The BIG Trip Part 1

In the Fall of 2012 I secretly applied to be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant with my children.  I was positive that Heavenly Father would put a good word in for us to get accepted because He would know how bad we as a family needed it.  I had done the Pageant as a teenager and knew first hand how it could change the life of each of my children because it had done so much for my life as a teenager.  They needed it more than I ever did.

I fasted and prayed that we would get accepted.  

Is there no greater, more pure desire for a Mother?

The end of December I received the sad news that we were NOT accepted.  

To say that I was deeply disappointed is an understatement.  

I did NOT understand.  

I even personally called the President of the Hill Cumorah Pageant to explain our life situation and beg for a change.  

He said he would get back with me.  

He never did.

Later in the summer of 2013 while the Pageant was going on Maryn was at her residential school.   She wouldn't have been able to be with us at the Pageant had we gotten accepted.  We had some trials to face and some things to get settled down in our life as a family before we were spiritually ready for the Pageant.  

In retrospect I see that now.

It wasn't meant to be.

Fall of 2013 I wasn't about to give up.  

I applied again. 

I put the same sob story on our application and sent it off with the sincere pleading of a Mother's heart.

The end of December I received the e-mail with a response...

We had been accepted!

I cried.

I was so happy.

I didn't tell anyone.

I wanted to come up with my plan first.

I wanted this to be MY thing.

I wanted to experience this with my kids and I wanted to help them know that we were a family and could do hard and amazing things on our own.  

I wasn't out to prove to the world that I was Wonder Woman,  I just wanted to show my children that with Heavenly Father's help all things are possible even if they seem hard; 

and if we were about to do something hard and so great.

I didn't tell anyone until March.

Kids were excited but they didn't know why.

My parents and family were THRILLED.  

They knew how this would bless the lives of my kids.

My dad was stirring up all sorts of plans of how he would help me drive out to New York so I didn't have to do it alone.

I told him to stop thinking about it and to 

"let this be my thing."

It was hard for him; nearly impossible actually but a few days before we left he finally backed off of his fatherly instincts to save his daughter and let me do it an my own.

This picture is in front of the Shuman's house.  

They made us a yummy lunch and sent us on our way.

We only left about 3 hours late from our goal time... maybe because we didn't really start packing until the day before and maybe because we were putting our house up for sale the next day and had much house work to do.  (another entry for sure.) But, I thought 3 hours late with all we had to do was magnificent.

Looking at this picture I have so many emotions. 

*I am so stinkin' excited for my kids.  They have no idea what they are in for being in the Hill Cumorah Pageant and how their life will change.  *I am so excited to have my children prisoners in a car for 5 days all to myself.  *I am excited for the adventures we will have driving across the country.  

Although I felt peaceful about going and I felt like a very strong woman I also had a crumb of nervousness about being the only driver, car problems, the "what if's" of what could possibly go wrong over the next 4 weeks.

My dad gave me a blessing before we left.

I knew all would be well.

My desire was going to live in the present each and every moment.

Make memories, laugh and strengthen testimonies were my top 3 objectives in this adventure.

We had food, a credit card, our scriptures and each other.  What else did we need?

(We actually had sent ahead with some friends a large crate of camping supplies, our back was crammed full and the top carrier was too.  We had plenty of stuff.)

After 9 hours of driving our first night time stop was in Colorado Springs, Colorado to stay with my childhood friend Christy and her family.

Our kids had no time jumping right and having a great time together.

Christy and I haven't had some good talk time since we were in the fourth grade having sleepovers, doing gymnastics or playing softball together.  Although I should have been first in bed I didn't hit the sack until after 1:00 am. because of enjoying talking with Christy.

Although we've seen each other a few times over the years and our parents have remained great friends over the years it was SO nice to be with Christy.  She is truly a forever friend no matter what time passes between us.

Traveling on some back roads in Colorado we found a tiny town with a name that we recognized. 
Had to get a picture.
The kids each got about 20 mosquito bites during this picture.

My sister gave us a scavenger hunt to check off along the way.  Made things fun.
At a pit stop in Nebraska somewhere 
 we were to get a blizzard at DQ and take a picture with the people that made it.  These young boys thought we were weird as they came around the counter to pose for this picture.  It was SO hot this day.  The first time we felt humidity and we didn't like it, so our blizzard was tasty!

Our second night was in Kansas City, Missouri in a hotel right downtown. We were the only white people we saw so didn't want to venture out too far and it was HUMID.

The kids went swimming, we ate an expensive dinner that was delivered to us from a local pizza joint and we survived a tornado watch.

