Days 1 & 2: The Longest Drive

Yesterday we drove from Auburn, Washington to Nampa, ID – it is normally about an 8 hour trip with stops and kid issues.  Yesterday was 13 hours.  13 hours for us.  13 hours for the kids.  It was very, very long.  But, we made it.  At 2am.

We finished packing and cleaning and finally left the house just after 11am.  See this picture from yesterday.  The yellow truck is our personal moving truck (and it’s for sale, if anyone is interested!) and the white truck is our road trip vehicle (thanks, Dad!).  The kids and I were in the white truck and Matthew drove the yellow truck, containing all of our worldly possessions from our storage unit – all the things we had left that didn’t go to Africa.  We are moving it all to Idaho for a multitude of reasons – our home base is now here, since MAF is headquartered here, and the climate is far better for storage, since it’s dry.

As we hit the road, we started out well.  The weather was fantastic!  The kids fell asleep as we climbed the first mountain.  The truck runs really well, but it slows a LOT on the hills.  Nothing like seeing the mountains on I-90 at 20mph!  However, we quickly realized this trip would not be pushed.  And the kids were just going to have to deal with it.  We have some friends at the halfway point who were ready and willing, should we want to stop for the night.  But, as we got half way done, we just wanted to be all the way done and decided to just keep going.

Passed out and loving his monkey neck pillow

About an hour later, the oil in the truck got hot and we pulled over to gaze at the Oregon country side and let the truck cool.  It was a fun break (though we were taking a break every two hours or so for the kids’ sake – and ours!) to play outside and admire the beauty.

Surveying the Oregon farmland at sunset

Cheeky monkey!

Levi and me (and baby bump)

Levi poses perched on a rock while Amelia decides she wants to hitchhike.

We got right back on the road and continued on.  There really isn’t much to say.  Sometimes it was really cute to hear Amelia and Levi playing.  And sometimes it was super annoying to hear them whine about the stuff they dropped that I should have to retrieve…while driving.  Yeah, right.  But, overall, they did well.

Just before the sun went down we stopped in La Grande, OR for the last gas stop and to try and make an appearance of bedtime for the kiddos.  They didn’t sleep well, but they were quieter…mostly.

We finally pulled in to my parents’ house in Nampa just before 2am and I think we were all in bed and asleep within twenty minutes.

Today we slept in.  I am fighting a new cold but now that I actually feel pregnant it is taking its toll…ugh.  Matthew got half of the truck unpacked into my parents’ garage, where it will stay until we’re back for training in October – and we’ll spend the four months or so going through it, sorting it with what we really need to keep, take to Africa, and store.  Since our first term was just a year, we kept a few things we thought we’d need…but storing stuff for over three years?  That makes the “get rid of” pile a bit bigger!  Having less stuff is awesome!

This weekend will be full of getting things ready to be on the road.  I feel like we’ve been getting ready for this trip almost as long as we’ll be on it.  🙂  Ah well, that’s the way it works!  Hopefully, all for God’s glory!

This wooden climbing toy from my childhood is now on its second generation!