The Road Trip Ends

After a great night's sleep,

we woke up,

packed,

and then the boys decided to leave their marks.

The roof of a lower level jutted out below our window.  

There were lots of paper airplanes on it.

What does a boy do when he see's lots of paper airplanes on something?

The same thing a dog does to a tree that's been "marked".

He joins in.

Each boy made their airplane and let it free.

When they attempted to just throw out paper, 

I put a stop to it.

I'm responsible like that.

As we were walking out to our car,

Christian, Porter, Stafford and I decided to go to the 29th floor to see the view.

When was the last time you saw a phone like this one?
I wish it had one of those round dialers.
That would have been nice.

We were in a rush, but Porter and Christian wanted to go to the stairwell to look down 29 floors.

(You know when there are lots of levels of stairs and you can see all the way down when you peer over the hand rails?)

We had seen the looking up view from the fourth floor, but they wanted to look down.

I told them to hurry.

Stafford and I waited by the elevator.

And waited.

And waited.

Then I got a phone call.

It was Christian.

"Um Mom, we're locked in the stairwell."

And right at that moment the family phone paid for itself.

They were in two doors deep.

The first door led to a small cement box of a room, 

the kind where murders happen,

and then there was another large and heavy door that led to the stairs;

that's where they were.

I had Stafford hold the first door open while I went through the murder room to the second door.

I was greeted by two relieved and wide-eyed boys - 

just like puppies.

This was one of those trips where you spend almost as much time in the car as at your destination.

Glenn had to miss school and we drove through much of the first night and were back at home less than 48 hours later.

It was a whirlwind from the moment we got there to the moment we left,

but I have to say that I'm thankful we went.

The driving was something that I would have dreaded at one point in my family career, 

but at this point, 

I can honestly say there wasn't one squabble until the last hour of our eight hour drive.

Even with that restlessness, what we gained was huge!

We had great family time.

Books on tape.

Swimming.

New inside jokes.

Bonding with extended family.

Spontaneous teaching moments about

gambling,

addictions,

and God.

Memories that will be my roses in December.