00.

Update 13:45 we attend the amusement park in the mall and take Joshua and Eli on some rides. Joshua, Eli and myself go a log water ride and we have a blast. I then take Joshua on his first ever roller caster and he loved it! It was a roller coaster which had no flips or loops just a few moderate turns and spins, but the car spun around 360 degrees as well. We met 2 young boys in line who wanted us to join them so we could make the car spin faster. Joshua was not scared but said "I am sad." "Why?" "It was too short I wish the ride was longer." So finally I have someone to go on roller coasters with me, seeing as Chelsea gets sick when she rides them. Hannah went to sleep and Papazai and Mamazai went shopping.

Update 15:00 we meet up with every one to decide what to do next. Eli had a huge bump on his head in the morning that was not getting better, and a second one developed. So Jackie and Bev left after calling Marcus to find an Emergency Room to diagnose what the bumps were. As they left I took Joshua to the Tree Swing ride that he wanted to go on. He went on by himself and really enjoyed it.

Update 15:30 we enjoy Lego Land at the mall. Mamazai and I were drooling at all the new Legos they had, and wished we could drop way too much money on Legos. There was a new model of the Millennium Falcon coming out in October that I wanted which had 5193 pieces. The downfall was it was $499.99. Way too much money, but I would love to put it together and see how the small 5193 pieces came together to make one of the most interesting looking ships on Starwars.

Update 17:00 we go to get the children's pictures taken as we meet up with Jackie, Bev, and Eli. The doctor at the Emergency Room said the bumps were just bug bites and other than some Benedryl and watching to make sure Eli did not get worse, there was nothing to do.The process took longer than we expected and not the best experience at a Sears Photo Center, but we ended up with one good picture so in the end was worth it.

Update 17:45 we are late for dinner at Famous Dave's and rush on over there to meet Papazai, Mamazai, and Marcus already sitting at our table.

Update 19:00 we are done with our wonderful dinner and separate to do some shopping. I bought Citadels for us all to play, hoping we could all play it later.

Update 22:00 after we get home, get the kids down for bed and talk through some logistics about the trip we sit down and play Citadels. The game took longer as we learned the rules, but everyone enjoyed the game and Chelsea won.

Update 1:15 we go to bed as the games was finally done.

Travel Tidbit: Staying up late playing games with everyone is soooo much fun. While we are all a bit slow and tired this morning we had a blast last night playing games and talking.