Days 9 & 10: Moving East

Whew – a whirlwind two days and driving 900 miles has been busy!  Two nights ago we were in a busy little town in Wyoming.  Now we are just outside Kansas City, KS.  Yesterday (Wednesday) we started as early as possible and drove six hours (seven hours with kids!) to just south of Denver, Colorado.  The landscape was fantastic to watch turn into hilly, green pastureland, from the rocky, barren mountains of Wyoming.

We stayed with friends, Travis and Jenny, who brought home their little girl from DR Congo in January, where we got the opportunity to host them for a pizza night at our house.  It was fun to see them again and see how much their daughter had grown over the last six months.  They invited several friends over for a big dinner and we chatted with everyone – it was a nice, relaxing night.  Amelia and Levi had a great time playing with new friends and new toys outside.  When we arrived and drove through downtown Denver that afternoon it had been quite smokey due to some nasty wildfires, but by evening the smoke had mostly dissipated – leaving only the sound of the water bomber overhead every half hour or so to remind us that a fire raged not far away.

We went to bed way too late and got up extra early for today’s (Thursday) drive from there to just south of Kansas City.  It was one of our longest planned drives on this trip, so it’s nice to be out of the way.  It was nearly nine hours of driving – so 10.5 hours on the road.  But, we made it in time for dinner and the kids did really well – maybe they’re adjusting to life on the road!

The lady of the house here, Laura, and I met through friends adopting from DR Congo over Facebook and we are excited to get to know them.  At the same time, it’s so funny how we are strangers to them, and them to us, yet here we are!  They have five kids, though their teenage girls are away on a city missions trip this weekend.  Their boys got along so well with our kiddos this evening and it was nice to have yet another night of good friends for Levi and Amelia.

My cough is starting to die off, but it’s still driving me crazy.  Levi and Amelia are doing well – their favorite truck games are to point out the many cows and horses along the way, sing silly songs (like “Row, Row, Row Your Cheese”) and make crazy noises at each other.  It’s so fun to hear them playing in the backseat and a little less fun to hear them fight…but that’s what brothers and sisters do, right?  Today, Levi started out the morning by asking when we would see real dinosaurs (on our drive).  We explained that they aren’t around anymore…they ran out of food.  Levi argued that they could chase people and eat them.  Such a thoughtful little dude…

Tomorrow we head to our last stop of the week: St. Louis.  We will be there all weekend – what a nice break from driving everyday, though we have lots to fit into our short time there.  And, seeing as it is now after midnight, I’d better get to bed…