Good Hair Day

Granny treated the girls to a trip to the beauty salon yesterday in preparation for their first day of school, which happens to be tomorrow. I think I'm more nervous than they are.







Even Isaiah got a fresh haircut!

Tummy 2.0

Yesterday we surprised Isaiah with a brand new "Tummy" #2. As you might recall, "Tummy" #1 took an unexpected extended holiday in St. Louis.

*coughnotmyfaultcough*

I think they are going to be BFF 2.0:

Home Sweet Home

This morning, I woke up to the sound of my mother's high heels. She was leaving for church. J and I were camped out on the floor in her den in front of the fireplace.

We are home.

After 9 days on the road, countless meals at Denny's, endless gas station fill-ups, desert, sun, snow, and ice---we made it safely to our new duty station on the East Coast.

I thank God for seeing us through both the physical and emotional aspects of this coast-to-coast journey. We have learned much along the way and hopefully our marriage and family will be stronger for it.

We've also lost a few things along the way:

*Lathrop, CA--left my phone charger in the hotel

*Sierra Vista, AZ--left my face cleanser in my sister's shower

*St. Louis, MO--the most devastating oversight, ever: we left Isaiah's beloved "Tummy", The Learning Puppy, in the hotel (along with Savannah's Star Wars notebook)

Our favorite hotel chain reported each loss, so the next hotel always had the information waiting for us. They are going to ship everything back to us here.

But I almost told them to keep Tummy--he is smelly and I was going to try to slip a new one in on Isaiah.

Hey Char--could you bring my Neutrogena with you on your next visit? ;)





Leaving Ohio yesterday, we made it to West Virginia.


Then right into Pennsylvania



Funny thing about West Virginia's shape and our route ~ we entered it twice


Beautiful

Home at last


Me and my map sure delivered, huh, Mommy?

Savannah was all smiles the closer we got to Grannie's house



We are here!

Are We There Yet?

When J helped me program my cell phone 2 years ago, he tweaked it so that I could always see the local Seattle time displayed along side the D.C. time. That way I'd always know what time it was back home.

I checked my phone and both locations are now displaying the same time. We are back on Eastern Standard Time. Not yet home, but definitely closer than ever.

We crossed over to Illinois this morning after the weather grounded us in St. Louis for the night. We trucked on through to Indiana, witnessing countless spin outs along the way. We decided to call it in a night in mid-Ohio.

Mariah at a snowy rest stop in Missouri


"Why is there only one arch and why isn't it golden?"



One of several big rigs in big ditches we passed today



Our final State-of-the-Day

What Happens in New Mexahoma, Stays in New Mexahoma

Have you ever awakened and not known what day it is or where you are? I mean--a time when you hadn't been partying hard the night before? Yeah? Well, I was pretty close this morning. We tore through 3 states in one day. And I'm pretty sure we crossed a time zone. Into the Twilight Zone, no doubt.

We had a bee incident (no stings, thank God) in the van somewhere along the way which resulted in a chorus of screams and crying. Who knew J's voice could go so high...kid-ding! Mariah's screaming set off Isaiah's crying. Which in turn, set off my laughing. Then there was Daddy putting down every window in the van at 70+ miles per hour. We had no idea how long the insect had been stowing away, but man is he going to have one hilarious story to share with his little bee buddies.

Not so hilarious was the burst water main at our hotel in Alamogordo, New Mexico. No pool for the kids; no hot tub for me. Enter Mommy's chorus of screams and crying.

Last night we stayed in Oklahoma City, OK. It felt very familiar, especially since we spent 14 months stationed in Lawton after our first tour overseas.

It was also bittersweet because that is where Isaiah was born---at OU Medical Center downtown. He was transferred to Integris Baptist Hospital's NICU when he was just a few hours old. And that's where he spent the first few days of his life.

Looking at him today makes me wonder why I ever worried.

You'd think they did all the driving



My boys at a rest stop in New Mexico



New Mexico ~ the sky



The same day we left New Mexico, we barreled through Texas...


...with a stop at an Amarillo "Chick-Fil-A" for a much-anticipated nuggets break...


...eventually pulling into Oklahoma City to make it a 3-state kind of day.


After having to switch rooms due to a "plumbing issue", our new view was the Bricktown ball park. They had some sort of sledding device setup, but man--it was too cold to breathe

Halfway There

We've pulled into our favorite hotel chain for the night. We got a late start on this leg of the race, but it was totally worth it. We spent last night visiting with my sister in Arizona. I didn't realize how much I had missed her until I saw her jumping up and down in her driveway as we pulled up. YAY!

This was the view from our Palm Desert, Ca., hotel when the sun came up. Yep--it was in the desert.



The kids were excited to be getting back on the road--next stop was their aunt's (Ti-Ti!) house in Arizona.


Mommy and YaYa in front of our hotel


Our first trip to The AZ!



What is tastier than that? We stopped at a mall in Phoenix for a bite to eat and a good stretch


At my sister's house, we got to meet my new niece-doggie, Marcy, for the first time.



Saying goodbye to Ti-Ti is always bittersweet, but Isaiah will definitely take it.

On the Move

I had every intention of blogging daily about our cross-country move. But by the time we've been pulling off the road and calling it a day, all I'm thinking about is dinner and a nice, soft bed.

Oh and a Jacuzzi.

We are in good spirits as we continue our journey from one Washington to another. J, the kids, and I are bonding well--getting to know each other again. Being thrown together 24 hours a day after being apart for several months has been interesting. Yet we still have the magic that makes us a good team. And that's reassuring, for sure.

We lost a travel day by remaining in Washington state an extra day, so we've been trying to make it up on the road---especially since we don't know what the rest of the trip has in store weather-wise, even though we chose the southern-most route. So if you don't see us along the way, it's not because we don't want to--we're just trying to make it back East in time!

Before we could begin our journey, we had to celebrate the New Year right



Preparing to take our directions from Navi as we left the post for good. Our ETD was supposed to be 6:00am.


Portland, Oregon, is where we had our first chow break.


Medford was our first pit stop. Isaiah couldn't wait to get his swim on.


C-a-l-i-f-o-r-n-i-a is a really, really, REALLY long state.

But it greeted us with such beauty. I can't be mad at it.


Mt. Shasta reminded the girls of Mt. Rainier. I think I'm "homesick" already.


We had a "meal and a show" at a Denny's in Redding. We had barely been seated at our table in front of a huge window when 4 cop cars stopped a couple in a pick-up truck leaving the parking lot, gave the female a breathalyzer and field sobriety test, the dude a pat-down, and had a tow truck come and whisk their truck away. When our waitress asked us if we needed anything else, the guy at the table next to us said "Yeah--a remote to turn up the volume!"


The kids at a Harley shop near Stockton. We were pressed for time, but Daddy could not resist that H-D draw.



Something you don't see everyday. Well, unless maybe if you live in Cali...or Roswell.


On the way to Southern California


Mariah poolside tonight at our hotel. It was dark when we got here ~I cannot wait to see where we are when the sun comes up.