here we go, summer!!!

the last week of school was insane. so insane that my insomnia reared it's ugly head. and went on, night after night, even into our week away at the beach. that's how i know things are out of control in my head and heart. it wasn't fun.

the night before the last day of school, we went for a walk after a storm. just me and the kids. i don't know why, but it was such a sweet time!

 bailey came down the morning of the last day of school and had all these papers. i asked her what they were. oh, you know, just notes for EVERY PERSON IN HER CLASS! that girl...

the kids got out of school at 2:40 on friday, june 13. at 3 pm, we HIT THE ROAD for Seaside, Florida!!!

dinner at a rest stop.

we drove Charlotte, NC that night. it was a pretty drive! not on 95 AT ALL, which was nice!!

we love hampton inn. squeezed us all in 1 room :/
we made it work. it was tight! pat and i on one bed, rebekah, joshua and bailey slept the "wrong" way on the other bed. lincoln and sawyer on the floor on a blanket. and levi on a chair in the corner with bath towels - ha! we didn't think to bring sleeping bags - whooops!

up and the amazing hampton inn breakfast in our bellies and back on the road early the next morning for 9 more hours. (which turned out to be more...)
i had heard that for every Frosty bought that weekend, $.50 went to foster care in the US, so even though we were trying to spend $0 on food on the road, we bought us all Frosty's...for a good cause and all!

for some of our kids, it was their first one! they were fans!

i brought some turkey lunch meat. then everyone took an extra bagel and banana at breakfast to pack a sandwich for our lunch!

pat snuck these in the car for us. they were AMAZING. and got us through LOTS of traffic jams!

at one point, pat was driving (or sitting in the car stopped with all the other cars on the road) and i navigated us through a sneaky detour...that ended up on a dirt road - ha! an adventure! and it definitely saved us some time!

and we finally arrived. and promptly found a field to play in :-)
and began THE most amazing week of vacation as a family!