East Coast Road Trip

In mid-July, we hit the road heading east to visit friends and/or partners of our Wycliffe ministry. Connecting with our partners is an aspect of this ministry that I really love. Plus, this trip would give our kids a glimpse of America that they don't remember seeing when we did this 5 years ago at the ages of 8, 5 and 2. (Another plus: no diapers this go around...big kids are AWESOME!)

Jason and I took a morning at the local coffee shop with the computer, calendar and too much coffee, sorting out the logistics:

*Are people going to be home and not out of town?

*Where would we stay?

*How long would we stay in one place? (My dad always told me that fish and kinfolk smell after 3 days, so we kept that into consideration.)

*And the big question...how long can we *realistically* drive each day so our children and sanity stay in tact?!

With most of those questions answered, emails sent, phone calls made, we hit the road.

Affectionately known in this house as "the beast", this is the vehicle we've been blessed with driving this year!

We have a TON of room for bags, people and snacks. "The beast" has made our road trips this year so much nicer...as if driving on smooth roads wasn't enough this throws it over the top!

We made it through 22 states and Canada for a total of 4, 525 miles! Sanity was questioned on several occasions as we pushed through the miles forging our way to our overnight stop, but in the end, it was worth it.

We were blessed to hug, laugh, cry and hug our friends some more. With those same people we took pictures (and memories!) that we'll hold on to for the next 4 years. The kids took in some American history along the way as we drove through some beautiful country. We also determined that you can find a song that will mention the state you're driving through in that moment. Needless to say the kids were exposed to some FINE musical history from the 70's and 80's as well :)

And now we're looking at our trip to the Northwest in just a week and half! Jason has training in Spokane,  but we also have partners and friends we're looking forward to seeing. The Lord has already worked out so many details of this trip and we're excited to see what else is ahead.