We left Thursday afternoon for a week-long trip to Chicago-LaPorte, IN-Louisville, including 3 bike races. Our car was in the shop, so we were lucky enough to be able to borrow Brian’s dad’s car, MUCH smaller than ours, but a great ride! In spite of no built-in DVD player (we had the portable one, though), the kids were well entertained with the awesome sound system and my music loaded iPhone. We opened the sunroof and rocked to The Chipmunks and Madagascar soundtracks. Over and over again. I was awfully proud that we didn’t watch any movies on the entire trip to Chicago. (patting myself on the back)
We stayed with friends of mine from college, Scott & Rhonda Dart, and the kids had a great time playing with their kids, Phillip and Myella. Josiah got to play his first “baseball” (wiffleball, really) game, and he was awesome! They played football and walked to the playground, too. We met my dear friend, Michele, and her kids, Emma, Michael and sweet little Nicholas, at a fun park and splashpad. The kids see each other once a year or so, but they always pick up right where they left off as best buds. So cute! The boys were hilarious, having “guy” chats about bad guys and numbers. They’ve grown do much since they first met 3 years ago! The girls managed to convince us to have a sleepover at Em’s house… Analise’s first! She did great, and they were up playing for poor Michele at 5:20.
I saw my old college Physics lab partner, Alison, at the bike race, and they joined in cheering for Brian. On Sunday, Michele and Em joined us at te bike race. It’s so fun to have company while I nervously wait for the finish!
After the race, we drove to my grandma’s house in LaPorte, IN, where my mom had come down to visit us. We’ve had a relaxing couple of days, playing in the pool and having dinner by Lake Michigan. Later today we’re headed to Louisville for the Master’s Nationals race before heading home tomorrow night. But between good friends, good playmates for the kids, my family, a pool, smooth travel and a few days with no agenda, this is as close as we get to a vacation on a bike race roadtrip! I’ll take it!

This has been a summer of whirlwind travel! While we were in Minnesota, Brian was asked to attend a conference in Orlando. We couldn’t pass up a chance to visit Disney’s Magic Kingdom. We left Tuesday, drove 9.5 hours, visited Magic Kingdom on Wednesday and Friday, and “recovered” at the pool on Thursday. I, personally, don’t like crowds and wasn’t really excited to experience Disney’s busy season in 90+ degree heat and 90% humidity. But I kept reminding myself it was “the happiest place on Earth”. Armed with great tips from friends and websites (will definitely detail all my thoughts in a post! so helpful!), Beverly, the kids and I rode almost everything (including our favorites several times), learned my kids LOVE roller coasters, met 4 princesses, 3 fairies and The Fairy Godmother, saw the parade and fireworks, and had an all-around fabulous time. In spite of the crowds, I don’t think we waited more than 30 minutes for anything. Since I’m typing this on my iPhone, I’ll just add a few notes before the pics posted at the bottom…
- The kids were EXHAUSTED both nights after the fireworks and long, crowded trek back to the car (getting home at 11:15 and 11:30). Josiah was asleep standing up when we got back Wed!
- We found Tiana and Prince Naveen from the Princess & The Frog in a gazebo, and I think that’s my favorite pic of the kids The characters are so sweet about talking to the kids and helping you get a good photo.
- Didnt get a pic, but Josiah got a kiss from Tinkerbelle. When asked how it was meeting the fairies, he said, “I loved them!”
– Analise’s one souvenir from us was Minnie princess ears (she was just posing w/ the giant Minnie doll), which she has only taken off to swim this morning.
- Josiah’s souvenir was a twirly light-up Goofy airplane, to remind him of his favorite roller coaster, the airplane that crashes through the barn (The Barnatormer). We rode it 5 or 6 times, I think!

Happy anniversary Kristine – thank you for an amazing seven years!

We just got back from a 4,000 mile road trip that passed through 11 states, included 8 bike races, and included 90+ hours in the car. The trip culminated with us driving through “Billboard Alley” in north Alabama at exactly midnight when the date rolled over to June 28, 2010 – our 7 year wedding anniversary. You’ve got to go back 8 years and 3 months to Easter of 2002 when I proposed to Kristine to see where it all began… That trip was so big I’ve got to use two maps! The first shows an overview, and the second shows the details of the road trip portion – a mere 2,787 miles.

