Back in February-ish,
my sweet sister surprised us via Skype
and told us that she expecting
her first child!
I was beside myself and literally cried
on and off the whole weekend.
I was deeply saddened that I was
not going to get to be there with her
as she ventured through this!
When we found this out,
we immediately started planning on
how we were going to be there!
So we planned our trip back to visit
to be when she was due.
The months ticked by and
finally the month of August was upon us...
(we weren't leaving til September)
My sweet oldest boy had been
literally driving me NUTS
with the questions:
When are we leaving?
When can I pack?
When are we going to get there?
How long does it take?
When are we leaving?
So he finally started packing,
3 weeks early!
I had to unpack his suitcase 3 times!
Yes, 3!
He didn't have any clothes to wear
because they were all packed!
I got tired of the "when can we pack"
question, so I put it on our calendar.
He was allowed to pack on the Thursday
before we left.
So 2 days before we left.
That Tuesday,
his laundry hamper mysteriously appeared
in the kitchen/laundry area...
This was a little unusual,
they don't usually bring down dirty clothes without being asked.
But I figured he was out of something.
So I didn't think my of it.
Then I heard this rhythmic
thump,
thump,
thump,
thump.
I followed the noise to see my oldest bumping MY
laundry hamper down the stairs!!
Then I watched him drag it in to the kitchen
and
START SORTING THE LAUNDRY!
I looked at him like he was a stranger standing in my kitchen!
I finally mustered up the voice to say
"Honey, what are you doing?"
He told me that he wanted me to do laundry
so he would have his favorite clothes to take on our trip.
He wanted to look his best!
Awe, what a smart kid!
Then after we had all of our piles
strewn out across the floor,
that stinking child had the NERVE
to ask me if I would have it all done by Thursday!
(Recall its Tuesday and I had told him he could pack on Thursday)
That turkey!
I told him I would have it done that evening!
And I did!
Daddy had something to do Saturday
that he had been waiting for MONTHS for...
so we let daddy do his thing,
Saturday night,
we finished packing
and loaded the car.
Sunday morning,
daddy and I arose at 3am.
Showered and packed
4 sleeping kids in the car.
Well that was the plan anyways...
they all decided to stay awake for the first 30 minutes
out of SHEER excitement!
The finally fell back asleep...
except Ms. Priss is TOTALLY faking here!
We got about 3 hours in before they started waking.
5+ hours in and we FINALLY made it out of Texas!
And by this time, J had only asked twice
"when are we going to get to the hotel"...
it was only 9:30am!
We still had a ways to go before our stop for the night!!
Oy!
Welcome to Louisiana!
(trust me, that's really what it says)
We decided to eat our way through Louisiana...
first we stopped at
In Rayne, LA.
We had the most amazing
red velvet fudge.
We let the kids wander a bit...
and pick out a couple of items.
I only wish I had gotten a bigger piece of fudge!!
We loaded back up and decided to continue to eat our way
through Louisiana.
Next we stopped at
in Lafayette, LA.
This was for daddy.
Man there was some WEIRD stuff in there!!
I snapped a picture of the kids with this fella,
and got a wicked fire ant bite in the process!
That little bitty ant left me with a spot on my foot
that bothered me for the next 3 days!
Holy cow!
Our final stop in Louisiana was at
The plan was to fill the kids up on a bunch of fried food:
crawfish cakes
gator bites (which J LOVED!!)
corn & crab bisque
fried oysters
fried shrimp
and
fried catfish
Then hop back in the car and hope the kids fall asleep
and
we didn't!
We didn't
but neither did they!
(snagged this from their FB page)
We quickly made it through Mississippi,
and on into Alabama.
We stopped for the night at 7:30pm just east of Montgomery.
We had been traveling since about 4am...
so that seemed like a good time to stop!
We got a much later start on Monday morning,
we were not on the road until almost 9am.
My very pregnant sister was all but pacing.
That morning I was constantly getting texts:
"where are you?"
"have you left yet?"
"why aren't you answering my texts?"
Haha!
We quickly made it into Georgia,
grabbed a bite for lunch
climbed back in the car
and made it into South Carolina.
That was a pretty site.
This Carolina girl was almost home!
But the best site in the world was when we passed
that
"Welcome to North Carolina"
sign!
I think I had tears in my eyes!
I was HOME!
We finally rolled into my parent's house around 7:30pm.
We were greeted by my folks and my very preggy sister and her hubs.
It was so nice to be back "home"!!!
And the fun was only just beginning!
Home is where the heart is.
But my "home" is now where
my husband and kids are...
where ever that might be...
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