A Great Trip

Not long after Matthew and I met we started taking road trips together. We both feel the lure of the open road. Even now, with four children, we love loading everything and everyone in the minivan and heading out. This last week we had a particularly lovely vacation. We traveled through 11 states to our first destination, South Carolina, where we saw family and watched Matthew's cousin Catherine get married in one of the most beautiful weddings we've ever seen.
It was so great to be around family and to feel of their love for us and for the children. The kids loved it too. Everywhere they went there were more introductions, hugs, kisses and exclamations of wonder at all they did and said. And they spent hours just throwing the football around with dad, and with Aunt Gaye, and with Grandpa Carter. It seemed like everywhere we went there was either a football flying through the air, or a bat and a baseball in hand. After six days in the south we piled back in the car and drove up to New York to visit our friends there. The boys haven't been back since we moved away in August 2007. So, even though there were ominous reports about the Swine Flu in Queens, we decided to stop in and say hello. We had a short visit -- only two and a half days -- but we packed in lots of fun visits and great food. We loved staying with our friends the Rich's on Long Island -- they have a beautiful home near the coast. Then we drove out to the very tip of the island and took the ferry to Connecticut, something we've never done before. It made the ride back so relaxing.
Now we're (sigh) home again. Hopefully we'll be able to settle back into a routine before too long. In the meantime we're filled up with the memories we made.