1. I took vacation over spring break while in grad school at UC Davis in the spring of 2002.
2. Kristine took vacation from her missionary work in Nicaragua with Mercy Ships.
3. We both flew to and met at the Dallas Fort Worth airport, and picked up a rental car to begin…
4. …our 2,787 mile road trip to introduce Kristine to my family and get engaged.
5. We returned to Dallas and then flew to Chicago for me to spend Easter with Kristine’s family.

1. Meeting in the DFW airport in Dallas, TX and renting a car together.
2. Going to a movie with Mercy Ships friends in Tyler, TX.
3. Spending the night with friends from Mercy Ships
4. Driving on I-20 to Birmingham, entering Louisiana
5. Driving on I-20 to Birmingham, entering Mississippi
6. Driving on I-20 to Birmingham, entering Alabama
7. Kristine meeting my parents for the first time, going to church together before driving to Clemson, SC
8. Exploring Birmingham, rocks on top of Shades Mountain
9. Driving on I-20, entering Georgia
10. Stopping for lunch in Buckhead north of Atlanta, GA at the Cheesecake Factory
11. Driving on I-85, entering South Carolina
12. Clemson, SC – quick botanical gardens visit, proposing to Kristine beside Lake Hartwell, going to church together afterwards
13. Driving on I-85, entering North Carolina, spending the night with my college friends Darol and Donna
14. Driving on US-29, entering Virginia, and passing through Lynchburg, VA where I cooped for a couple semesters
15. Lake Monticello near Charlottesville, VA where Kristine got to meet my grandmother
16. Driving back to Birmingham on I-81, entering Tennessee, stopping near Johnson City to phone Nicaragua to relay engagement
17. Spending another night with my family in Birmingham
18. Spending another night in Texas with friends from Mercy Ships
19. Returning the rental car at DFW before flying to Chicago
20. Flying from Dallas to Chicago
21. Easter service at the chapel at Valpairaso University
22. Easter egg hunt with Kristine’s family in La Porte, IN to finish our engagement trip spanning 12 states and two countries

And here are photos that correspond to each of the numbered items. Hover over each photo in the gallery to read a caption about the picture. Read the photos from left to right, top to bottom. There may be more than one photo for each numbered item in the list above.

The start of this road trip has just been one bump-in-the-road after another. Believe me, no one is looking forward to 15 days traveling to Wisconsin/Minnesota to see friends and family than me. But it’s been hard to keep a good attitude about all the miles that lie in front of us with all the problems we’ve had since before we even started.

Analise has had Girl Scout Day Camp all week, and Friday was to be the camp program at 2:30. We were going to go together, and leave for our trip right from camp. Thursday I got tons of cleaning and laundry done, but no packing, because a friend had invited Josiah to play for the day (and she was going to bring him to the camp). I was thrilled at the thought of 4.5 hours to myself on Friday, tons of time to get all the packing done.

Analise woke up Friday morning with a large bug bite on her leg, so we gave her Benadryl and rubbed some itch cream on it, and iced it while we drove to camp. I dropped Josiah off, and 10 minutes after I’d gotten home to get started on my day, the camp nurse called. She was bothered by how swollen her leg was, and it was really bothering her. So I headed out for another 50-mile round trip to camp to pick Analise up. We spent a bit of time finding her group and saying goodbye, since she wouldn’t be at the program. Then we zipped over to the doctor’s, who agreed it was probably a spider bite. He gave us a prescription for an antibiotic (just what I need… a bottle of medicine to keep cold for 10 days, and battle with Analise to take. UG!). We got home at 1pm. I got started packing, and Josiah came home at 1:50. Thankfully, Grandma came to play with the kids at 2:30, and after a stop at the pharmacy and one quick trip back home for a forgotten item, we were on our way by 3:50pm, actually about the same time as if we’d left from camp. But my packing was rushed and disorganized (and one set of DVD player headphone was accidentally packed buried in the back), and I was a tired, frazzled mess who had already spent over 3 hours in the car to camp and back twice yesterday BEFORE we left on an 8 hour trip to St. Louis.

It was a long trip, with tired kids, forcing Analise to take her medicine, and lots of grumpiness by everyone. We finally arrived at the super cool Moonrise Hotel at 1am, tucked into bed at 1:30.

