Road Trip 2012: NC to TX

It's that time of year again!  The part I spend all year planning for and we all eagerly anticipate.  Road trip time!  Hooray!

Changes this year:  The kids help me plan out our stops this year.  They rocked.

Also, this is the most days that I will spend as the only adult with these munchkins.  Usually, I have someone come home with me or go out with me.  This time, we'll have Grandma Cuca with us for a few days, but she's staying in Utah.  The kids are old enough that I'm not stressed out about it.  (Famous last words? I hope not.)

In case you had ever wondered,

this is how many shoes we use in a month.  Whoa.

First stop:  Asheville, to visit with Ryan and Destinee.

These kids have so much fun together!

Gas was under $3/gallon in TN.  Yes!

It was also VERY hot in TN.

With the kids being car crazy right now, we've had fun spotting 

Mustangs, Camaros, Porsches, 

and this line of four Corvettes back to back.

Our first science center of the trip:

Adventure Science Center in Nashville.

The kids give it 6 out of 6 thumbs up.

 Favorite parts:

 The five story playground with a great view of the city

from the top.

They had a space exhibit.

Whit got to see how it felt to walk on the moon.

 And B-train got to practice working on a space station.

Or something like that.

Played at the coolest playground in Texarkana, TX.

Kidtopia.

Whit found it for us online before we left.

We had it all to ourselves.

 I guess no one else wanted to play in 95 degree heat.

Spent lots of time on the phone with Daddio.

Had a fun (but short) visit with Misty,

one of my BFF's since 4th grade.

One of the highlights of our trip so far:

Getting to bottle feed baby goats!

They were ADORABLE!

And voracious eaters.

We felt bad when our bottles were empty because they wanted more!

Now the kids REALLY wish we had a pet.

A baby goat would do.

Or a show goat.

Or a horse.

Or a donkey.

Thanks to Ruthie and Ron, we got up close and personal
with all of them.  (And had a YUMMY dinner!)

Brandon has not only admired vehicles from afar,

but his Aunt Irene took him for a ride

in her convertible!  Woo hoo!

And Ruthie's neighbor boy let him have a turn

driving his four wheeler.

Life does not get much better than this for an 11-yr-old boy.

What June Looks Like

 

Out of the Mouths of Babes--June

Our annual drive-across-the-country-for-fun trip has started.  And I can't get my computer to connect to the internet.  So, I'm on my aunt's computer and can't figure out how to get the pics to work right.  So this is the best that I could do.

6/3--We had one of those CFL bulbs burn out.  (Aren't they supposed to last forever?)  Whitney said, "We're not supposed to throw those in the regular trash can because they have Neptune in them, right?"  Well, close, sweetheart.  They have mercury.

6/4--I had a watermelon sitting on the counter, waiting to be sliced.  Caroline looked at it and said, "I'm envious of that melon."  Where does she come up with these things?

6/12--Caroline was playing at the McDonald's playland with Whit, another school-aged girl and a little toddler.  She ran over to Andrew and me and told us, "We're not supposed to touch that baby.  She's pointless."  What? "Her big sister told me that she's pointless and not to touch her."  We thought that was hilarious.  And confusing.  Found out later they were pretending the baby was *poisonous*. That McDonalds has now been renamed "The poisonous baby McDonalds."

6/19--C's random conversation in the van
C:  Houses are REALLY expensive, right?
Me:  Yes.  It's the most expensive thing we've ever bought.
C:  How did you carry it???

6/20--At the science center, Care Bear asked the donkey, "Excuse me, Mr. Donkey, why are you so polite today?"

6/21--What Caroline told me after her bath that made me just want to eat her up, "When I grow up, I can help my kids take baths.  I'm going to be a great mom!  And you can be my best friend."   *floop* That was the sound of my heart melting.

6/22--Care Bear is really into what is real and what is not real.  She'll ask me random questions throughout the day, "Are volcanoes real?  Unicorns are NOT real, right?  Are horns real?  But only some animals have real horns, huh?"

6/26--C's deep thoughts from the backseat, "How do dogs yawn?  Everything yawns, right?  Except ducks?  And flowers?"

Random photos of the month

 

These last few pics are what happens when you

let your kids hijack your camera at a baseball game.