Travel

The travel down to Alabama went pretty well. We left Christmas day after our 2 church services, so we didn't get a very early start!

Maddie passed much of the time like this:

We stayed the night in KY

The trip home was a little bit more rough. For starters, there isn't the excitement of going to the beach - there is the thought of going home and getting back into the routine!

Secondly, we had car troubles! We are extremely fortunate though that despite the fact that the van didn't run real well, it only cost us about an hour (in a dealership in AL, along the highway). The real cost was once we got home.

We have had new front breaks and a radiator in the last 4 days and discovered that we got a tank of bad gas somewhere along the way!

But the Lord protected us while we were traveling. This handsome driver below did the entire 1914 miles to and from Alabama! Isn't he amazing?! He is, take my word for it!

We did 16 hours straight to get back in one day.
Ronnie passed the time looking for license plates.

Nathaniel struggled!

Eli entertained. (he's singing here)

Maddie didn't sleep quite as much, but she well!

We are extremely thankful for a great trip filled with lots of memories that we will take with us for years to come.

Take Two

Ron is on the road, again! 24 hours later than he had originally planned, but better late than never!

It ended up being one of the front brake lines that needed repaired, and then as the mechanic finished up and was flushing the new line the other front one broke through. Thankfully that was done at the shop and not after Ron started again.

And so we begin again,

Wilmore Week #2 is underway!

We would appreciate your prayers for all 6 of us!

Especially Ron as he travels!

Traveling

Several have asked how the kids traveled for our trip to Alabama!

On the way there they were amazing! I even told my father-in-law that, "Your grand kids are amazing." Apparently he already knew!

Seriously though, on the 16 hour drive down, they were great. We left after church (remember 2 church services) on Sunday and drove 8 hours to Columbia Tennessee with only 1 stop. Between the Ruffer baskets (thank you so much Ralph and Cathy for thinking of our trip when buying Christmas gifts for our kids), the games I had found online, naps and the portable DVD player (which was only used 1 time the whole 16 hours down); the kids were great. We stayed in the same hotel with Dad and Mom and my brother and his family. So we were all together traveling down on Monday. Not necessarily following each other, but relatively close. It's hard to caravan when you are working with 6 bladders in one vehicle!

The trip back seemed much longer than the 930+ miles it took to get there, but honestly - they still did great.

There were several more, "how much longer?" and "are we close to stopping?" and lots more

yawns

There were also few dull moments! (that's not always good though)

There were smiles

Learning times

Fake smiles between cries We used the DVD player much more than the trip down, but other than that, we made it.

But one thing remained constant. Our amazing driver did a fantastic job. He drove the entire 1870+ miles down and back! And I think he is still sain!

So, how did we travel?

We did ok, but I wouldn't want to take another trip that far -

at least not this month :)