The Rest of the Trip

After Mystic, we started the friends portion of our trip. It was nice to be back in homes instead of hotels. Friday evening we made it down to Steve and Erica's house in Dorothy, NJ. The trip was a lot longer than google led us to believe but when your going by NYC, I suppose that should be expected. The kids defied all reasoning and didn't sleep a wink. Needless to say , we were ready to get out when we pulled into their place. It was so nice to be with my friend Erica again. What a happy, warm soul she is. Jill and Lucas wasted no time making themselves at home and Steve and Erica did a fabulous job of making us feel right at home. Later in the evening Lori and Linda with Russell and William stopped by. Funny how family just feels like family even if you haven't seen each other in years. Unfortunately our time at the Ruga's was very short. We woke the kids up early the next morning to start our next leg down to Virginia.

Again it was well after our anticipated arrival time when we finally found our way up Marc and Beth's driveway. We missed our turnoff getting there which meant extra driving time but we got to see the Shenandoah River and some more of the beautiful countryside! The last time we were with Marc and Beth, Lucas was not yet 3 months old and Catherine, Joshua and Jill had not yet been born. We were excited for our kids to finally meet the cousins that they pray for at night: Rachel, Timothy, Peter, Daniel, Phillip, Catherine and Joshua. After some initial shyness, the kids went outside to play and like kids do, forgot that they had only met moments before. Lucas had a great time riding Daniel's big bike (Thank you, Daniel) and Jill loved playing in their playhouse, although kisses from Lady the dog kept her on her toes. Each of the cousins were so sweet to Lucas and Jill. Rachel even crocheted little bears with matching blankets for the them! A few days before we arrived, they had gone apple picking and we fortunate souls got to enjoy the fruit of their labor...fresh applesauce, dried apples and a yummy apply pie courtesy of Rachel. Just the other day Lucas said out of the blue, "My Aunt Beth sure is a good cook!" =) Agreed. That day was a really nice change of pace for us. We were able to relax and the kids got to run around. After our apple pie, we said our good-bye and drove on to Andy and Jenny Buchanan's for the night.

Since it was quite late by the time we got to their house, the kids went straight to bed after a quick peak at the sleeping baby Ellie. The adults should have been as wise but instead we stayed up chatting. Catching up with friends is more fun than sleeping anyway, until morning hits that is. The next morning we got to meet sweet baby Ellie. The kids, especially Jill, loved holding her. Lucas took his turn but after Andy gave him an RC helicopter, he was a little pre-occupied. After we ate a delicious HOME COOKED (what joy!) breakfast during which Nathan about lost his tongue (hehehe...that was for you, Jenny =), we headed out to meeting. The meeting in Washington DC is in a hotel downtown, just blocks from the White House etc. Unfortunately, the World Bank (?) was having their annual meeting which brings out a lot of protesters so some streets were blocked off and parking was a bit tricky to come by. After meeting, we went across the street to a pizza place for lunch. Suzanne Buchanan and her four boys happen to be visiting also so Lucas was highly entertained. Probably against out better judgment we tried to do a drive by of the White House, the Capital and a few monuments after lunch. With the extra traffic it was a little laborious but it was neat to see them in real life. Thank you, Jenny for doing that! The rest of Sunday was spent warming the couch and eating. Thanks for the great time, Andy, Jenny and Ellie!

Monday morning marked the last day of our trip, hard to believe but somewhat of a relief. After breakfast, we met Beth and the kids at the Air and Space Museum. We had a good time checking out all the exhibits and topped off our visit with lunch and an IMAX movie. Then it was off to Baltimore airport. When we turned in our rental it registered a 1000 new miles and just over 25 hours of driving time. Thankfully the trip home was uneventful. It felt mighty fine crawling into our own beds that night. Unfortunately we weren't in them too long...the kids had finally adjusted to East Coast time.