My girls. They make me proud, they make me laugh!

On Thursday, Maggie started 5th grade Band Camp. This is 4 mornings with the band teachers where the kids learn basics of band. How to hold their instruments, how to work together, etc. Maggie was so excited to bring her French Horn home on Thursday! She loved it. On Friday she came home bursting again,"we even played all together today, like a REAL band!"
"Wow! What did you play?"
"Well, it was only 1 note......but it was awesome!"



When looking for something to watch on TV last night, the girls decided on Sound of Music from our DVR. Of course that led to much singing and goofiness at bedtime. Abby was singing "favorite things" and then she paused, and said, those aren't MY favorite things. My favorite things are........mommy, cute baby animals, flowers, and, ME! My favorite thing is myself!
Oh dear!

And Katherine? She had so much trouble falling asleep last night. It was a little warm and sticky until a front brought rain around 1030. She was still awake as late as about 945. I gave her all my best tricks (no cold cloth as I didn't want to deal with a wet bed.)
Imagine my surprise when I came downstairs before 7 today and there she was!



Sitting with a blanket, eating a banana, doing a book of crosswords, just as happy as could be!
"I just couldn't sleep after I went potty, so I thought I would watch the sunrise! But it's all cloudy-so I'm doing my crossword, and I had a yogurt and banana-all by myself!"

Last Saturday I had to work, so Chris took the girls with to 400 mass. He played and they sat alone, in our regular pew, not too far away. When I asked last week how it went, he said they had been fine. And the girls reported the same.
So I shouldn't have been surprised yesterday, when I went to mass with them, and I had 4 different people stop me to report how well behaved they had been last week without me! It was certainly a moment of parental pride!
And also a major milestone-I've avoided weekend shifts because of church since Chris started playing-now they are old enough to behave! They can be trusted!

I do love these girls!



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HOME!

We are home. Phew!

We left columbus by 830, making our first stop by 930 at the National Air Force museum near Dayton. I was hesitant about this one, especially since I just wanted to get home. But it was, once again, more interesting than expected. And we could have spent a LOT more time there. We saw all sorts of planes, and even got to fly a space shuttle simulator and tour a space shuttle and sit in a few cockpits of planes.

Back on the road we just tried to get home! We stopped for lunch near Indianapolis but otherwise we just drove and drove and drove. We got home about 6pm. At the end of our trip, we had traveled 2600 miles, over 12 days, and 58 hours. We were in 9 states and 7 hotels.

We cheered as we drove into Wisconsin, in fact we had been clapping every time we saw a Wisconsin sign as we drove. And it felt great to get home, pull into the driveway, and see our house.

We have laundry going, we have bags mostly unpacked. It will take a few days to get back into Our routines.

But putting the girls to bed tonight, they each said, in their own way, that they loved their trip, can't wait to do it again, and how much fun they had. I'd say it was totally worth it!


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Even the most wonderful of trips come to an end. And the drive home always seems longer than the drive there. That's how it felt today. Another great day overall, but a long day of driving that never seemed to end!

We stopped first in Williamsport Md to visit the C&O canals. It was actually more interesting that I expected, and the girls were happy to complete the activities required to be sworn in as junior rangers!

Then it was off to drive through the very northern edge of Maryland where we found Route 40. Route 40 took us up into Pennsylvania, and we later discovered that it was the first national highway/tollway/road. I learned this after Chris saw a sign on the side of the road for a national park and veered sharply into the parking lot! Another national park to explore! YES!
(No! Groaned the rest of us!)

This was Fort Necessity, And again, it ended up being far more interesting than expected. We learned about the French/Indians/George Washington battling for land, negotiating peace, and then the eventual building of a road through the mountains to connect distant land to the growing country of the United States. Or something like that.

Back on the road, Chris finished driving through all the mountains. We soaked up the amazing views. I took over driving just before West Virginia, and it promptly started to rain. Then Maggie announced an urgent need for the bathroom. We stopped, but not much after that, the rain became unsafe, and Maggie needed a bathroom again. It was nearly 5, so we stopped for dinner just inside of Ohio. We thought the rain would pass while we ate, and for the most part we were right.

After dinner at Panera, we got back onto the highway where traffic was at a standstill. We inched a long for about 15-20 minutes unable to see what the problem was. But then we came upon 2 accidents, it seemed both involved a spin out, most likely due to the heavy rain. I was very glad we had stopped when we did.

We pushed on and made it to Columbus before 8. So tonight we spend our last night away from home, in a fairfield inn off of I-70. Hopefully our travel tomorrow will be smooth and we will sleep in our own beds tomorrow night!







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Today was a long day of driving. But we did see some interesting things along the way. We left our hotel about 830 and went across the Chesapeake Bay via the bridge/tunnel. That was equal parts cool and terrifying. Something about being so far under the ocean, in a tunnel........it made me nervous.

Then it was a long slow trip North to Baltimore. No interstates in that area, just slow country roads. We did stop at a NASA launch site on Walllops Island. But that wasn't quite as exciting as we had thought it might be. It did provide a bathroom stop!

We stopped for lunch in Cambridge and no had a technology moment! Our iPhone gps directed us to an Arby's restaurant.......except it was actually an alley that led to private property! We trespassed only long enough to turn around and eventually found the Arby's not too far away......

Continuing on to Baltimore to our planned stop at Fort mcHenry. Did you know that it is the 200th anniversary of the Star-Spangled Banner? And that it was written at Fort McHenry? Indeed! This was actually a more interesting spot than I expected. And we even got to see a cruise ship in Baltimore harbor, and some tug boats moving barges. For only the second time in our trip it tried to rain on us, but just a light drizzle for a few minutes, nothing that stopped us!

So, we left Baltimore about 5pm and drove over to Frederick, md. This was a strategic decision on my part to be just that much farther when we leave tomorrow, and it also was cheaper to get a room out this way. As I checked in to our hotel, I realized that my drivers license is missing. I know I had it yesterday when we had to go through security on the military base.......perhaps it fell out of the car? They let me check in anyway and I've ordered a new one online, so I'm legal to drive.

We will get halfway home tomorrow........and home for good on Sunday. We hope!



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