TAKIN' A TRIP (part 1)

Hey, ya'll!

 It's been quite a break I've taken and lots going on in the meantime.

I certainly won't be catching up on it all, but I do want to document the trip we just took.

Co-op finished on May 16th and we headed out May 17th.  Lots and lots of packing took place between those two days just due to the craziness of the season that didn't allow for any extra time.  It worked out though.

We left a little after noon on May 17th and headed down to Maryland to visit with Mike's twin and his family.  We arrived around 5pm and had dinner with them before heading out around 8pm. Unfortunately, I don't think we took any pictures while we were there.

We were heading for Western Kentucky.

Suffice it to say, it was a really, really long night.

I would not do the overnight trip again, it was really rough.

You might be thinking it was the kids--nope!

Kids were perfect travelers the entire time.  We swapped on and off driving when one of us got tired, stopped briefly a couple times for bathroom and a quick shut-eye, but it still was really rough.  West Virginia was full of fog..super thick crazy fog.  We drove through some torrential rain..but thankfully, by God's grace, we arrived shortly after 7am in Western Kentucky.  We went for breakfast at the Huddle House (more about that in another post) and arrived at the Crick place around 9:30am.

We spent the day with them.

It had been many years since we had last seen each other and the kids had never met.

Lots of wide open space!

We had a nice day visiting and catching up.

We headed out after dinner sometime between 5:30 and 6pm to travel another hour or so south to our home for the weekend.

Since, these pictures are taking a pretty long time to load this morning, I'll end this post here.

Thanks so much for your hospitality, Joanna and Curt!

AGE

Once upon a time I said I wanted to be done with child-bearing by the age of thirty.

I had visions of being a young (er) parent, like the generations before me.

However, I married later than they and thus got a later start...

Plus, Mike and I have never really experienced married life "alone" as our oldest is a honeymoon baby.  I thought it might be nice to have that "alone" time later on and still be "young" enough..

So much for MY plans, huh? 

It is true in a sense that age is just a number.. our youngest was born well into my thirties and we wouldn't trade him for anything.

As I look at things now, I see huge blessings in having the age gap from the eldest to youngest.

People often will say things to the tune of "Wow!  It must be so hard" etc. etc. etc. but to be honest, as the older ones get older, the baby years get "easier" as I have more helpers around to do various tasks.

(Notice, I did NOT say everything is easier..whats the phrase?  "Little kids, little problems" and vice versa).  No longer do I have to do EVERYTHING by myself.  I can have one of the big kids run and switch a load of laundry or get lunch together or rock the baby as necessary.  

It is beautiful to see the older kids interacting with the little one.  It is truly a joy.  I also hear about all these empty-nesters who mourn the loss of the noise and chaos and people...With a bigger age span, it is highly unlikely we will have the fast and furious mass exodus that my parents had, for example.  Even if the all the big kids move out within a couple of years of one another, I'll still have the littles around for a bit longer to get us used to the idea.  God's Word calls children a gift.  So, while we may never get that alone time while we are yet "spring chickens," we are surrounded by tangible gifts and olive plants round about our table.