Josiah was up at 6:30, and of course, pretty much the only bag Brian didn’t manage to unload was the snack bag, but the kids played quietly until 8. We had a good morning at Panera and then the kids and I went to Forest Park and played on the playground.

I let them ride their scooters for a bit, until Josiah tumbled and cracked his lip open. He screamed for 15 minutes, when a sno-cone finally calmed him a bit. But his poor lip and cheek have been bothering him off and on all day.  It looked jagged and ugly to begin with, then it looked better for a while, but by the evening, it was looking ugly again. Is that normal for split lips?

We headed off to the bike race this afternoon, and arrived in time for the kids to do their first race without training wheels. They did AWESOME! Josiah won (his group of 2), but he was so fast! And Analise was 2nd, and the first girl! They got t-shirts, ribbons and even teddy bears as their prizes. We then had a couple bike tumbles, which I guess is to be expected.

It rained 3 times during Brian’s 1-hour race, and we eventually ended up soaked, and the car got wet bc we left a window open (when it wasn’t raining it was quite hot!). Poor Brian raced well until he flatted with 2 laps to go, and then he ended up 2 places out of the money after chasing the group to the finish. We were all drenched and exhausted and quite grumpy after the bike race. But we drove down to see the Arch, and even saw a rainbow over it (barely visible in the picture below). The last plus was that we enjoyed two trips to our favorite Noodles & Company today, and our hotel is really comfortable and cool.

The sunset from our hotel room window was a lovely reminder of God’s grace and faithfulness. Thank goodness His mercies are new every morning! Tomorrow is another (BIG) bike race, a 6hr drive to Dubuque, IA where we’ll spend the night before driving on to Shell Lake on Monday. I know this trip will be worth it, though! I’m just praying God would grant a huge heaping of grace for each other and anything else “exciting” that happens!

We had an awesome winter wonderland trip visiting friends and family. The map above shows the places we visited on our return trip as well as the snow cover on the ground.

We left Shell Lake, WI on Tuesday driving across the state to Green Bay, WI to visit Kristine’s roommate from college and her family. We had a great time at Chuck-E-Cheese with Dena and Dan and their two kids (Derrick and Delia). Rick and Robin also joined in the fun at Chuck-E-Cheese as we tried to win tickets and played video games. Snow was in the forecast for Wednesday and sure enough, it started to snow pretty good as we left to head down to La Porte, IN to visit Kristine’s Grandma for New Year’s Eve.

It snowed pretty much the entire way, and it was a little bit dangerous because our wipers are not working so well from all the snow and grit. We made it and as you can tell from the map, they were already under a blanket of Lake Effect snow with another big storm coming in Thursday and Friday. We had a great time visiting family and bringing in the new year quietly before our return trip home to Alabama the next day. The snow started before we left, and we got to enjoy one last blast of snow before heading back down to Alabama … where it is supposed to snow this Thursday!!! Check out all the pictures and video below:

Lake effect snow in Indiana!

Scout Island, Shell Lake, WI

An ice fishing hut, Shell Lake, WI

Not quite thick enough to drive cars on, Shell Lake, WI

With an air temp of -10F, your breath freezes instantly onto your beard

Friends from college at UW Green Bay – Kristine, Robin, and Dena

Josiah, Derrick, and Analise hanging out on the jeep

Analise and Derrick danced in front of the camera for a while at Chuck-E-Cheese

I helped Josiah drive this snow mobile game

I worked the accelerator while Analise steered. She ended up turned around and going the wrong way!

Partially frozen Green Bay – I went for a 60 mile ride in VERY cold temps – probably felt the coldest at the end of this ride from all my rides

Lake effect snow falling for my last bike ride of the trip from La Porte, IN to New Buffalo, MI.

I parked my bike here and hiked the rest of the way up the boardwalk across the top of a small sand dune on Lake Michigan in New Buffalo, MI

The view of the rest of the boardwalk

A large floating piece of ice full of sea gulls

This ride was so cold that my water bottle froze and then all the gator-ice accumulated at the top as I tried to shake it down repeatedly into my mouth. I was so thirsty!

So cold leaving La Porte, the windows were freezing on the inside!