Big trip!

We recently took a really big, 10 day trip! That's quite a trek for our family! My aunt was getting married in Florida and there was a neurodelevopemental specialist in Georgia that William needed to go see, so we decided to combine the two and do some fun stuff along the way! This post is kind of the generic overview, but I'll post more details about each big stop over the next few days.

It was a lot of fun gathering everything for the trip!  The picture only shows the clothes for us children, which we washed while we were out and each wore twice!


Mommy said there was no way she was taking 10 outfits for each person because our bodies wouldn't fit in the van! :) 

Daddy is the geographical, map-loving, navigator in our family, so he spent some time pouring over maps and determining our destinations. Mommy spent about 3 days sewing dresses for Aunt Michelle's wedding.  It's kind of a funny story...she made a maternity dress for herself and we girls liked it so much, we all wanted one in the same color! We had to go to 3 different fabric stores in two major cities to get all the fabric and Mommy went to work.  We all helped, but since our other sewing machine is broken, Mommy did all the sewing and we cut fabric, ironed and pinned.  The end result: 6 matching dresses!

The first morning out, we left at 4am (there were actually a lot of mornings like that)! There was a lot of driving on our trip, a lot of laughing and playing, and a LOT of sleeping in the van over our 10 day trek through the South!

Our first stop was in Alabama to visit some sweet friends and we ended up staying the night with them. We had not seen them in a long time so it was nice to have some fellowship time with them!

Our next stop was a 2-day stop at Sea World.  That was a LOT of fun, but I'll post more on that later!  Next, we headed to Aunt Michelle's wedding, which will also be in an individual post.  Although, I will say, it was kind of weird to drive through Florida and see Hurricane Evacuation Route signs everywhere!

Our next destination was to head to William's appointment with his neurodevelopemental specialist. She is so close to Cumming, GA, that we were able to attend Bible Study at Chalcedon on the Lord's day. That was really nice!  And it was a great day of rest and relaxation (perhaps the only one of the trip)! We found a park and found a nice little yogurt shop (it's not Cherry Berry, but it was good). 

We did drive through Atlanta, which was crazy, busy, and somewhat awe-inspiring! The airport really threw me because the runway is RIGHT OVER THE HIGHWAY! It looks like the planes are going to land on top of your vehicle and there are so many of them, all lined up, waiting to land! It was a little creepy!

The next day, after dropping Mommy and William at his appointment, we headed out to Stone Mountain. 

Daddy had to fill in for William, since he couldn't be there!

The mountain is only 1.1 miles to the top. The Memorial Carving on the side of the mountain depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on horse back, riding with their hats over their hearts. 

We often "sound off" when we get in the van, calling out our "number" to be sure we're all present.  We found these numbers at this frisbee course and thought it was neat to take pictures by them!

We thought we would eat lunch in the picnic area then hike up the mountain, but after lunch some of the children ran around in the woods. We loaded up and were driving towards the hiking trail when Sherrod noticed a small tick, smaller than the size of a pen head. It turned out everyone except Daddy, Knox and me (the only ones who didn’t go running in the woods) were COVERED in these ticks!!! It took us two hours to get all those ticks off and, when we changed our clothes, we had to configure a way to leave them OUTSIDE of the van! What an ordeal! This, of course, ruined our plans for the day, as we had to get back to pick up Mommy and William.  As it was, we were very late!

We did, however, have a great time taking a break at this fountain along the way!

Knox is SO adorable! He was so proud of himself for being up on that ledge!

That night, we drove all the way to Dublin so we could get an early start on everything we wanted to see the next day in Savannah. Savannah is a beautiful, historic city with beautiful homes and plantations, forts and museums, and lots of history! We had a great time walking through the streets and just looking at everything!

William saying "hello" to one of his favorite friends!

We did visit some forts and historical sites, but I'll post more on that later!

Next, we went back through Alabama to visit some other dear friends.  It was so exciting to see them! Jackson and Knox were so cute together!

They lost their house in the tornado last year and Daddy had gone down for a week with Mr. Ponderosa to help with the rebuilding effort.  It was so exciting to see how far it's come!  Their house is absolutely beautiful! And we had a great time fellowshipping with them!

The next morning, we headed out for Arkansas to visit my brother, Bryce, and his family.  That was great! It was fun to visit the base and see all of the airplanes. We had not seen their house since they've been stationed there and it was wonderful to visit with them!

After our visit, we headed home, drove through the night, and made it back home in the wee hours Friday morning! Boy, did it feel good to be in our own beds!

posted by the blessed sister of 12 and aunt to 2 - Sarah