overwhelmed

it's been so long since i blogged, i have thought about it, but it overwhelms me to to try to catch up. so i just skip it. but i don't want to give up. i love blogging. it helps keep a diary of sorts of our life, but also helps me look at life differently. i look for the details in life, it forces me to take more joy in the little things. and i miss that in my life. so while i won't be able to fill life in completely, i'll do my best to fill in the major points.

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we have had a full summer. we thought it would be a quiet summer of sticking around louisville. we started out with minor league baseball games, a weekend camping trip and zoo trips to the splash park. but soon came an overwhelming desire to see our family and with a spontaneous decision, we were off on our first road trip across the country.

to help us along i had read about tricks to keep the kids occupied. i also had heard from a friend to do 'state line gifts'. every time we crossed a state line, the kids got a new gift or activity. this ended up being the best idea as they pushed us to keep going in hopes of a state line, and it kept them occupied with new things to do. the other brilliant idea that saved us was to take cookie sheets with edges along for each kid. this served as their 'tray' to do activities on and with the edges, it kept all their toys from slipping off. this was a true life saver!

here are some highlights from our time in the car on our way to rocklin.

pipe cleaners turn everyone into harry potter.

isaiah and i passed notes for a while on his dry erase board.

magnetic paper dolls

reading books of course

i might be the most proud of this....with a set of directions i made
balloon animals for them. this was actually swords and flowers here.

lots of coloring