?!CRAZY??!! No just tired.

We just returned from a cross country trip. When I say we, I mean the girls and myself. Eric has been busy sitting in the spin chair. It was a fun trip. Apparently, from my mom, to my friends, to perfectly good strangers, this is NOT a normal thing to do--meaning packing the car with an eight month old and 2.5 yr old and driving for 14hrs. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Don't try and play the entering a new state game with a toddler...As you say "YEA we're in Alabama" her reply is "What? What Mommy, what?" and you repeat, "We're in Alabama!" Waving your hands above your head trying to create more excitement, but only get..."What? What, Mommy? what? What?" I foolishly tried one more time, to get the same reply from her. Same thing happened in Mississippi...only two states and I learned, she's not ready for that game.
• We drove through, across, or spent time in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. 6 states in 9 days...not bad! We didn't get the DVD player out until late in the day on the really long days of drive and most days no DVD play --This is what tipped the scales to certifiably crazy, according to friends.
• We had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with our friends the Edmisters'. The first friends we met in Grand Forks and dear ones! The girls played and played and played and it was refreshing to catch up with Skye and Hannah. We miss you and will miss you more when you return to Ohio. As CJ kept telling me, "Zoey lives too far!" Agreed! Here are a couple of shots of all our girls. They are all 6 months apart from each other. Zoey is 3 CJ is 2.5 Allie is 14 months and Laurelei is 8 months.


• We continued to Altus, OK and saw beautiful fields of cotton...really it looked like popped popcorn fields, never realized what a sight cotton fields are. There we spent the weekend with our dear friends the Machs'. CJ and Emma picked up were they left off in March and we got to meet baby Tyson. What a cutie! We celebrated Emma's birthday, went to a parade, the girls went to Mom's day out, music and gymnastics together. Fun filled days!


• We left Altus on Tuesday, with the intent to go half way home, Shreveport, LA. However, an hour on the road and we blew a tire. Really, it was the best place it could have happened. It gave us a reason to stop in Wichita Falls, TX and spend one more night with the Edmisters'. Sure I know how to change a tire, but I also have road side assistance, so I used it. It seemed I could just concentrate on the girls that way. It took an hour and a half for the truck to come and only a few minutes to put the spare on...and then Skye was a blessing and helped me get a new tire and even put it on for me. Thank you!
  
• A later than planned start on Wednesday, actually worked out well. We watched dark clouds ahead of us and then behind us, but for most of the drive it was dry. We didn't really get heavy rain until after Shreveport. We also missed all the tornadoes, even though at some point we had been in the areas of concern. This morning we got up early and headed out and again, we were blessed with cloudy but good weather for most of the trip. We encountered rain near Hattisburg, MS , and when it was raining it was buckets! After some slow going and just making it to speech, we got home at 3:15 today.

Odds and ends....

• Brown play dough, will give you a moment of...WHAT??? before you realize that IS play dough and not poop.
  
• Silly putty, is fun to make into tiny strings, making it easy to mash into clothing and car seats...Comes out of hair, not clothing.

• Laurelei is clearly and purposely saying Momma, claps her hands and decided to start taking independent steps on Monday (8months 3 days...for those who remember that CJ did this at 8 months 2 days.) She is also a HUGE flirt...she just got louder and louder until we finally told Tim to pay attention to her. Then she just smiled and giggled.

• Altus, OK is the same distance as Miami, FL is from us. We don't have friends that live in Miami.

I'm sure I am not remembering fun things...those brain cells are currently napping. All in all, we all had a great time and miss all of our friends. CJ keeps telling me how her friends live too far...along with grandmas and grandpas. We plan on staying put for awhile...but we are always up for visitors...we love a reason to go to the beach!