Early in the year, I was FaceTiming Jami and her kids on a Sunday evening. I was just shocked by how grown up everyone was! It hurt my heart to think of how much I was missing, and how much I missed my sister's family. Danny and I had recently talked about Natalia's upcoming high school graduation, and lamented how much of a bummer it was that we'd be missing it. And that we wouldn't be there to see Rosie come home from her mission. Georgia is just so far away, so we never really considered it a possibility to be there.
But after that FaceTime conversation, I felt so strongly that I wanted to be there. I figured there was no way we could go as a family, but I wanted to be there. I worked up the courage to tell Danny that I didn't know if it was possible or not, but if it was in anyway a viable option I wanted he and I to go for graduation. I have such a good husband. Without hesitation, he said he'd find a way. I love that man.
The next day, I was on the phone with Jami to tell her that I was going to try to be there. And she told me that it was an answer to Tali's prayers. All she wanted for graduation was for family to be there, and she had told her mom that she wished so much that my family could be there. But Jami didn't see any way to make that happen, just like I hadn't. It wasn't more than a few minutes later that I received a gmail message from Danny. He said, "Why don't we make this trip to Georgia our big summer vacation and take the whole family?!" That was the beginning of the most epic road trip ever!!
The Downs were elated to find out that we were coming, and the kids were super excited. It meant missing the last week of school, but they were cool with that. :) Danny mapped out our route, and we realized we could spend a couple of days in Nauvoo before heading to Georgia. And then we were only 6 hours from Ft. Walton Beach, Florida...so we were definitely going to need a beach day there. And then we could keep to the south on the way home and have a day in Waco, Texas with Kenny and Susie and a day in Rio Rancho, New Mexico with my best friend Amanda and her family. We'd be on the road for 16 days...driving around 4400 miles and spending approximately 68 hours in the car. Did I mention we'd have a 13-month-old?! Surely, we were insane!! But the fun kind of insane, surely. :)
We starting prepping and planning. Danny got all our rooms reserved along the way, including a neat bed and breakfast for our night in Nauvoo. We ended up amending the end of the trip a little when we learned that Kenny and Susie would be in Chicago when we'd be going through Waco, so we nixed that stop which ended up making the trip one day shorter. I researched ways to keep kids occupied in the car, made list after list, talked through everything a thousand times with Danny...and I was still terrified. What we were thinking?! What happened when we were a week into this trip and the kids completely melted down from lack of sleep...and we'd still have another week to go?! What if they fought and cried and complained in the car day after day? What if we got in the middle of Nebraska and realized we had made a terrible mistake?!
The morning of the 26th of May, a Friday, dawned bright and beautiful. Danny and I were simultaneously super excited and totally terrified. But honestly, mostly excited. We had had many family councils and FHEs with the kids about the trip. We prepared them as best we could for what would inevitably be hours of Joseph screaming when he wanted out of his seat. We taught lessons about contention and being kind to each other, and impressed upon them how much fun we could have if they weren't twits to each other and disobedient to us. ;) With the car loaded top to bottom, we started on our way for the most epic road trip ever!! But not before we said a prayer. Danny offered our family prayer, and both he and I found ourselves in tears as we prayed that Luke would be blessed on his mission in the Spirit World. That he would be aware of us and that we would feel him near to us. But our tears were tears of sadness, knowing that we were going to have a grand adventure as a family...making memories that would last forever...and Luke wouldn't be there with us. It's times like that when we really feel a hole in our family. Where we realize that while our life can be filled with joy even without Luke here, we will not experience a fullness of joy until we are together again. But, like we have from the day of Luke's diagnosis, we allowed ourselves our tears and then wiped them away, smiled, and moved forward with hope and happiness in our hearts. It was time to make some memories!!
One of the ideas I came across during my Pinterest searches was to make a clip for each child to place on the visor. If they fought or disobeyed or were generally unpleasant, the clip came off. Whoever still had a clip on the visor at the next stop got to pick a treat at the gas station. The game would start over for the next leg. The kids were determined to keep their clips on the visor, but Danny and I figured we would get at least a few opportunities to teach our children about choices and consequences. ;)
Our first day was probably going to be our longest. We were driving through Wyoming (a very familiar drive for us) until we got to Kearney, Nebraska. We anticipated about 14 hours in the car that day. About 3 hours into the drive, things were still looking good! And never have Danny and I been more grateful for a suburban. A seat between each kid made for a pretty comfortable ride.
We only stopped twice, and they were just for gas, bathrooms, and treats since everyone's clips stayed on the visor. It had been a pretty easy trip so far! Joey took full advantage of his time out of his carseat and climbed all over the place whenever he could. :)
The kids tried their car bingo game for a little bit, but we were all pretty invested in the license plate game. We figured after two weeks on the road we could get pretty close to getting them all! The kids had a couple audiobooks to listen to, and Danny and I were determined to make a dent in "Words of Radiance". I love audiobooks...they make the time just fly by in the car.
Well, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived in Kearney in only 11 1/2 hours! We had traveled 738 miles in our first day, and didn't have a single fight or meltdown at all. We were shocked!! We tried to manage our expectations and chalked it up to first day good luck. After all, we were all hyped and excited and fresh. Surely the trend wouldn't...couldn't...continue! We grabbed some McDonald's for dinner, then ate in the room while we got ready to go swimming. We figured we'd better work out some of the kids' energy before bedtime.
Everyone slept great, believe it or not! Even Joseph took to the pack and play like a champ. Which was good, because we had another day of driving ahead of us! Danny had us staying in Fairfield Inns during all of our stays, and they provide breakfast which was awesome. Joey was a fan of the whole hotel experience!!
Our second day of driving took us through the rest of Nebraska and almost all of Iowa. It was pretty uneventful, except for when we passed the cattle farm and we all tried to hold our breath (and not throw up!) for a few miles. The stench was unbelievable!! It woke Joseph up from his nap and the poor boy just cried! But that was about the only time he cried. He would fuss a bit, and we'd either give him food, a bottle, a dollar store toy from my stash of Joey-Distractions, or start a movie for him. He helped us identify his favorites pretty quickly...101 Dalmatians and Blues Clues. He'd kick his screen and bark when he was ready for one of his movies. :) We kept him in his backward-facing carseat for the trip because we figured it would help him sleep better. However, that meant I couldn't see his face very often. But I loved seeing his little hands and feet while he happily enjoyed the trip.
The kids did really well during our second day, finding new ways to occupy their time. The girls read their novels, and Johnny dug into his new Captain Underpants books. The ziplock on his head was just for effect... ;)
After a measly 7 hours and 485 miles, we made it to our second stop in Burlington, Iowa. And believe it or not, the clips never moved!! Once again, we spent the whole day in the car with nary a fight or complaint...not even a "How much longer, Dad?!" It was incredible!
We went to find a place to eat in Burlington for dinner, and after driving around and around where the restaurant was supposed to be, we finally realized the restaurant was inside the casino we had been driving around! It ended up being a fantastic restaurant, and we all filled up after two days of kind of meager eating. Sophie's eyes ended up being a bit bigger than her stomach, and she threw up her dinner before going to bed. But luckily it was just over-eating!
That evening, I filled in the map I had brought so we would have a visual as to the progress we were making, and just how much of the United States we were driving through. It was incredible to see what we had accomplished in just two days!
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