2019 Road Trip part 1

The last bit of July we packed almost everything we own into a 24ft enclosed trailer preparing for a 30 day road trip! Josh was working over at their headquarters at a desk job and had already sold back 30 days leave, lost 30 days leave, and was about to lose more so he requested this time off and they said yes!

On July 21 we hooked everything up and hit the road!

We packed a jar so we could get dirt from each state we went through. This was our first collection

Our plan was to make it to Gatlinburg Tennessee and stay 2 days. We were 3 miles from the TN boarder and one of our tires blew. We had a spare that Josh put on. Next we took it to a close by Walmart and they had what we needed. So after a few waisted hours we were on our way. 

Once we made it to TN he thought we had too much weight in the back so we emptied the trailer and rearranged everything 

Barrett did great the first night sleeping away from home!

In case you didn't know, because I sure didn't, there is a Titanic Museum there so that was our first stop. I have to admit, I was not looking forward to it because I thought it was going to be boring, but since Jack loves the Titanic so much, we were going. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  There were all kinds of things that I had never heard before. When we entered the museum, they gave each of us a ticket with a real passenger's name on it and at the end you could check the wall and see if you survived or not.  We weren't supposed to take pictures but there was no way I was leaving with some. 

I learned about a Preist who boarded in London but was only going to Ireland. He took many pictures while he was on the Titanic and because of that he was the only person to ever have photos of the captain of the ship and people enjoying the trip. 

These thigs showed the pitch of the ship at different times after it hit the iceberg and showed how fast it sank. 

There was a lego titanic no display that a boy in another county built that is the largest lego titanic in the world. The boys thought that was so cool

We all survived! Josh and I were staff on the boat, and we learned the boy's tickets belonged to siblings who had been kidnapped by their father because he lost custody of them in a divorce so he was taking them to America hoping the mother would never find them. Since he was taking them without permission, he bout the tickets under fake names. When the ship started to sink, they took kids and women first, so their father died, and no one knew who they belonged to. They became known as the "Titanic Orphans" People were putting up newspaper articles all over in America and England and eventually their mother got them back. I just thought was a cool story.

After the museum we went back to the hotel and got Barrett and went to the Smoky Mountains. We hiked and the kids played in the river.

TN was the second state we got dirt from

After going back to our room and cleaning up we went to "Tha Hatfield and McCoy Dinner Feud"

The next day was drive, drive, drive! We drove 13 hrs and made it to Benton Arkansas. 

Lunch at a rest stop.

Jack likes taking selfies lol

We ended up ordering pizza and eating it by the pool.

When we went out to start driving the next morning, we had a flat on the trailer. 

After getting the spare on then finding a tire shop, and our Arkansas dirt, we were on our way!

We are heading to Texas! One of Josh's old teammates from Germany, who we love and have kept in contact with is getting married and Josh is in the wedding. The air b&b we rented for our time in Texas is so cute. It's on a lake so the boys had plenty to entertain them

The owners lived in a house on the front of the property, and they had a Vizsla too, so Barrett had a playmate!

Josh found these cookies and told Kaleb they named them after his underwear LOL

They had a combined bachelor / bachelorette at a cable wakeboard park. We had never seen one of these, so the boys were excited. Once they got on the boards, they did noy like it!! lol I guess wakeboarding behind a boat is the best. haha

When we showed up to the park, we had Kaleb give Jay a balloon that said thank you because when Kaleb was born, Jay brought me a balloon that said that because it's all they had at the px. lol

Ashley :)

After the party everyone came back to our rental and we cooked out and visited. it was so fun! There were guys that Josh hadn't seen in years. His old team sgt. Dan was there and we have always loved him. He and Cindy aren't married anymore so we got to meet his new wife Mandy. She is really nice

The next morning the kids were up early and playing in the water again. We had so much fun at this little piece of paradise in TX.

That evening we went to the rehearsal dinner

Josh, Jay, Dan, and Jack

The wedding was beautiful, and we had a really good time!

                                 The boys thought the car Jay and Ash drove off in was so cool

He's so handsome! 

Jack really liked those umbrellas lol

The top picture is when the team came to meet Jack after he was born.

Ben, Dan, Peter, Jay, Josh, and Jack

10 and half years later

Jay, Dan, Josh, Ben, and Jack

Happy Wedding Day Jay & Ash!!!

Josh was nice enough to pull the car around for them :)

After 3 fun nights in our little cottage by the lake, our time in Texas has come to an end. We figured since we loved where we stayed that it was the perfect place to get our TX dirt.

The wedding was in the same town Kaleb's second grade teacher moved too last winter so we stopped and visited with her. Kaleb loved her so much when she was his teacher, and he was so happy to see her. 

After visiting with her for a while we headed out to Ashlyn's parents' house for a bbq, shooting, and dirt bike riding. Now that all the formal festivities were over, we all just hung out and talked. I loved it!

After the BBQ we decided to start driving west and go as far as we can before getting a hotel. 

We had to take a picture with this sign to send to Steph :)

June 29th was Barrett's 1st Birthday!! It was another day in the truck driving, but we did celebrate at a rest stop. 

We hit New Mexico first the next day. We were only in there an hour or two, so we got our dirt and hit the road. 

Next was Colorado! We love Colorado and think it's beautiful! We stopped by this little lake and hung out for a while. it was cloudy and windy but not too cold to play.

The boys racing to get into Utah first LOL

We went to Arches National Park in Utah. The boys and I had never seen the big red rocks like that, and we thought it was so cool! 

After all the fun we were only 5 hours from Idaho, so we decided to just drive all the way to Josh's parents' house. 

We saw family the next day and of course the boys found the micro machines. 

Kaleb wanted a pic with this car because of the license plate, 

Pimp it up haha

that evening we went to the river with Callin, Kristen, and the kids. Wakeboarding in Idaho is a bit different than VA. The water is a lot colder! When we left VA the temp of the river was 90 degrees. Josh made them wakeboard here to get them used to a little colder water (80) because we were leaving to camp in northern Idaho and that water is like 69 - 72 degrees

Thomas, Jack, Kaleb, & Darby

Thomas didn't know how to wakeboard, so Josh gave him a ride. 

The next day we packed up and started heading North to Alturas Lake. On the way we stopped at the ice caves.

the boys got some geodes to break open

We stopped at this ice cream place that Josh says you HAVE to stop at on the way to Alturas lol

We couldn't get a camp site until the next morning, so we found a pull off and slept there for the night. Rand and Sandy beat us up there and had things set up for the night. The boys slept with them in their camper and Josh, Barrett, and I slept in the truck. The boys enjoyed some kayaking that evening.