trip

The boys and I just returned from a trip to visit my sister and her family in West Virginia, and we had a wonderful time!  Earlier this summer an invite came for my niece's 16th birthday party on August 9, and at first I was thinking it was too bad we couldn't go (since it's crazy busy time on the farm), but then I started thinking that maybe the boys and I could go.  Even a year ago the possibility wouldn't have even crossed my mind, but they're getting old enough that there are more and more things we can do.  My parents went, too, which worked out great so that my dad and I could take turns driving, and it was SO NICE to have two extra sets of hands at the bathroom/food stops along the way.

We left at 4am last Wednesday morning.  I was hoping leaving early like that that the boys would be tired enough to sleep some in the car, and also that way we wouldn't feel so pressured to rush and get there on time at night - we could take our time and stop often for breaks along the way.  The boys did GREAT on the way out.  They had been so excited and counting down the days (actually the "sleeps") until our departure.  Even though we look at maps and discuss geography quite a bit, they have NO sense of distance and really had no clue how long it was going to take us to get to West Virginia.  The night before we left Mike and I were telling them how it would look different out in WV - so, just a couple miles down the road from picking up my parents Logan said something like, "It still looks the same here, when is it going to look different?"  And then it was around Detroit that we started getting questions about when we would get there, etc.  They did sleep some in the car.  In fact, after lunch Caleb had been asking about when we were going to go through a tunnel, and then about 10 minutes before the tunnel he fell asleep!  I was driving and my mom tried to wake him up, but he was SOUND asleep and missed it.  I quick grabbed my phone and recorded the drive through the tunnel to show him later.  I was worried he was going to be really upset that he missed it, but he handled it fine.  At our lunch stop and afternoon snack stop Levi was not happy and was rather difficult, but in the car the whole day he did great.  During those cranky times he was just acting like a normal two-year-old would who got up before 4am and sat strapped in a car seat all day - the rest of the time he did remarkably well!  :)

The boys loved having so much time to spend with their cousins, especially Micah.  I hope this is the beginning of lifelong friendships.  Caleb and Logan have had a chance to get close with their cousins who live nearby, but this summer is really the first that they're old enough to have a more meaningful relationship with their WV cousins.  I certainly benefited from having nieces that are old enough to supervise my children!  I love my kids, but it was so nice to have a little more freedom.  :)  I was able to relax, help some with the sidewalk project my dad was doing for them, run errands with my sister...

Thursday I headed to Baltimore to meet up with a college friend for lunch.  It was great to have a few hours to catch up with her!

I think it was sometime Thursday Caleb got rather upset out of the blue and I wasn't sure what it was about.  The next day the same thing happened, but then he told me he missed Daddy.  :(  Poor guy!  I didn't even think of the possibility of someone being homesick!  We called Mike right away and Caleb wasn't even able to talk, he was just crying.  But, I think it helped Caleb to at least hear Mike's voice.  There were a couple more incidents throughout the week, but he did okay.  (A couple weeks before we left for the trip we were talking about it at dinner and Mike said something about not going.  I guess Caleb didn't realize Mike wasn't going and when he heard that he got this real devastated look on his face and just put his head down on the table for several minutes.  He may seem rough and tough, but he has a tender heart!)  Logan didn't seemed phased by it, and I think Levi mentioned Mike a few times, but generally as long as he's with me he's okay.  :)  On Sunday at church I tried putting him in nursery, but I guess he was just crying and upset, so I got called out of the service to get him.  After the service my sister was going to be working in his room anyways, and that was good enough for him, so I was still able to go to a class with my parents.

Saturday evening was my niece Katie's big 16th birthday bash!  They figure about 100 people came and it all went so well.  It was a beautiful night.

On Monday I took the boys to Antietam Battlefield.  Can't be in the midst of all the history and not take advantage of it!  I think it was a good first introduction to that type of thing for them.  I gave a very brief explanation of the Civil War, they saw a few photographs, we picked out a souvenier for Mike, saw some cannons, and drove around the battlefield.

Tuesday we headed home!  The boys did very well again in the car.  There was a little more antsy-ness and trouble getting along, but not too bad.  We did witness an accident along the Ohio Turnpike, but thankfully our car wasn't involved and the driver was okay.  It had been raining very hard and two cars up I saw a car flipping over in the air.  After making sure I wasn't going to crash into anyone or that anyone behind was going to crash into us, I pulled to the shoulder.  My dad jumped out and ran up to the car (which at this point we didn't know if it was going to catch on fire or not, and what kind of condition the driver was in), and I grabbed my phone, dialed 911, and ran up there.  Pouring rain, cars and trucks driving by on a busy three-lane turnpike...  It took a couple minutes (I think, I don't know if my sense of time in all this is accurate), but the driver was able to crawl out and thankfully he was the only one in the vehicle.  He came back to sit in our van while he waited for help.  After a bit a turnpike truck came up with flashers to then wait for a state trooper to come - they had a few other accidents to respond to (which we saw after we got going again).  We were wondering how we were going to get back on the turnpike (How do you merge onto a busy highway when you have no room for acceleration??), but the worker told me she'd flag me in.  Phew.

It looked like it was going to work out for us to get home about the same time Mike would get home from work, but then he had a delay, so after dropping off my parent's at their house, I headed over to Schreur's.  We were all happy to see each other again!  Of course, now it seems like we've hardly seen Mike much since he works so late and then goes to bed asap because he has to get up so early.  Ahhhhhh, celery harvest.  :)