The next day we arrived at the Liberty jail. 

We had an awesome tour of the jail.
I loved that my kids were old enough to listen to the cute Sister's tour and could recognize the Spirit that was there.

We then traveled 30 minutes over to Independence to the visitor's center and asked around for our good friend Ashley Wood who was serving a mission there.  It was a tender mercy that she was just around the corner and had finished up her e-mailing on her p-day when we arrived.

It was SO great to see her.  She's adorable!

I asked her what she would want to say to my girls about going on a mission and she said this: "I never thought I wanted to serve a mission and now I can't imagine not serving.  I am learning things as a missionary that I would have never learned.  I am learning things faster as a missionary that would take me years to learn otherwise.  A mission is the greatest thing.  You all have to go!!"

She had the happiest Spirit about her.  

I've known her since she was 12 and I've always thought that she is beautiful inside and out but it was awesome to see her glowing as a missionary!

More pics of the Visitor's Center...

The Community of Christ temple.

The kids getting their wiggles out mocking the statue.
The future temple site is behind.

We drove around for an hour trying to get to the St. Louis arch.  There was so much traffic and construction around it that we never quite made.  This is the best we could do.

Another hotel stay somewhere in Indiana.

Kirtland Ohio was an awesome visit.
We had a tour of the temple.

...and the Kirtland cemetery.

And LOVED our time at the Whitney store.  
We had the cutest sister missionaries.
(our whole trip was blessed by sister missionaries along the way; a great thing for my girls.)

Wednesday night we stayed with our long-time friends the Yorks outside of Buffalo, NY.  (Mindy was a Laurel that I taught in our Chicago days and now she has 4 boys of her own.)

We stayed up late playing and talking and having ice cream Sundaes.

Thursday we went to Niagra Falls all together and took the tour down to the bottom of the Falls.

SO FUN and SO WET!

Half the fun of the tour was that we got these awesome matching sandals.  I saw a big family walking around with these matching shoes and thought it was so cute so you can imagine my glee when we were handed a poncho AND these same matching sandals for our tour too.

I

The Slichta sandals.

After talking an elevator down we arrived at the bottom of the falls.

They said it was hurricane force winds and we believed them.

Hurricane Deck for sure!

Lots of laughing and screams here.

After.

Some of us had holes in our poncho and actually had wet clothes after this.  But except for our hair we were all mostly dry.

Well, except that it really did start to rain and we really did get wet.

We were so hungry that we tried to find a place that would make ALL of us happy.  What better place than the international food court across the street?

Well, that international food court was very authentic because none of the workers could speak English.  BUT, it might have been cheaper if we got a passport and flew to that country to eat the same thing.  
It was SO expensive that we'll never do that again.
But we were together and having fun and we made memories, right?

We love love loved being with Mindy and Jakob and their 4 boys.  Jakob even took the day off of work to be with us.  Our kids had a blast together; I got caught up on my laundry from the week; their Buffalo house and neighborhood is adorable; Mindy is a cute great mom and I have SO many awesome memories with her.  She did the Pageant with her parents and siblings one year when I did it so she totally "gets" it. It was just FUN to be together.
Thanks Yorks!  Had a blast!

Our next destination was Rochester.
We drove our last stretch-- 90 minutes to the Tripp home (Jeff's sister) just in time for dinner.  
Actually, we were a tad late and they watched us eat.
Actually, the kids ate while I went with Poppy out to Palmyra to see our trailer get the keys to our "home" for the next 2 weeks.
I came back and ate, chatted for a bit then I went home with Rick and Karen (Jeff's parents) and slept at their place, hoping that the kids were getting a little sleep at the Tripps.  This would be our last good night's sleep in a real bed and house that we'd get for 2 weeks.  

Our looooong trip was finally over.  I felt so blessed that I had made it across the country driving alone.  Every day there was about an hour where I was super tired.  We would break out the gum, rub on peppermint essential oil, get backrubs from my kids, pass out snacks and drink my "medicine" Mountain Dew.  The kids were helpful. We watched a million movies, listened to a trillion CD's, played a gazillion games and ate a billion snacks.  I dehydrated them enough that no one had to do emergency potty breaks.  Most days we only stopped once for gas.  Even the kids said that it went by fast even though no one took a nap the whole week.  Weird.  

We were carried as if on angles wings.  
 I said a very sincere prayer of gratitude that night for all the safe miles.  All the children's happy smiles and funtimes over the last 5 days.  
We were here!
I could hardly sleep because I was so excited for what was going to happen the next day!