Driving Cross Country

We are a little crazy and prefer to move ourselves, when I say "we" I mean "me". I'm sure it would be much easier to just let the military move us but my obsessive compulsiveness won't allow it. To avoid having to drive 1,500miles by myself with four kids and a dog my lovely brother, Benjamin, flew out to make the trek across the country easier. Believe it or not things went smoothly and we had a good trip. We learned our lesson when we moved to TX from AZ and we only set out to drive no more than six hours a day. Ben and Kevin switched off driving between the U-haul and the Suburban and believe it or not I didn't drive 1 mile along the whole trip! (If you know me at all this is saying a lot, on the other hand it means I was the one who had to wrestle four kids for 1,500 miles) It was great to see how beautiful our country is. Here are a few pictures...

Olivia kind of liked hangin' with Uncle Ben

Cruising somewhere along the way in Louisiana

Crossing the Bayous of Louisiana

We drove through New Orleans to see how things had changed since Kev's deployment there for Hurricane Katrina. Notice the beads hanging from the stop lights? This is a really classy place, okay not really. It reminded me of the Vegas strip only old, dirty South style. Needless to say I have no desire to ever return. *Side Story* Ryley and Ben of course had to use the restroom when we where cruising the French Quarter and we came to realize that no business along the streets have "public" restrooms. After being told that my kids couldn't use the restroom a lady in line behind me suggested I just let them pee (her words) on the street. I then realized why you always see people on cops getting busted for doing just that. Needless to say I finally marched into the IHOP and said, "I've been to four places and my children need to use the bathroom!" The hostess gave me a dirty look and pointed to the restrooms. I didn't know it would ever be so difficult to use the stinkin' loo!

The kids couldn't resist some wrestling with Uncle Ben once we got to the new house!They did really well for being trapped in a car for four days. Thank heavens for DVD players and Redbox!