Road Trip South

On Tuesday morning, June 9th, not-so-bright and early, Gramma G. and I headed out with the kids on our way to Florida. The first day we drove straight through to Charleston, NC to the Whitman's home. Sarah invited us to spend the evening with her and her girls, Andrew was out of town. We got there in the early afternoon and headed right over to their community pool to let the kids get all their wiggles out. 

It looked like a storm was brewing but we lucked out and it held off. 

Truly's first road trip nap of the summer.

For lunch we stopped at a random park and had a picnic. Besides being very muddy and having day campers there, it was perfect for the kids to burn off energy.

Relaxing after their swim and watching Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Eleanor and Pepper. These two were always such cute friends. So sad that all of Pepper's friends have moved away!

Pepper and Penelope.

Trying to get a group shot of the older kids. By this point the two babies, Truly and Molly, were already asleep for the night.

Not everyone was feeling the group picture until we asked for crazy faces. Then everyone got on board!

I went to check on the girls and this is what I found.

"This is what you look like when your mom gets you up at 4:30 am, makes you sit in a van for 9hrs, play at a playground, go swimming and have tons of fun with long, lost friends. Bring on summer vacations!"

I felt a little bad waking everyone up again super early when I found them so cute and cozy. I still woke them up, though!

Always trying to sneak her cute toes in the picture.

"Breakfast at chick-fil-a is a relaxing experience."

Just before the exit to Greensboro, SC a weird light came on in the van and it started acting funny. I quickly pulled off and found somewhere to fix it. We were stuck for a few hours but really everything went very smoothly and we were really lucky. It ended up being the spark plugs, which was an easy repair and covered by warranty. And to top it all off there was a  Sonic next door that we could walk to for lunch. 

"Truckin along and then a light came on and everything went south. Luckily, some very nice South Carolinians came to our rescue and we will hopefully be back on the road to Florida soon. Thank goodness they had a nice, cool lobby area!"

"We had the BEST time yesterday afternoon/evening stopping over with old friends in NC. Thanks for letting us crash and keeping us entertained, Sarah and girls!" 

"We FINALLY made it to Florida this evening and we were all very, very happy to be out of the van! Thank you, Gramma for helping us all survive! You are the best 'Grandpa' ever! (Yep, Hazel keeps calling my mom 'GrandPA. Sigh.)"