Happy trails

We arrived home yesterday after 13 nights away, in beds in 3 different states. We are very thankful for a great trip! It was fun to see all the various family members (18 of them, both Franks and Wrays) and friends (7 of them), and to have all the memories now of the experiences we had.

As usual, the car travel was an adventure in and of itself. Something about having all 6 people in 210 cubic feet of space for hours upon hours brings out all the fun (or something).

Here are some of the things that will be memorable from this trip:

• Playing "20 Questions" over and over. The toughest ones for us to guess were "Calvin Coolidge" (Pete's idea... we finally had it narrowed down to a U.S. President from the 1920's) and "outside" (Strider's idea-- which he insisted was a Place). In just about every round, Rayna would ask, "Are you a dot?" The answer was always "no."
• Having iterations of this conversation over and over... R: "Are we in Ohio now?" Me: "No, we're in North Carolina. Then we're going to drive and drive until we get to Virginia. Then we're going to drive and drive until we get to West Virginia. Then we'll drive and drive until we get to Ohio!" C: "So are we in Ohio now??"
• Singing songs in rounds. The most interesting point was when Pete and Strider were singing one part of "Rejoice in the Lord always," Colsen and I were attempting to sing a different part of it, and Rayna was singing "The Lord is my Shepherd" -- the song we had sung previously.
• Hearing the kids sing "Let me see your funky chicken.... what's that you say?" over and over
• Hearing the kids sing the Button Factory song over and over (thank you Eden!)
• Listening to "Frog and Toad" and "Adventures in Odyssey" stories on CD
• Hearing Colsen squeal with excitement everytime the Veggie Tales "Water Buffalo" song came on
• Hearing "Can we have a snack?" 32 times
• After a 5-minute lull, hearing Colsen say "I'm being good now, so can I have a wowwipop?"

Overall the kids were fantastic travelers, though -- even Miles who only cried for about 10 minutes right before we reached each of our destinations the last 2 days. (But he's also getting 2 teeth, so we certainly can't blame him!)