Monday, September 1, 2008

Are there Frequent Driver Miles?

For the past two weekends, we've thrown caution to the wind and ignored gas prices. For two Saturdays now, we've taken day trips to Pennsylvania.

Last Saturday (8/23) we traveled down to Newtown for a Musser House Reunion. Shane's senior year at Messiah (the year we met) he lived in a house on campus with 6 other guys. It was a sweet setup: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living & dining rooms. Those 6 guys (plus 2 others) have all stayed in touch over the years (almost 15 years...yikes!) They try to get together once a year and this year, families joined in. We all gathered at The May's house. Six families were able to make it...19 kids!
(The Guys: Dave C, Sam, Dave M, Jeff, Scott D & Shane)

Everyone had a great time.  Zoe really enjoyed hanging out with the May girls: Brooke & Ashley (twins).

(Zoe and Brooke...I think)

The car trip went well. It took about an hour and 45 minutes or so. We took off at the triplet's 1p naptime...and came back at bedtime. Perfect!

This Saturday (8/30) was the Huss Family Reunion (my Mom's family) in Lancaster. A 3 1/2 hour trip each way made me a little more nervous, but the kids handled it with grace. Again we left at naptime (9a)...or at least that was the goal. As prepared as I thought I was the night before, we still managed to leave 1/2 hour behind schedule. This time, it was me that forgot something-my makeup! I realized it 1/2 way down our street! My parents stayed over Friday night and caravanned down to the picnic with us. Shane and I made out like bandits: Zoe and Ty rode with Grammy and Granddad! It was almost like a date. At one point, we were so deep in conversation, we thought we might have passed our exit.

Our time with the family was great. There were water balloon games, face painting, volleyball, trampoline, triplet passing and of course, great food.

On our way home, we tried something new...ALL of us ate at Wendy's! That’s right...we even brought in the triplets (rather than one of us eating in the car). Although there were 3 highchairs, we gave one to a solo mom that walked in right after us...and Cole sat on my lap. I had already fed the triplets a HUGE dinner in the car, but they still munched on fries, burger bun, oranges, and even a little chicken nugget.

All the babies fell asleep in the car and transferred well to their beds, when we got home. Zoe and Ty were still flying high from the sugar of the day, but settled down relatively quickly once they were in PJs and tucked into bed.

No more road trips on the calendar for awhile, but after the past two weeks, they don’t send fear deep into my gut anymore.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are so very brave! I'm glad that both trips worked out well and that you now have school right around the corner!

Tara said...

I love the Musser picture! :) It's so great they you all get together still. I'd love to see pics of the kids & wives, too. Put some on Facebook if you have them! 19 kids..wow. God bless the Mays for hosting. ;)