That time we drove across the country and back again.

Earlier this month we left on an epic trip to visit my family in NJ. We left on a Monday morning and made it there by Wednesday night. Long days in the car, but we had a great time, for the most part. The only real stressful times were at the end of the day, unloading everyone and everything to stay in a hotel to try to sleep for a few hours.

We had a great trip. The kids had a blast seeing everyone. We went to the beach, the water park, Chuck e cheese, breakfast at Nanny's, paddle boarding at Jackie's, swimming at my aunts', and lots of quality grandparent time for the kids and my parents. Aaron and I went to see Jimmy Eat World and Third Eye Blind at PNC Bank. It was a lot of fun.

One funny memory - we played this game on the way out, "Word Dominoes". You say a word, then the next person says a word that is somehow related to your word, and so on.

"Spider"
"Web"
"Internet"
"Computer"
"Library"
"Books"
... and so on.

We were having a good time playing it with the oldest 4, but Nora desperately wanted to play along. Except she is 3. So she just kept randomly yelling, "GARBAGE TRUCK!" which made us all laugh hysterically.

On the way home we stopped in North Carolina to hang out with my sister. We also stopped and saw friends from medical school days, and spent the night with them. Then we listened to Lake Pontachatrain, while driving over Lake Pontchatrain, which was amazing. We ate alligator in New Orleans. We saw where Aaron served his mission in Houston, TX. We toured the Blue Bell Factory. We saw the Alamo. Then we drove for 17 more hours.