Day 10 & 11–The End

Wow, I am going to need to make a separate scrapbook just for our trip!  I did warn you that I had a ton of pictures, but we are finally to the end! 

On Saturday morning we got up and going and went over to the food court to cash out the rest of our food vouchers.  We only had “Snacks” left but a snack could be anything from popcorn or candy to bagels and pastries so we were all able to get breakfast for the road.  We loaded everything  into the cars and had to say our goodbyes to Auntie Katherine and Auntie Eve. :(

We had to go to the airport to get another car (since we had six people and only five seats) so Karen and Noni drove as far as Gainesville with them while T and I picked up the second car.

I dropped T off at the airport and of course someone needed to go potty so I drove until I found a place to stop.  Bug had been very protective of her new baby in the few hours she’d had it, not wanting Boo to even touch it, but as we were walking back to the car she all of the sudden said, “Do you want to hold the new baby, Boo Bear?”  Of course the answer was yes. :)  They were treating it like it was actually a newborn baby, making the transfer ever so delicately, and then Bug put an arm around Boo to guide her down the sidewalk.  So sweet.

We made the 2 hour trip to Gainesville with no stops or problems and picked up Aunt Karen and Noni.  Then they took the SUV with the girls and T and I got to make the last 5 hours of the trip without having to listen to kiddie music. :)

Ever since we started planning this trip I’ve been making plans to meet up with my blog friend, Rachel, from Grasping for Objectivity.  We’ve been reading each others’ blogs for almost four years now and have even talked on the phone when I needed advice about starting a bible study group.  Even though we’d never met I truly consider her a friend.  She lives in Alabama, but since we are literally on opposite ends of the country we knew we couldn’t get THAT close to each other and not meet! 

She packed up her family and drove the 2 hours from their home to meet up with us in Atlanta!  It might have even been longer than two hours because they had to go “the back way” to avoid going through Talladega on a NASCAR race weekend…something we Northerners don’t know much about.  She texted me a picture of the people camped out by the highway, saying it was about 1% of the crowd and I couldn’t believe it!  NASCAR is big stuff in the south!

We had been in the South for a week and half seeing more BBQ places than I could count, but we still hadn’t had any so they took us to a restaurant called Jim n’ Nicks.  Wow.  It was delicious!  We definitely need one of those around here!  We all hit it off right away, the husbands talking, the women chatting, and the kids bonding over crayons and coloring books. :)

It was so much fun to finally meet my first Internet friend, and find out that if we did live anywhere remotely close to each other we would be the best of friends! 

And so would our kids.  Ali and K hit it off so much that they couldn’t bear to be separated so we let K ride back to the hotel with them in their car.  I think the dads were both thinking, “we just met!”  but reading about someone’s life day-in-day-out, and e-mailing or Facebooking with them almost every day for four years makes you even closer than you would be to someone who lives down the street so I had no qualms about letting K go with them. 

We had all got rooms at a hotel near the airport and Rachel called to make sure our rooms were next door to each other.  The kids got to play in the lobby for a while, bonding further over Ali’s iPad. 

T and I didn’t get to visit with them as much as we would have liked since we were trying to clean out the cars and get packed for our flight the next morning, but after we finally separated K from her new best friend and all the kids were in bed, Rachel and Chris came over and visited with us in the living room of our hotel room.  We had such a great time talking!  I really do wish we lived closer!  Rachel blogged about our meeting too and has some really cute pictures if you want to check out her post.  Thank you SO much for making the trip to come see us guys, or I should say, y’all! :)  We loved meeting you!  I hope we can do it again someday!!!

The hotel we were at had a really nice breakfast buffet which we enjoyed before leaving for the airport.  We got up at 6:45 the last morning…not insanely early, unless you considered that we would soon be home where 6:45am was really 3:45am!  We made it to the airport, dropped off the rental cars with no problems, and got on the monorail to take us to the check in desks.  This was apparently one of Boo’s favorite rides on the trip as she said, “Whee, whee, whee” over and over while on the monorail.  Who needs Disney World?!? We could have just stayed at the airport! :)

We made it through check-in and security with no problems and after riding the plane train to get to our terminal we were just in time to get in line to board.  It was hard to say goodbye to Aunt Karen after such a fun week with her, but thankfully we’ll get to see her in just a few weeks when she’s up here for a few days.

Having Noni along was SOO nice.  She sat with the girls for a good portion of the first flight and kept them entertained.

It was especially nice since the flight seemed to last FOREVER.  It wasn’t a bad flight it was just that our trip from Phoenix to Atlanta was a little over 3 hours but from Atlanta to Phoenix was a little over 4 hours.  My expectations of the flight made that extra hour reeeally long.  It was also (Atlanta) time for lunch about halfway through so we just gave the girls snacks with the promise that we would eat when we got to Phoenix, but they were both hungry and getting tired.

We got there with an hour before our next flight so we just barely had time to eat, go to the bathroom, and board our next flight.  It was way past naptime (that they’d been used to – right on time for home) so Boo fell asleep pretty much right away.  T and I sat with her between us and we napped off and on too. She woke up after about an hour of laying across my lap and seemed wide awake but when T asked if she wanted to snuggle she switched over to his side and went right back to sleep.  She slept almost the entire two and a half hour flight.  So nice!  When we landed and she woke up she sat up and yelled really loud, “KAREN!” as if to say, “Oh no!  We lost her somewhere!”  It was really funny. :) K didn’t sleep at all, but she and Noni kept each other busy.

We got home to find Papa and Mama waiting for us.  The girls were thrilled to see them!

We had to hit Walmart on the way home since I’d cleaned out the refrigerator before we left, and because we were also diving right back into life - K got to pick out cupcakes for her preschool birthday party the next morning. 

What a trip. 

11 days.

2630.42 air miles.

1145.38 car miles.

6 family members.

4 “new” friends.

And a million new experiences, memories, and smiles.

It was exciting, exhausting, and totally amazing! 

Thank you to our Florida family for such a great time, we love you!  Thank you Noni and Karen for all your help with the girls and making the trip even more fun, you guys are the best!  Thank you Rachel, Chris, Ali, and Noah for taking the time to see us, we loved meeting you! 

These memories will last a lifetime!