Moments from Road Trip 2015

When you head out on a seventeen day, cross country road trip to reunions with family and friends two weeks after having a baby, there are certain to be many memorable moments, some highlights, some low lights.  We have returned from a week in Hilton Head with T's family, followed by a once-in-a-lifetime reunion of eight college friends and their families in Indiana.  Here are a few teasers:

Highlight: 

Pushing through the exhaustion of a full day of packing 

and finally climbing in the car to pull out at 10pm.

Low point:

Waking up every 15-20 minutes throughout the night to feed a baby, 

comfort a toddler or change a diaper, only to have the toddler "wake up" for the morning at 2am and want to chat for the rest of the morning car ride.

Sunrise over Indiana after our first night on the road.

Highlight:

Seeing the sun rise over Indiana at the end of our first night on the road.

T had driven through the night, we were 10 hours into our 24 hour drive, 

and with the exception of J-Bear, none of the Bears were even awake yet.

We finally stopped at Chick-fil-a to celebrate with breakfast.

Highlight:

Looking into the back of our minivan and seeing the seats full of Bears.  

What precious cargo!  What amazing blessings!

I don't think that T and I could have ever imagined this 

when we started out on this journey together 9.5 years ago.

Highlight:

We passed the miles in the car with new sticker books from Melissa and Doug, 

and by listening to Magic Tree House books on tape (10 hours!),

a BBC audio book version of the complete Tales of Narnia (17 hours!),

watching a few VeggieTales (4 hours!),

and sprinkling in a few hours of Radio Lab podcasts and Paul Harvey Clips.

Low point:

Having to adjust headphones for back seat passengers.  

If you live by the headphones, you die by the headphones.

Highlight:

Our stopping points along the way were treats in and of themselves.

We stopped in Mars Hill, NC at the end of our first full day of driving.  T had always wanted to see Mars Hill growing up, and we happened to be driving near enough to make it our stopping point for the night.  After a hearty dinner along main street, we snuggled in for an early bedtime in our hotel to recharge.  Ahhhhh.....

From Mars Hill, we continued onto Charleston, SC.  We ate dinner near Charleston at the fantastic Five Loaves Cafe (definitely worth a second trip), and then spent the night and the following morning at the Inn at Middleton Place, on the Middleton Plantation.  

Low point:

The traffic getting onto Hilton Head Island at the peak of Saturday tourist arrival.

So close, and yet, so far.

Highlight:

The shouts of joy from family members and the smell of Jim and Nick's BBQ

 welcoming us once we did arrive at the house in HH.

Low point:

Having to leave our family and cousins, with tears in our eyes, as we left HH one week later

High point:

Realizing that we still had a whole week of vacation left, 

with some of our closest friends and their kids.

And those are just the moments from the Road Trip.  Get ready for the moments from the vacations....

Happily Ever,

Queen B