As I type this we are driving through farm land somewhere in western New York. For a rare moment the car is quiet. After spending the first 2.5 hour leg of this trip sitting on the tiny middle seat next to Sadie in the back, entertaining her and the boys, reading books out loud, handing out snack and comforting a crying 16 month old I am now back up front next to my man. Sadie is passed out – sleeping under her same cozy blue blanket that she falls asleep under in her crib at home. The boys are watching Curious George on a computer in the way back, listening to the sound on their matching tiger headphones that I thankfully thought to purchase on Amazon just a couple of days before our departure. The sun is shining, we’re safe and it’s quiet. Life is good.
Our trip so far has gone surprisingly smoothly…(well, except for a few bumps and poor navigating decisions...i.e. – deciding to drive “25” minutes out of our way to go see the US side of Niagra Falls after already being on the road for 8.5 hours. We thought we would be those fun, adventurous parents who go out of their way to give their children incredible cultural experiences that they’ll never forget. Well, I’m pretty sure we could have done without this detour because Sadie was screaming the entire way in the car, we were stuck in traffic which turned the “25” minutes into more than 60, we drove around this crazy mini-Las Vegas looking for parking and then wandered aimlessly around the poorly-marked area looking for a way to just get a glimpse of the falls. Kids were tired, parents were tired, we were surrounded by lots of tourists and let’s be honest….if you’re going to visit Niagra Falls – you gotta do the Canada side. The US side just wasn’t all that exciting. But we snapped some cute photos to remember our adventure and the kids already have fond memories of it.
To make matters worse on that first day, Camden was sick. He had a fever the night before we left (none of us slept that last night in our own beds) and his fever kept spiking through that long travel day. He was exhausted and uncomfortable and laid low for the first couple of days of our trip. Thankfully, by Day #3, his BIRTHDAY, he was much better and we were able to enjoy a fun day with the Swansons!).
Here are a few pictures from a random stop we had along the road earlier in the day. Camden was so sick...poor baby...
One of the primary reasons for taking this road trip was to visit my sister, brother-in-law and niece at their new home in Pittsburgh, PA. After living on a little farm at the end of a dirt road in our same town, they moved down to North Carolina three years ago for Dave to attend a program at Duke Divinity School. It was sad to not share our New Hampshire home with them any more, but so exciting to see them pursuing this dream and making a new home in NC. Sadly, we never made it down to Durham to visit them during their time there. We didn’t go down their very first year, and then with my Dad’s sickness and passing, and the birth of Sadie and the chaos of three little kids it just never happened. Thankfully, Caren came up to NH for many visits (not always under the best circumstances) during these few years, so we’ve remained close, but we always felt bad for not seeing their home down South. We had a road trip planned for last March during our Spring Break to go visit them in NC, but it turned out that during that same time, they were flying up to Pittsburgh to check out an amazing opportunity for them and we had to cancel our trip. Needless to say, it was really important for us to go see them. To see their new life in this new city. To spend some time on their turf. We realized, sitting around one night, that we’ve never stayed at each other’s houses before and just enjoyed that post-kids-in-bed downtime together. We’ve either lived in the same town, or they’ve stayed at my parents’ house on their visits to NH. It was fun to just hang out and catch up. We loved watching our kids play together. We went to the Children’s Museum on Camden’s birthday as a special outing (FREE for our family with our amazing reciprocal pass from our NH museum! Yahoo!), played on a fun playground and swam in a city pool! We planned our trip specifically so that we would be there on a Sunday so that we could see Dave in action as pastor of his new church. It is an amazing community of really neat people – lots of young families and people wanting to put time and energy into bettering their community. A perfect fit for Caren and Dave! Thanks guys, for hosting us and showing us your new stomping grounds! We had a blast!
Camden was too sick to enjoy the playground. :(
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Birthday ice cream!
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to be continued...
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