Decorate Your Soul

Oh man. We have driven more miles than I care to count in the past few days. Yesterday, we hit the open road of Kansas to be greeted by a debatably nondescript Kansas sign:

I’d like to advertise the great state of Kansas as beautiful and full of sunflowers (they are somewhere, I’m sure!), but we mostly enjoyed views of rows and rows of (or MILES and MILES) of cornfields:

Missouri (pronounced Mizz-UR-Uh since I met a Missourian once that pronounced it that way- plus it’s just fun to roll off the tongue that way) (did you try to say it that way yet??) proved to be a little more eventful- first, you enter the state right at the intersection of a busy highway so the state sign had to be searched for- I barely caught it!:

We caught a hitchhiking insect on our antenna from the muggy air that made for some good conversation:

(nice bokeh from the sports cam, eh?)

We got to be Dudley Do-Rights and let a trucker know that he had a blown out tire in front of us on the highway. My adrenaline was racing as I sped up and honked and honked (did I ever mention how much I LOVE to honk the car horn? Especially in tunnels!) and Andy waved and motioned for him to go to the side of the road to let him know of his misfortune:

Where in the U.S. am I– I keep looking in the handy dandy atlas:

We made it to Illinois without too much more to report:

And we lost another hour as we passed into the land of Colts fans:

Tomorrow we arrive at our new home and we couldn’t be more eager to see our new town in person!

In order to keep the girls occupied (read: happy) on the cross-country journey to Ohio, we bought a couple of portable DVD players and headphones (very important!) and ALL of their DVD’s:

I already mentioned the Leap Frog Leapster was a hit in a previous post, but so was the Princess Etch-a-Sketches that Aunt Nana gave them:

The white board and markers to draw and draw and write letters and draw (designated only for the Bean, I have to say):

The Princess and Barbie magnetic dress-up dolls  are like mini-car games with not too much mess:

There was the day we played with post-it notes and Scotch tape:

And don’t forget book upon books (and snacks and snacks!!):

But my all-time favorite way to help the girls stay happy on this trip was to throw a party by handing out noise makers:

Honestly, the time in the car wasn’t full of screaming and crying as it could have been- don’t get me wrong, there have been moments when Andy and I questioned our sanity, but our journey was definitely doable. I hope I can encourage other families out there to hit the open road!

After some tearful good-byes with Peeps and Grammy on Saturday morning, we headed out for a new adventure:

Our trip was deterred only by a stop at Target in Victorville (Ashleigh’s headphones were too big and we needed an Atlas),  a Lolo poop blowout somewhere off the 15 FWY past Baker (GROSS!) and our first lunch stop for the girls. Andy and I were holding out for the last chance to eat at In-N-Out for a year in Vegas, Baby Vegas:

Until we got to Utah and realized the company had expanded to another state. Good for Utah, eh?

 Speaking of getting to Utah, we got to pass a few familiar signs on the way– I completely forgot about the delay in the shutter on the sports cam- three times, I tell you- so here’s my bad shots of state signs while driving:

Welcome to Nevada:

Welcome to Arizona:

Welcome to Utah:

Seriously, I miss my non-delay shutter, folks.

Inside the car, we’re fairing pretty well– as good as expected with three kids… the Leapster has been a hit with both Sarah and Ash:

Lolo is absolutely 100 % over the driving and being strapped in part and wore herself out telling us so:

Between asking how much longer we have to where we are going and needing to use the restroom, Sarah is mostly the happy traveler:

So is Mama:

Today, we hit the road again for the sightseeing part of the trip and visited Zion National Park- what’s a little trailblazing without an adventure hat, I say??

Zion is beautiful- walls of sedimentary rock have built up over thousands of years to create a majestic scene- this was one sight we caught- but as with most landscape pictures I take, this shot just doesn’t do it justice.

I received a Verse of the Day calendar from my dear friend Sarah for my birthday and twice now, I have had very meaningful scriptures placed on dates that can only be a smile and a wink from the Lord. Today’s scripture came from Hebrews and read:

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22-23

Andy and I thought that was pretty cool. On the way back to the hotel, Andy saw this amazing splash of sunshine ricocheting off a cloud and I am so glad we pulled over to capture it because at the next exit, the sun moved past the cloud– how’s this for breathtaking (only slightly moved over the blues in PP):

If you’re still here reading, I totally want to know what you had for dinner! Thanks for visiting us on or trip  

We have spent the last week living out of suitcases and we still have two more weeks to go until we reach our new home. Last week, we spent some time at the hotel at a local Marine Base (note my best sleeper back there on the right!):

We stuck around for a few extra days even though our house was empty so we could buy some time to do a thorough job cleaning and spend one last weekend down in sunny San Diego. Our friends came together for a fun night of fellowship and farewells on Saturday- of course the traveling computer doesn’t have a portal for my camera’s CF- so the sports car cam will be my default for a few weeks (I really don’t know how to use Andy’s camera is what I’m saying):

Andy and a few of the guys from our Casa V Home Fellowship hanging out having a good time:

(I think that’s Jarrod there doing the Robot making everyone laugh)

Our last Sunday morning at Maranatha Chapel proved to be somewhat emotional for me- I tell you, I  have become quite fond of the teaching, the worship and the ministries at this church. And, let’s not forget to mention the people.Sigh. It’s hard to know that you’re leaving such a good thing, that the Lord is working mightily within the walls and challenging believers to walk the talk each day as they exit the grounds. Our church family has been a large part of our lives there in San Diego, too. But, I am confident that the Lord will use us, to help build up and encourage others as we go to a new town.

I didn’t break out the camera very much actually this past week. I just wanted to take in the atmostsphere and enjoy our friends. I did get one shot with my bud Peris- I think this is after the flood gates opened up with the realization we wouldn’t be on this campus for a long while…

We had one last thing to take care of in San Diego before we headed out of town – to pick up our dry cleaning. Do you remember that we are procrastinators on just about everything in our life? Right. SO it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that this waiting game we play bit us in the butt and this is what welcomed us at the cleaners on Sunday afternoon:

Luckily, we have good friends willing to help us out! Phew!

FInally, we’re spending this week relaxing with our family before we actually take on the cross country leg of this transition at the end of the week. Here’s Sarah and Ashleigh enjoying some ice cream on the back porch on Grandma Sincock’s swing- they sure do know how to bring upon a smile

Our home is currently in disarray.

We have cleaned out everyone’s closets, hall cupboards and the black hole we sometimes refer to as the garage.

Our trash can is overflowing with unloved toys and what-nots (and trash day was just Friday- it’s going to be a long week there!).

The floors are covered with icky grime and the walls still need to be erased by the magic eraser.

Magazine files have been decreased. Children’s books have been organized. Our main PC is packed up (thank you God for laptops that travel easily!) . All these boxes are everywhere.

So Andy had a solution to curb the wall of anxiety: he is out getting donuts.

All is well when sugar is the answer

London has an underground subway line- known as “The Tube” and it’s the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B, especially helpful if you are on one side of the city and you need to get to the other. As you exit, a gentleman in a proper British accent carefully suggests to mind the gap as not to fall between the concrete and the transporting cars. Over and over again, Mind the Gap. It was ingrained into our heads as we tried to imitate his accent. We never came close- but it was fun to try!

A few shots of the more well known parts of London- these are what we call postcard shots… you can find a collection of our London photos in a set on my flickr page.

Big Ben attached to the hip of Parliament:

A picturesque view across the way from Buckingham Palace:

The Towers of Westminster Abbey:

What should I do with all these photos? Seriously, perhaps I can make coffee mugs for Christmas presents? hee-hee.