Saturday morning we woke up in Rhode Island. Rick made us a wonderful breakfast of French toast out of cinnamon raisin bread, along with fruit and bacon. Afterwards we hung out on the beautiful back porch for a little bit. The views are just gorgeous, and it's such a peaceful place. We chatted with Aunt Cheryl while Uncle Rick played checkers with Ryan. It was really hard leaving that to pack up! We were sad to go, and we hit the road about 10am. The kids are troopers and do awesome in the car. We drove about eight hours on Saturday and ten on Sunday. For the most part, they just chat and color and Ryan reads or blogs and they do their own thing. Our DVD players have died a slow death, but honestly, that's okay, the kids did fine without them. We used them very sparingly anyways; you know me, I'm not a big fan of screen time. We played a couple of family games - we found the ABC's on signs and we even attempted to play Ryan's version of the license plate game. We had to find the states in alphabetical order, although just one for each letter. So first we had to find either Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, or Arkansas. We found Alabama. Ryan then decided that also counted for B since there are no B states and some people refer to Alabama as Bama. We saw several Connecticut's for C, despite being in the southern corner of Virginia by then. We never did find Delaware for D, and thus the game fizzled out.
Driving down through New England and New York and New Jersey, we paid ridiculous amounts of tolls, as per the norm. We drove across the George Washington bridge and saw the cool views of the city. Sarah and her family had arrived at Granddaddy's on Friday night and spent Saturday with them, so they were there when we arrived Saturday night. Having the cousins all together was a fun treat! We arrived in town about 6:15 and meet the crew at the Greene Turtle for dinner. After dinner we took a much needed walk in Granddaddy's neighborhood and the kids played together on the nearby playground. The kids also enjoyed playing together with Granddaddy in the basement before bed.
Sunday morning, we were up bright and early. We hit the road a few minutes after six for home, and the Zerings left a little later to begin their trip up north. We had picnic lunches in the car both Saturday and Sunday - thanks to Aunt Cheryl for supplying us with a fresh loaf of bread! We hit a couple of rainshowers in Tennessee, which saved us a carwash when we got home. We had contemplated winding our way down North Georgia instead of taking 75, and then when we saw there was a wreck and about an hour long delay, we absolutely went the back way! We came down 411 right through Chatsworth, within a few minutes of the cabin we love to stay at. It was supposedly only three minutes longer then going 75 and with the traffic the way it was, it was definitely the right choice. Gotta love the Google Maps app :)
We arrived at our house about 4:45 on Sunday. While sad that our vacation was over, we were certainly ready to get out of the car! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for having us over for a home cooked meal. And Maya was at their house, hooray for being reunited with our pup. Thanks to Nana, the Brandon family [Abby's best twin friends Levi & Larsen and their black lab Scout], and Grandma & Grandpa for taking turns watching her. It was nice to know she was always in good hands and well cared for. Thanks also, especially to Nana, for watching our house. Abby's plants on the back porch were thriving under her love and care; perhaps she can continue to look out for them even now that we've returned. As much as I love the idea of planting and someday gardening, I seem to have a black thumb.
It was a wonderful ten days! I can't believe how fast it went. But I guess that just means it was a really good trip, right? :) We loved all of New England, especially the different stops within Rhode Island - the Block Island ferry and then of course Westerly, Weekapaug, & Watch Hill. And the kids loved Aunt Betty, Uncle Rick, and Aunt Cheryl. They've been asking when we can go back to see them all again. Happy vacation to us! And now back to vacation recovery - tons of laundry, a Kroger trip yesterday as we had zero food in the house, a total cleanout of the car, and my current project : reassembling all three carseats after taking them apart to wash them.
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