Final days in NC & our Roadtrip
Monday, May 06, 2013
For the sake of remembering, I wanted to share about our last weeks in NC, and our roadtrip from NC to my parents house in AZ. The packers came to our house over a week before Max's last day at work. This meant that all our stuff was going to be packed up long before we planned to leave. So, we loaded our road trip stuff and headed to our friend Amy's house, to stay with her the entire week before we left. She graciously opened her home, pantry, and washing machine up to our crazy little family, and we enjoyed our last few days in NC with her.
The packers packed up all our stuff in a day, and then the moving truck came a few days later. They loaded everything on the truck, and headed off. We spent the last week hanging out with Amy, doing last-minute moving things, and getting everything ready for our big trip. Max checked out of his unit Friday, April 12, and the following day, we woke the kids up super early and hit the road.
We planned for 8-hour driving days - this meant, with all our stops included, that each day ended up being 10-11 hours in the car. It was the perfect amount of time for us - just long enough to want to get out of the car by the end of the day, but definitely doable, with the kids. The kids did fantastic. They read books, looked out the window, sang songs, watched a few movies on my iPad, slept, and chatted about monsters and whales attacking our car. There were definitely some meltdown moments, but that was to be expected, and overall, our trip was great. The first day, we made it to Alabama. Day two took us from AL into Texas. Day three found us making our way from the east border of TX to the west. And day four was our final day, and we ended at my parents house in Tucson that evening.
Every night we would get to the hotel, and try to burn off some of the kids pent-up energy. I usually let them bounce around on the beds a bit, which of course, they thought was a blast. There was a pool at each hotel, and most of the nights, we took them down to splash around in the water. Max would go find dinner and bring it back, or we would find a fun restaurant to eat at, depending if we wanted to try and wrangle the kids out and about, after being in the car all day. We were way glad to finally make it to my parents house, knowing we were done in the car for awhile! I didn't take an overabundance of photos during those few weeks, but here's what I got:
Pretty much the only picture I took of packing/loading/cleaning/emptying our house in NC!
Hitting up the park by our NC house one last time.
Playing "airplane" with Miss Amy.
Windchimes on the porch.
"Taking off", lol!
Packed into the car with all our stuff! Yes, L COULD get out! It was a little bit snug - but we had to pack stuff for a few weeks, and for different climates, plus all of Max's uniforms for checking in/school/etc! Ezra is behind the blue backpack on the left, right behind me. He didn't want his picture taken, ha!
Kisses for Daddy, at a rest stop/feeding for Evie.
Getting out of the car for lunch, at a rest stop. Enjoying the sun shine and stretching our legs.
Run Ezra, run! Wear yourself out!
Lunch stop!
Mama and Evie.
L thought the pigeons were so beautiful and was throwing her breadcrumbs at them. She was in love.
And then Ezra came, and ran at them, trying to "catch" them! I was laughing so hard. He takes after his Daddy.
At one of the hotel pools. The kids loved splashing around in the water.
Getting out of the car on the last day felt so good! We were so glad to be at my parents house!
2 comments
They look so happy in the pool! Did you come through El Paso?? We aren't that far from Tucson.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine making that trip with 3 kids! But it gives me hope for all the road trips we have planned with just one.
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