2 crazy ladies and 5 kids

Editors' Note: I don't have time to fight blogger over where to put these photos, so they're first. Sorry.
Asher thought watching the cars and trucks zoom past us was the greatest entertainment ever.
Here are Naomi and Alice giving us the "thumbs up". What great little troopers they were.



The children and I have arrived in Texas for our 2 week visit with my parents. The trip here is worth blogging about. The plan was for me, my 3 kids, my friend Jenny, and her 2 kids to all drive together in our minivan. We would do the drive over 2 days, staying the night in Louisville, KY with Jenny's brother. The first day was a "9 hour drive" according to AAA. The second day was a "12 hour drive" according to AAA. So, at 4:40am on Monday the 7 of us set off. The day went really well. Jenny's kids are Alice, age 4 and Laura, age 9 months. Naomi, Alice and Asher were squeezed into the back seat, Isaiah and Asher claimed the Captains chairs, and of course Jenny and were up front, alternating driving. Naomi and Alice played together very nicely. They colored, played with dolls, and giggled plenty. They even did a little sleeping. Asher hardly slept at all, which left him in a total trance the rest of the time. He just sat there like he was frozen for the majority of the time. Jenny and I were very OK with that. Isaiah and Laura did a great job too. The "9 hour drive" took us about 12 hours. We decided this was unacceptable and planned for how to be even faster the next day (because a 16 hour second-day didn't sound like fun). So on Day 2 we headed out about the same time but we had more food with us in the car and a better plan for dealing with kids to keep us moving toward our destination. And, I admit, we planned to speed a little bit more than on Day 1. By 9 am-ish we went through Memphis. Just outside of Memphis is where the whole plan really went south.
We blew a tire. And I mean blew. Luckily, we were able to safely get over to the side of the road and even onto some grass further away from the road. We took some deep breaths, recovered from the drama of the moment, said a silent prayer of thanks for our safety, and called AAA. We made sure to mention several times that we had 5 kids under 5 in the car with us. They said they hoped to have someone there in less than 30 minutes. But the problem was we weren't sure exactly where we were. No mile marker was in sight and I had no idea what the last exit we passed was. Jenny tried walking up the road just a little to see if she could find a mile marker, but she could only go so far before the nice grassy patch disappeared and she didnt dare walk right along the road. AAA was having trouble finding us, so finally I got out and attempted to flag someone down to tell us where we were. Jenny claims that I showed a little leg to finally get someone to stop (which is true since I was wearing shorts). A trucker stopped, I gave him my phone number so that he could call when he passed the next mile marker and tell us where we were (incidentally, he and I have a date later this week...). Anyway, long story a little shorter, 2 1/2 hours later our tire was changed to the spare. Another hour or so and $85 and we had a new tire and were on the road again. We got "home" to our parents' houses at about 10:30pm. That was one LOOOOOONG day. But we were really very blessed in many ways. But I want you to just stop and think about 5 little kids, in a van that is not moving, for 3 hours. It was chaos. Here are some pics to prove it.