"Happiness is a Crock of Beans" and Other Wisdom Learned Along the Way

650 miles each way is long, no matter how you slice it. We left at 7:30 Sunday morning and arrived eleven hours later. But we made it. And it was so worth it.

• my boys are quite possibly the worlds greatest 2- and-4 year old road trippers. Seriously. They were awesome. I think they complained twice on the way there. And not once on the way home. And no. They were not Tylenol-ed/Benadryl-ed.
  
• Kansas is evidently the home to the tumbleweed. Forget about worrying about hitting animals on the road. I killed more tumbleweeds than i could count.
• I-70 through Kansas is pretty durn boring. And the speed limit is only 70mph.
• McDonald's in Hays, KS does "not allow outside food." So i had to hide in the corner eating my Taco Bell tostadas while the boys ate their cheeseburgers. I'm sorry. I didn't realize they operated like a movie theater. Next time i will hide it in my purse
  
• Rear DVD players rock.
• iPod audiobooks rock. Our favorites this trip? The Dr. Suess collection. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Tikki Tikki Tembo.
  
• "Jesus Christ is Lord. NOT A SWEAR WORD." Seen on the trailer of an 18-wheeler.
• "Jesus Heals and Restores. Pornography Destroys." Sign at the edge of a farm and maybe 50 yards from of the Adult Superstore somewhere in Kansas.
• My butt goes numb after maybe an hour and a half on the road.
  
• After spending a lot of time searching (online, before the trip) for food places with playgrounds, once we actually went to one, it was totally not worth it. In the future, i will just do what we usually do. Make them run laps around the building before they can get back into the car.
• Most towns greet you with their cemetery. And their church meeting times.
• Those huge, white, modern windmills are super-cool.
• You can't really discern the difference between eastern Colorado, the entire state of Kansas, and the little bit of Missouri we were in. So i'm not too far off when i complain that i "live in Kansas." My version of saying "I live in BFE."

The boys were thrilled to be at their cousin Zander's house. Those three played so well together. From 6:30am till bedtime. They had a blast. From Hot Wheels to flying their toy B-2's (Zander's dad is a B-2 pilot in the Air Force) to playing MarioKart to jumping on the trampoline and playing outside on the few hours with decent weather. So much fun was had.


We took everyone bowling on Tuesday. It was great fun and very different since we were one of two groups bowling. The rest of the place was filled with Air Force peops getting lunch at the grill and watching the inauguration on the TVs overhead (that usually have the scores for the bowlers). I caught bits and pieces of the inauguration/speeches and tried to point out to Bode what was going on. But i guess such an historic event didn't stand a chance against throwing another ball down the lane.


So during the week, i basically made breakfast, lunch and most dinners. Did some light cleaning. Gave Clif and Jaime a couple of dates out. I'd say i took care of the kids, too, but they were so happy to play with each other that there was little i had to do. Jaime's ward has already started helping them by bringing dinner twice a week and cleaning the house once a week. Jaime told her Relief Society president that she thought it was "too much," to which she was told that the ward needed opportunities for service and they wanted to take as much off of her hands so she can focus her time on the time she has left with Emberlyn. I was really impressed by that.

me & Embers

Jaime and i had many long, often tearful conversations. She is coping by enjoying the moments when Emberlyn is actually awake and lucid. And also by planning her funeral. She wants it to be perfect and the planning seems to be therapeutic for her. I was happy to enjoy some time with Emberlyn, too. Jaime said the week we spent was the best week Emberlyn had had in months. I'm glad i got to share in that and get to know her better and enjoy her little self. She is so ready with a smile and a giggle.

We left early Saturday morning. It was SIX degrees out. And didn't warm up too much over the miles. Like i said, the boys were awesome. We stopped once for lunch and again just to fill up the tank (i ran around the car a few times to get circulation back to my lower half while the gas pumped). An hour from home, the boys got a new Hot Wheels truck each to thank them for their supreme awesome-ness (gotta love that 97 cents can buy happiness). And we made it home in 10 hours flat.

I'm so happy we were able to go spend this time with our Missouri Bell family. I hope we were helpful. I know i was grateful to be there. And it only took Keegen about 6 hours into the drive to get over over the fact that i was NOT turning the car around and going back to Zander's house.

yes. it was too much to ask to get a good picture of all of the kids.