Rob and I grew up taking road trips as vacations. We have a love/hate relationship with them. We have driven from Nebraska to Florida and Nebraska to California twice with our older two. After this road trip, we will wait a while for another one. Having a potty training toddler and a nursing newborn tested our limits. We also have a newborn who loves movement and an 8 year old who takes Dramamine for his motion sickness. We were wise and never made timelines for ourselves. It went against everything in me to stop every 30 miles when Zac said he had to go potty. The one time we tried to test our limits, he had an accident, so we stopped every time AND put him in pullups. It was not the driving time that made this trip memorable, however. It was the family and friends we visited along the way.
Our first stop was at the Turners in Twin Lakes, WI. We went to college one year with them, and they became my in-laws in-laws - essentially our extended family-away-from-family in Fresno. Between our 2 large families, we had kids ages 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and 1 mth. We got spoiled by Marcy's cooking and entertained by Steve's unique fireworks display. Let's just say the old man has the "hops" still :) .
My older boys got to ride jetskies
ride on quads (after a safety lesson from Steve)
and play video games with Trey and Cy
while Zac enjoyed bonding with Dayne over puzzles and games.
Ellie enjoyed holding Esther and playing with Zac. We could spend hours and hours with the Turner family.
Our second stop was in Germantown, WI at the home of my Aunt Holly and Uncle Scott where we met up with my mom and dad as well. I have ALWAYS loved visiting their family because I learned a lot about generosity, hospitality, and how much fun a big family can be. I believe I have 4 children, not just 2, because of our visits. They have 8 children, 4 of whom still live at home and 1 a mile away. Two of their out-of-town girls were in town at the same time we were. The weirdest thing happened, though: We had dinner one night with JUST Holly and Scott - none of their kids! That has never happened before.
The other night we were there, about a dozen family members went to a Brewers game (the Brewers got crushed, but it was about the experience, right Rob?) and half a dozen of us stayed home to play cards. I got beat, once again, by my lovely Aunt Diane - I kept saying I didn't want to play her because she beats me EVERY time! I enjoyed mall shopping and a long walk with Holly, Tonya, and Kristin. Apparently my camera got stuck in my bag because I have NO pictures of our time with them! Not even when my dad met Esther for the first time.
Our third stop was in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the impetus of our trip. My cousin Sarah was getting married. We arrived in time to swim in the hotel pool before getting dressed for the rehearsal dinner. It was a mini-family reunion (for my family: Aunt Barb, Uncle Rick, Aunt Sue, Judy & Kyle, Joel & Emily,
my dad & mom, Jeff & Kara, Uncle Dan, Aunt Maryanne, Brian & Jedotta, Kim, and Kyle) and so much fun. My hero husband took all four kids back to the hotel to put them to bed while I got in on a Bachelorette party where I was the oldest and most experienced one there. Heehee :)
The next morning I was the last one to breakfast. The first thing Rob said to me was "Dan's in the hospital!" I said "Poor Uncle Dan. I guess someone else will have to perform the wedding." He said "No, not your Uncle Dan, the GROOM Dan!" Apparently Dan's appendix decided it would have nothing to do with Dan's life with Sarah. So at 8:30am, the groom underwent an appendectomy while the rest of us waited to hear whether or not there would be a wedding later that day. At noon, we got the text. The surgery had gone well, Dan was being released, the wedding would go on at 4:30pm as planned! I guess after a 2 year engagement, he was letting NOTHING stop him from marrying his true love :) We all breathed a sigh of relief when the ceremony finally allowed him to sit on the bench and chuckled when they vowed "in sickness and in health" and completely understood when he limped down the aisle leaning on Sarah. But they did it! They even danced the first dance together at the reception.
They weren't the only ones dancing their first dance.
Look who we dragged out there - my dad!
My husband, who only dances with me because I love it, took the little ones back to the room for the evening. Ethan showed off his awesome dance moves while Justus read a book at the table! Crazy kid. It was a lot of fun to dance with my aunts and cousins. I felt my age and lack of workout regimen when I pulled my hip muscle about 3/4 of the way through the dancing. Time to get back to the YMCA!
The next morning we made an appearance at the Gift Opening, said good-bye to family and piled in our van. We started the car, heard a funny rattle and the engine light came on for the second time this trip. The first time had happened at a gas station on the drive up. We had turned the car off, prayed and turned the car back on to find the rattle gone. This time when we turned it off, prayed, and turned it back on the engine light flashed. We piled back out of the car and asked our Green Bay family members where to take it. We decided to check it out now rather than end up on the side of the road with all 4 kids hot, tired and hungry. Rob took it in while the kids and I headed to Uncle Dan's house where the family had been invited for lunch anyway. God knew I wasn't quite ready to leave yet. Thankfully the problem was a driveable problem that didn't need to be fixed right away. So, after lunch with the family and a second round of goodbyes, we piled back up in the van and headed home. We arrived home just in time to get Ethan to his baseball game and Justus to his baseball practice. Back to life in Nebraska.
