A Geography Lesson

We are home, safe and sound and filled with love and friendship from our unexpected road trip. Ahhhhh. I just have to brag first about how impressed I am with my children. We, I just calculated, were in the car for at least 11 hours total. We were in a car with no dvd system, which I proudly admit we do have in the van, LOL. I was unable for more than the first half of the journey to figure out how to work the radio, (XM satellite) so we had no distraction, save the view. Which, for the most part, was of the highway and quite unstimulating. I think it was the excitement of my spur of the moment plans. Hey, we're already this far, let's go on to the next town! Also, I think we hit a park almost every day of the trip. While in Simpsonville, we hooked up with mine and Philip's first friend's, which are Paula, Nathan and Lauren. (the daddy's are almost always working or pretending to be antisocial!) It is something else to realize we have been friends for just about 9 years and really crazy to realize our boys are pre-teens! Whenever we get together it is like we haven't spent a day apart. Paula and I both have family members that are into genealogy and have figured out that we are actually cousins! We've known this for several years, and it never fails that each and every time we are together we get to tell the story to new people. Our children don't quite get why we are so excited that they are related, but that's ok. Maybe someday. :) We left Simpsonville on Sunday afternoon, after two nights at Nee-Nee and Papa's, and another before that with friends in Columbia. We decided we'd like to go see Tyler's "first friend" who is the son of another of my dearest friends, Sahnuah, in Spartanburg. While waiting for Cooper's family to get together with us, we got to see two other families in Spartanburg that we have truly missed. Tyler's favorite part of the whole trip he told me, was playing in Tracy & Chance's yard with the bow and arrow and getting to see a bunny in their woods. Of course it was nice to swim in Annie's pool and hang out in her hot tub, he says. At that point, this Mama was just glad to sit and breathe and not have one foot on the gas! I am usually quite the homebody, as far as wanting to sleep in my own bed and feeling "stuck" when I am away from home. For some reason, that didn't happen this trip. It was just too fun to keep on keepin' on! That's not to say I don't desperately need a chiropractic visit! My poor back is so out of wack, sleeping in strange beds for almost a week. Soooo, after an overnight on Sunday with Annie and a full Monday with Sahnuah, we decided instead of heading straight home, we'd do one more overnight in Columbia! Playgroup is always on Tuesday, so I knew I'd have people to hang with and the kids would be thrilled too! I didn't really get to spend enough time with Jennifer the first trip through, as she was studying for her exams. This time we got to stay at her home and celebrate her straight A semester! You go girl! ;) After playgroup, we were still in a "what the heck mood" and I asked the kids if they'd like to go see our old house and neighbors before heading onto the highway. Happy screams from all directions were the answer to that inquiry. :) We got to see the house and spent a couple of hours with the neighbors, whom we have also really missed. All of these people were so open to my last minute plans, and welcomed us into their homes and schedules with no complaint. Thank you my dearest family, friends and neighbors! Thank you for filling me up with love and hugs and letting my children get filled up by you and your children. I haven't figured out how much this cost us financially, though the gas was right at $100.00, which is not bad at all for these days and as much as we drove! But what we got out of it was priceless. Now, I'm off to get further benefit out of it by turning our driving adventure into a lesson in South Carolina geography. Philip already had a blast helping me prepare the navigation system for each new destination, ("make. a. u.-turn. if. possible. turn around now. you're going the wrong way!!!" LOL!) and even watching the miles and minutes. We could turn this into some math, too! Hearing groans from all the children of the world...hehe. Hoping all is well with you and yours....and if you're ever up for a road trip, we'll leave the light on for you....
:)