Our Adventure. . .

Last year we packed up the kids, loaded the back of the van and the luggage carrier and drove for 3 or 4 days ( I can't remember), broke down in Wyoming, went to the ER in Cheyenne, WY, saw some friends in Nebraska, tried several times to cross the flooded Missouri River to get to a Family Reunion in Indiana.  It was so worth it!  Then we had to drive all the way back and that had it's own adventures!  Our family likes trips--we like road trips, but this time we had to fly.  Although, we did have some road tripping in too.

I think Katie is excited about flying!


So why did we pack up the kids, pay for luggage, forget a car seat, and fly across the country?

Here is a clue:

 My baby sister (and yes I can call her that because she is 14 years younger to me, and in my eyes she will always be my sweet baby sister. ) graduated from College!!!


So we flew from Portland to Hartford, CT on a Thursday (Got to the airport at 4:30 am) and then on Friday morning we drove from Connecticut to Virginia to see my sweet baby sister, who somewhere along the line turned into a beautiful, 22 year old, graduate from University of Mary Washington.

Saturday morning, my husband and my dad got up very early to go stake out seats for the three hour graduation that started at 9 am.  Then my dad came back to help get 2 of the 4 kids, myself, mother and brother out the door of the hotel to the procured seats.  The other two children we left with a babysitter in the hotel.  (We did not figure that a 2 yr old and a 18 mo old would sit quietly for that long)  We arrived with a few minutes to spare and found my husband getting to know the families around our seats.  The weather was beautiful, but we were not used to temperatures above 50 degrees and haven't seen the sun in quite a while.   So we sat for 3 hours in the 80 degree weather and applied the sunscreen.

Here they are, Katie was a little tired of sitting in the hot sun, listening to grownups talk about things like commencement and higher education and other things that she wasn't the least bit interested in.

This is my brother Isaac.  He drove from CT after getting off work the night before, slept a couple of hours and then came to the graduation.  What a trooper.

The proud parents.  Sorry abut the sun glare.

And here is the graduate.  (the cute strawberry blond who is waving)

So that was the major reason for our trip.  And these are the only pictures I have of the graduation because the rest I took using my parent's camera, and due to a malfunction of something technical they are still on the camera.  So when ever we figure out how to get them off, then we will have some better pictures of the graduate, her family and her boyfriend.

While we were in Virginia we took advantage of our proximity and left the rest of my family packing my sister's things to put into storage till she returns in the fall to go to grad school, and we went to Washington D.C.

But that will have to wait for another post, because my son is begging for my attention by bringing down all the mud boots and outside shoes and putting them on my lap!