Traveling to Virgina Day One (Guest Bloggist Bethany Waite)

Tuesday July 28, 2015

                Well let’s see, first of all Dad got us up shortly after 6 this morning. We did a few last minute packing and stuffing, ate breakfast and piled into the car. I have never been in such a crowded car! The walk-way and pretty much all the foot room were packed with stuff. My feet were on some folded blankets or towels or something. We had to get in and out in order. To get in: first the boys (Matthew, David, Dallin) climb over the middle row and into the back seat. Then Emma, Julia, and I get in the middle row. Then Dad/Mom put a couple crates in the doorway and Lydia, MaryAnne, and Joshua are in the front row. Getting out is the reverse.

            We decided to count off instead of doing roll call. But we am going to start with 2 instead of 1. Rebecca is our Silent One. Julia thought of it, and I like it.

            We drove till about lunchtime. We listened to Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, but I fell asleep for part of it. We have a new TV in the car; it uses wireless headphones. We watched Tarzan. I saw a sign that said MOTORCYCLES ARE EVERYWHERE. Every time we saw a motorcycle Julia, Emma, and I were like “Motorcycles are everywhere”. And we really did see a lot of motorcycles.

            We stopped at a rest stop for lunch. We made sandwiches with chicken and ham from a cooler. After lunch we drove more. We listened to more Fablehaven and also watched Big Hero 6. 

            For dinner we stopped at another rest stop for dinner, this time in South Dakota. There was a giant teepee frame that the kids enjoyed playing in. I had sour-cream cheese potatoes, everyone else also had corn dogs or ham or a sandwich.

            After dinner we drove some more. We watched Toy Story. I love that movie!! During the movie we crossed into a new time zone and lost an hour. We got to the hotel in Sioux Falls, South Dakota a little before 10. We have 2 rooms. Each room has two beds and a hideaway in the couch. Mom, Dad, and the boys are taking one room and Julia, Emma, MaryAnne, Lydia, and I are in the other. The hotel pool closes at 11, so we hurried and got ready and went for a swim. The cold water felt really good after being in a hot car all day. Julia and Emma enjoyed the hot tub, but I didn’t even get in it. I scrapped my knee when I slipped off the ladder in the pool. The middle step was unstable and turned when I stepped on it. Other than that we had a great time in the pool.

            We went back to our rooms and showered. We watched the end of A Cinderella Story before we went swimming, and funnily enough, the same movie was still playing when we got back. The channel had just started the movie over. So we watched that until almost the end. Now we are going to bed. I’m sharing a bed with Lydia, who is already asleep; MaryAnne is asleep on the couch.

MILES: 733

HOURS: 11   

We were pretty packed in 

Playing at a rest area in South Dakota

Emma posing at the South Dakota sign

Our only view of Mt. Rushmore this trip

The girls hanging out in their motel room

Guess what came in the mail...

So this post is a little late, I should have posted last week.  Tuesday, August 11th, the mail man brought Bethany's mission call.  We had been waiting and wondering ever since she turned in her papers.  The mail came about 3:00 in the afternoon.  Neil wasn't home so we had to wait.  He actually got home about 10 minutes after the call came, but Bethany decided she wanted to wait until Rebecca was home from work and we could call her.  We called Rebecca at 6:00 her time and 8:00 our time.  Rebecca didn't answer, but called us back shortly.  She was home waiting when we called, but her phone didn't ring.  Bethany opened the call and read it over the phone and to all of us.  She will be serving in the Houston Texas South mission.  She will be speaking english and reports to the MTC on November 18th. 

I can't even begin to say how much I will miss her.  I get a little teary just thinking about it.  But, we are so excited for her to serve the Lord and know that blessings will come in her life as she serves.  I love seeing our children learn and grow. I know serving a mission will help her learn and grow.  

Our trip in pictures

I promise a long (probably longer than anyone wants to read) post about our adventure in getting to Virginia.  I tried to get pictures of all the states welcome signs as we came in.  I didn't get them all, but here is our trip from Wyoming to Virginia in a few pictures.  It took us 6 days to go about 2600 miles.  We went through 10 states.  We saw 4 temples that I had never seen before (Chicago, Kirtland, Detroit, and Columbus).

The view to the back of the van from the front

We stopped in Iowas to see Neil's Aunt Janet and Uncle Paul.

I thought these county road signs were interesting. I'm not sure if they were in Iowa or Wisconsin.

We visited the Kirtland Temple.

I don't know what these vines are, but they are beautiful.  They cover the ground and climb up anything they can get on.  They are everywhere in Virginia.

This was the first Civil war site we saw along our drive.  I am so excited to see the history sites in this area.

We had to take this picture of the Caldwell exit for Joshua

We finally made it to Virginia

A picture is worth a thousand words

We have been so busy lately that I have gotten way behind on my blog.  I have so many things I want to post about.  Soon. It will happen soon, I hope.  Dr. Wiggins retirement party, the Sharp reunion, and so many summer activities will be coming soon.  I have invited a special guest to catch up on our trip to Virginia.  Bethany wrote a couple of pages about each day of our trip and I'll post those soon.

For now here is a picture walk through the main floor of our new house.  We are pretty much all unboxed and getting settled in. Our house is a bit of a maze to me still.  I always seem to lose the stairs both to go upstairs  and to go down to the laundry room.  The house is older, but that is fun.  I love the wood work.  Don't tell any one from my family, but I do like the colors on the walls.  I like the colors with the white trim around the rooms.  We are right across the street from Southern Virginia University and I love to hear the bell tower play each hour.  A  picture is worth a thousand words so here are the pictures of our house.

I love this little front entry way. There is a closet on the other end.

The Family room

Another view of the Family Room. The door leads to the office.

Looking from the Family room to the Quiet Room

I would love to add an office like this to our house.  I love all the windows in this room.

The Quiet Room

The Dining Room

The Dining Room from the other end

The Kitchen. Bethany loves the green paint in here.

The door into the kitchen from the cover patio

This used to be a breakfast nook.  I loved the idea of that, but we needed the table in the dining room so we could all eat together.  We moved the love seat out of the dining room and now this is a lttle sewing room.

Bethany has the most adorable bedroom.

The missing stairs. These stairs are not where I think they are and  I am always losing them.  They go upstairs and you can go left or right at the landing.  The other side goes down into the sewing room.  The sewing room leads to the kitchen.

The front view of our house from campus.

The covered patio between the house and the garage.  We don't use the garage.  The college uses it for storage and there will be an apartment over it soon.

I love this screened in covered patio.   The door goes into the kitchen.