The drive across America

We started bright and early Tuesday morning, we wanted to leave Grangeville by 8 a.m. to get a good start on our trek. So I wouldn't have to drive and one of us wouldn't be stuck with all the kids (which lets face it would be me,) Scott and his dad arranged a little trade. We left our camper with them and they let us take their flatbed trailer to haul my car with. Whew, so we all could be in one car and help with the kids, you know get them snacks, change the movie, break up fights, threaten their lives. . .have you ever driven across the country with three kids!?!? Poor Ian got bored, but Rylan and Madelyn did try to entertain him.

At Lolo Pass we stopped to go potty and eat lunch and *sniffle, sniffle* say goodbye to our dear Idaho, since we were just about to cross into Montana. Scott & I love Idaho so much not only for the memories but the wilderness, rivers, lakes and forrests! We were both born here, raised here, got married here, went to college, and had our first baby here. We will always call Idaho home.

Scott is showing the kids the map of where we are and where we are going, Rylan got it, but Madelyn not so much. Everytime we stopped she would say, "We are at South Carolina!" "No, not yet Maddy." It was fun to watch our slow progress. Because we were feeling good and we wanted to pass as much road as we could we decided to drive through the night (it is amazing how much farther you can go when you don't have to stop for potty breaks and feeding every two hours!) The kids slept great and we were able to get all the way to Wall, South Dakota where we stopped at about 4 a.m. to sleep until the kids woke up at 7. Then we had breakfast at a diner there then drove all day to Tomah, WI where stayed at a hotel with a waterpark. Oh we slept VERY well that night. Well except for me because I had an upset stomach, and was drinking the pink stuff all night. We didn't take pictures because our dumb camera was out of batteries.

From there we went to Naperville, Illinois which is around the area we will be moving to after Scott's course here in S.C. We staked out some areas that we would like to live, well more like places that we DON'T want to live.

Next stop on the route: OHIO! To see Chip & Breezi's family!

Our twin nephews Miles & Dexter swinging together

Ian giving LOVES to Alli

Miss Maggie playing with Scott & Ian

They took us to the famous COSI childrens museam, Rylan was showing off his hula-hoop skills, still don't know how he learned to do that!

Breezi takes her kids here a lot so they knew the best of the best of the museam. My kids especially loved the ocean part. You may be wondering why our children all match, well so we could take these precious pictures:

On Sunday morning we drove to Richmond, Virginia to visit Oma, Opa and Uncle Brian. They have a marvelous pool that we spent most of our days in cooling off.
Rylan and Madelyn got quite confident at swimming. Usually in a summer we are able to go swimming maybe 3 or 4 times, and it takes a while for the kids to be comfortable. Well since we were in that pool for hours everyday they learned some great tricks. Rylan decided he wasn't afraid to swim underwater, and Madelyn finally let go of me and learned how to float with her floaties all by herself. We had to document their success.

Rylan had so much fun with Oma, Opa & Brian that he confessed to Oma that he "needed a break from his parents" so we let him stay with them for 2 weeks while we finished the trek to Columbia, S.C. We learned that our stuff was still in Utah due to a shortage of drivers, so we waited in an empty apartment for a week for it to get here. Oma let us borrow some towels, cookware and blankets. We also got reimbursed for some cots, food and folding chairs by the moving company.

The day our stuff came Scott had to be at school/work so it was just me and the younger kids. I had Ian on my hip the whole time while I marked each box off the master list. We were all dripping wih sweat, but at least we had movers going up and down the stairs, and I didn't have to lift a finger, and when I did they rushed to my aid and chastised me for doing their job! I felt so bad for them! I hope the moving company paid them a LOT! It was about 100 degrees and our AC broke from leaving the door open all day. So it was about 90 degrees in our apartment until the next day when someone came to fix it! I have never been so thankful for air conditioning in my LIFE!

It took us about 2 weeks to get settled, and moving from a 5 bedroom 2400 sq ft home into a 1500 sq ft apartment is just not fair! We don't exactly fit, but at least we have a garage to store some stuff. The thing is that we downsized before we moved, and then when we got here we had to downsize some more! We took about 5 loads to goodwill while unpacking. I am happy to say that we feel at home. . .for the next 5 months anyway.