We are currently on the road again...probably for another 12 hour day. Chris chose a route that gives him some beautiful geography to look at....hwy 5 gets a little tedious after awhile! We are driving through a vast desert-like valley with mountains all around us, big open sky.....its quite incredible.
Behind me, Elliot is curled up in my snuggie and Isaac is eating gorilla pops while watching star wars....they love these long days in the car – they get to eat, watch movies and play as much DS as they want....its definatly made the trip more enjoyable having happy little road warriors. Sometimes they turn all the electronics off and draw cartoon funny stories and then laugh about them for awhile...isaac has taken to egging ellliot on by drawing out elaborate ‘traps’ in his new artist sketchbook. The funniest one involved an unknowing Elliot walking into a trap containing pulley systems.....oh my....we have laughed.
Chris has a coffee frappucino from starbucks, pretty much every day....the holiday ‘routine’ is to find a starbucks, grab a drink, snag their wi-fi to chart out our day...check our facebook to stay in touch with our loved ones...and then hit the road.
I will upload some shots from the zoo we went to on our last day in Indio.....that was great...i love the zoo. Chris and I were chatting this morning as we started our trek and we agreed on how amazing this trip has been for our family. There have been so many blessings....so many. Like full health the entire way! {last year, Chris was up all night one night after eating a nasty pizza sub from starbucks....thankfully we were at a beautiful worldmark, so sleeping on the floor near the toilet wasn’t as nasty had we been in a regular hotel!}....the weather has been beautiful {by our standards anyways! Anywhere you can wear a sweatshirt and jeans and be comfy is incredible for a family whose hometown currently has -3 weather!}.
Staying at Mike and Susans timeshare throughout our time away has made this holiday a true restful (not to mention luxurious) vacation for us. The kids have had their own rooms, we have had full kitchens so eating out is much less necessary, fireplaces in most units {=happy mommy!}.....we have had to stay in a regular $100 hotel room twice on this holiday...and both times we checked in late and gotten out of there as quick as possible in the morning! They have spoiled us!!! ;-)
Having Skype to keep in touch with my family has been calming for my soul. To see their lives continue as normal, have a few late night chats with my dad have been some of the highlights for me, to see carrie get ready to have a baby and when the skype worked well enough to chat on, we have laughed alot (like me watching the ‘virgin diaries’ for the first time and trying to relay the absurdity of it all to her)-I don’t laugh as hard with anyone {other than Gina}, than I do with Carrie....like nothing is really that funny, but with her its all hilarious and my stomach can hurt in no time. But hearing about her labor journey through my mom and dad was tough, like when Carrie was losing all that blood and needed to go into surgery and that she needed blood because she lost so much.....i hated that I wasn’t there...i really did..it was hard....and now that we are on our way to Kelowna, I can’t wait to get there and meet Ellie and hear the whole story of her arrival from carrie with no words dropping out from skype!!!!
Another highlight of my trip was actually something my sister said to me the other day that I think I will remember forever. We were commenting on how nice it is to look at eachother on skype, but how suckie it was that when we would try to talk, the words would fall out or the screen would freeze...so we wouldn’t really get into anything....but still happy to stare at her face, new baby, little jack....all good. But then she tells me also how frustrating the cell signal was in the hospital....that all she really wanted was to talk to me. Oh man, that warmed my heart. I know! I know! I am such a dork....but I really love that girl.
Anyways...back to rambling about the lessons learned on this trip....Both boys have become better friends....they play so well together and laugh all the time. Isaac is an amazing big brother—when Elliot starts to get a little riled up or on the brink of getting upset at something, Isaac reads what needs to be done to make him happier, and does that.....i am so thankful that Isaac is the older brother and not Elliot! Elliot is 5 ½ and still cries super easy....we have seen many silly tears on this trip {and silly meaning for not great reasons.....like ‘wait for me!!!!’ Bawl...’He didn’t let ME push the elevator button!’ Bawl!....}. Elliot, I love you.....you are hilarious and creative and imaginative, but I won’t miss your tears.....i love how you enter a room and look around right away for Isaac......i love how you come into our room in the mornings on this trip and hug and kiss both me and your dad....you have become a little more loving...but only on your terms!! Heaven help the person who approaches you for a hug or a kiss!! I have learned to use bait, and candy is your best currency...you will do anything for sugar, including giving out good kisses....not the tongue swipes you have become fond of because it repulses everyone and you find that hilarious!
This trip has been life giving to us. The seasons of this family is this: Summer seperates us into 2 groups; us and a busy dad...fall; us and a dad who is a little less busy, but still gone; December=the 2 groups reunite to spend 30 solid days together....a little tougher at first until we all find our grooves. January will come sooner than we like, but we will all be ready to get back to routine. Chris will still be busy at camp, planning the upcoming summer to make it the best possible while the boys and I will get back to normal: school, friends, cooking, cleaning........and then summer will be upon us again....and it will be good.
