New York 2015: Part 1

It has been awhile.

We went to NY for a couple weeks and then when we got back, our computer was dead. We finally got it back yesterday and since everything had to be wiped clean (which is the technical term), I lost my automatic sign-on to this blog. It took about an hour of googling "Can't access my blog" and emotionally stuffing my face with food but I finally figured out that the account I used to open this blog had a number at the end. You know, for security and stuff. So secure I could not remember what it was. So now I have 3 Google accounts.

Anyways.

Here we are again, recounting our annual trip to NY. We've only done it twice but it's still a super big tradition. It's never really a vacation - 4 kids in a car, 22 hours there, 22 hours back, hours driving house to house. It's more because it's important to us that the kids know their family. And we happen to have a dense population of family and friends in NY so the trip is worth it. So we tell ourselves.

It was tough last year but this year, we were even stupider.

Earlier this year we had a visit from Matt's cousin, Alana. She's the assistant director of a Christian sleep-away camp in NY that she had grown up going to. When she came for a visit, we talked about sending the two big kids to camp for 3 days at the start of our trip.

Here's where the stupid comes in.

The big kids had their YMCA swim championship on Saturday morning - August 1.

They had to be at camp Sunday afternoon - August 2.

"No big deal," we said to each other, "we have gummy Melatonin. They'll sleep right through the night."

Oh the lies we tell ourselves.

I drove the kids an hour southeast of our home Saturday morning while Matt stayed with the littles and packed the car. Their beloved coach knew we were leaving for a long car trip that day and sewed them pillowcases for the trip - is that not so sweet? Also, I suddenly realized why the coach asked Jack what sort of things he liked a couple of weeks before.

"If you could decorate your room, what would you choose? Frogs? Planets?"

"Physics."

A moment of bewildered silence.

"How do you decorate your room in physics?"

"Equations, of course."

The fabric store must have been fresh out of physics fabric so she settled on an ocean theme.

After the swim championship, we started our journey. It was around 2 pm when we left. I thought about taking a picture of us leaving but no one was in the mood. We ate a tantalizing dinner of partially thawed pb&j sandwiches and various dry snacks in plastic cups. Dessert was gummy melatonin. I had imagined everyone drifting peacefully off to sleep, plastic cups of goldfish clutched loosely in hands, a Pixar movie playing softly on our beloved laptop.

Instead it was a fitful dozes of 15-45 min at a time and never all four kids at once. Whenever we pulled into a gas station to fill up or pee or a rest area, heads would pop up like a macabre game of Whack A Mole. Inevitably there were muted complaints from the big kids and cries and shouts of 'I want to go home!" from the little kids.

We eventually made it to NY state and, since we had a few hours before camp, called Matt's former youth pastor to swing by for a couple hours to visit him and his family.

We had a wonderful couple hours - talking, feeding horses, eating all their food.

Matt's youth pastor had such a profound effect on him as a teenager that he was why Matt became a youth pastor at age 20 - and why Jack's middle name is Dean. Matt lived with Dean and his family after his parents moved to AK at age 18. They named their son Matthew after Matt.

Their son, Matt, is the guy putting the helmet on Jack. I told them I would be a poor ER nurse if I didn't make him wear a helmet - I, who have seen quite a few injuries from 4-wheelers in my day. Even though it's Jack and Jack would no more take a turn fast enough to flip than Bill Clinton would become a monk. In fact, Dean offered to let Jack ride around on his riding mower. Jack, who helps Matt mow on his own riding mower at home, asked Dean if there was a safety shut-off (where the engine cuts off if the person driving it vacates the seat). He told him, no, there's not, it's an old model. Jack refused to drive it without a safety shut-off.

After a pleasant couple of hours, we headed over to camp. They had such an amazing time at camp and it was so special to have their cousins at the camp to watch over them and make Jack's 10th birthday memorable.

We spent three days at Matt's aunt and uncle's house in NY while the big kids were at camp. The last night there, Matt's cousins brought the kids back and we had a corn roast (which is a tradition at Uncle Bill's, something he grew up doing as well). Matt's Aunt Sue bought ice cream cupcakes and a gift for Jack (a rechargeable flashlight from their hardware store - win).

So that brings us to Tues night - 3 days into our 10 day trip. And there's still Part 2, you lucky, lucky people, you.