Roadtrippin'!!

Well, it's been well over a week since I have visited here.  The time has been filled with family visiting and lots of fun exploring, and packing the girls and myself up to leave NY a little early to roadtrip down South with my parents.  We are now in Utah and I am in relaxation mode.  May I just shout a huge hooray for dry heat, oh I so love the dry heat.  Bring on 100 degrees even if there is no humidity, I really enjoy not dripping sweat all day!

There is so much to cover and so I will just do it little by little because I don't want to forget the memorable past couple weeks.  I made a very last minute decision to hit the road with our two little ones and visit the deep south.  I had 8 more states to visit before I have been to all 50, and now I have only 2.  Six of the states were in the south: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.  (The ones I have left are Louisiana and Alaska.)  I just couldn't pass up and opportunity to hit all of those states. I was nervous to be on the road so long with the girls and so many people thought I was crazy.  Each day I would change my mind as to if I was going.  Then the night before my parents left, I felt that nice calm assurance that going was a great decision.  So the mad rush to pack began.  It was nice because we stopped in DC on the way to drop off a lot of things.  This will make traveling home from Utah at the end of August will be a breeze!

My dad is a total Civil War history buff and so we stopped at many battle fields and cemetaries.  It was very solemn to be right there where a lot of the big battles occurred.   I didn't take the girls on the tours because mixing tours of battle fields and two young children goes together as well as oil and water.  So while dad went touring, my sweet mom came with the girls and I to do other fun things.  Overall, the southern states were just hills of gorgeous green trees and fields full of healthy crops, and lots of rivers.  And the accent, probably my favorite part!

We hit the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston which was incredible.  There were scuba divers feeding the sharks and one played peek-a-boo with the girls and was giving them high fives. 

I really enjoyed stopping in Prairie Grove, Arkansas because I learned that my fourth great-grandfather fought in the Civil War here.  On the tour there was a very clear sense of how all of the soldiers marched and where they charged.  It was powerful to think about and I love that the girls were able to see it as well.  I think traveling is the best way to learn!



The homes throughout the south were so beautiful and charming.  They all had wrap around porches, intricate detail all around the woodwork and many had porch rockers.

I still am blown away at how smooth the trip went.  The girls were absolute dreams, thank you little lovelies!!  I so enjoyed sitting between their little carseats and playing with them over the 3,000 miles.  I really felt so lucky to spend every waking minute with them.  I loved watching Caroline pass the time playing with and molding a wire hanger into Rapunzel's hair and various things.  Olive loved putting stickers on her arms and looking for "hoseys" (horses) out the window. 

I can't thank my parents enough for having us and for helping me so much. 

This just makes me happy and I never want to forget the little bites Olive took out of the apples.  The top two divets are from her front teeth, which helped hold the apple in place while her bottom teeth actually grabbed a little bit of goodness. 

More to come:

Family visit to New York

Quick stop in D.C.

more past adventures in NY