Losing Track

Our Christmas vacation has begun!  And so has our holiday road trip!  For the past four days we've been trekking across the country with Idaho as our final destination.

We started our journey by not starting at all.  We meant to leave early on the 17th, but ended up hanging around just long enough to pick up the new bike that Orry earned from his school as a result of good behavior and meeting all the academic objectives for the year.  He had a fun time riding it to the car.  Then we took the bike home and hit the road.  Sorry, kid.  Maybe next year.

We were headed for New Mexico to visit my brother and his family.  We made it by the 18th and I'm happy to say that we weren't worse for the wear.  Road tripping can be a fun experience.  Road tripping with three kids is like walking a very fine tightrope.  Too long in the car and everything will start to deteriorate.  Rapidly.  But we spaced our 14 hour leg of the trip quite nicely and everyone did a great job doing the best they could with what they had.

Our visit with the cousins was short but enjoyable nonetheless.  It's great to see how much the kids have changed as individuals and in relation to one another.  When you go a long time without seeing young kiddos, you are almost always impressed and surprised to see their growth.  It's as though, during your time away, nothing has changed.  But there you are, together again, and you can't believe that baby Jo Jo is walking and talking!

The kids had a great time.  Everyone got along!  We exchanged gifts and stories and got some much needed hugs to last us until next time.

From L to R: Elie, Jeana, Johann, Annie, Orry, Caamiell, and Isaac

But alas, we had to roll on.  So after carefully monitoring the weather and road closures, we set out for Idaho.  We've been lucky and have avoided icy road, so far.  Yesterday was the longest of our journey by far.  We traveled 11 hours!  But here we are, 3 hours from our destination!

We do love road trips.  And by we, I mean Troy and myself.  I'm not sure the kids have much of an opinion.  Maybe by the end of it all they will.  Maybe it will be a good one.  Maybe.  But Troy and I sure do love having hours of conversation.  We love hours of joking, too.  But one of our most favorite things is watching the landscape changed right before your very eyes.

We started out in the flat, lowlands of Houston and slowly watched the hills roll by.  The hills turned into mesas.  The grass turned into sage brush, the bushes into pine trees.  Mountains began to appear in northern NM and really became impressive in Colorado.  Patches of snow turned into fields of snow.  Frozen ponds.  Icy trees.

Another thing that's true of all vacations is forgetting what day it is.  I know what date when we left, so I can effectively count backwards and put all the events into place.   What I'm having a hard time keeping track of is what day of the week it is.  But isn't that what a great vacation can do for you?

But I have remembered today.  Today is our wedding anniversary.  And when I think back, I do believe that the majority of our anniversaries are spent travelling.  But that doesn't bother me.  I love that we love travelling, as a family, as adventurers.  So I raise my glass to six wonderful years past and 106 more wonderful years to come!

Now let's get on the road and finish this thing!