Our trip in review

Where to start!

Let's begin with this:


Do you ever start a family road trip with prayer? After the last bag is thrown into the car and you get the kids all buckled in. Do ever just sit for a minute? While you're still parked in the driveway, do you hold hands with your spouse and kids and ask the Lord for safety, for good health, for everyone to get along? Or even the tougher prayers....like asking God to do whatever it takes to draw your family closer to Him no matter what the circumstances are on your trip? 


MY ANSWER: I didn't pray and it showed.

That's right. Not long after we left the house things started going downhill. You see, we had this magnificent plan to leave around 7pm on a Friday night. This is usually when the kids go to bed. We suited them up in their jammies and blankies and figured they would fall asleep for the night. We would then drive approximately 4 hours and carry our pleasantly sleeping children into our hotel pit-stop before heading out again the next day.

Uhhhhh WRONG.

They stayed awake the ENTIRE TIME. These were not happy kids either. The later it got the crabbier they became. And the crabbier the kids got, the crazier I became. Don't even get me started on what happened once we actually arrived at our hotel that first night. Getting two children in two different pack n' plays to sleep all in the same room as their parents {they have separate rooms at home} when it was hours past their bedtime and they were overtired...it was a nightmare. And then Greg's phone went off in the middle of the night and woke everyone up. I 'bout lost it.

We still had a long day of driving the next day. To put it nicely, I turned into quite the bleepity bleep. And what was Greg like during all of this? Mr. Calm as usual. I'm so thankful to have such a calm companion in the middle of chaos!

The calmest moments in the car.

Needless to say, we arrived to all our destinations. It just wasn't the most pleasant experience. And I'm ashamed to say I didn't handle it very well. All I can say is I should have started out on my knees. Praying may not have changed the circumstances. The kids would have still cried. There still would have been traffic. I still would not have slept much all week. But, my reactions to all of those things would have been much better had I asked God to give me grace, peace, and guidance. Ahhh, pride. Always gets the best of me.

Stuck in traffic.

The toughest parts of the week:

- I hardly slept all week.

- Mason had a nasty cough the first 3 days and passed it on to Kensie for the last 3 days. Coughing ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. Super fun.

- Road trips have never really been my thing. And road trips with little kids only makes it less appealing.

The best parts of the week:

- Being AWAY from the computer and TV.

- Watching Kensie ride a horse for the first time.

- Hanging out with friends from church for a whole week.

- Seeing God's work through the hands of people.

- Not having to cook.

- Family time.
- Visiting some friends on the way down that we hardly get to see. 

We did have a good time overall and made lots of good memories. Take a peek at our week!

We first stopped to visit our dear friends, Todd and Julianne. We see them about once a year {never enough!}. 

Their sweet little Jay is just one month younger than Mason. They were adorable together.

We had to drive a few more hours to get to the camp. Once we finally arrived, the kids were in heaven!

Someone definitely has a love for animals!

They spent A LOT of time swinging

A favorite "toy" for the week

Family walks taking in the views around camp.

First ride on a horse! She was fearless and loved it.

She kept saying, "I like a princess Mama!" Oh brother...

She would feed the goats all day

We did some work too. I mostly stuffed envelopes all week. That's about all you get done when you are running after two little rascals. Greg always picks the hardest jobs...like spending all day every day roofing!

My hard working honey! They finished two different roof projects in one week.

This was the last day. The wall has been hit here. They were both DONE. So I took them for lots of walks.

The best view ever.

One of the sheep had two lambs while we were there. Kensie fell in love with them.

Tennessee has lots of hills that's for sure!

So that's our trip to TN! Next time....PRAY FIRST Shannon!