Road to Hanover: Day NINE

DAY NINE: Albany, NY to Hanover, NH

Oh, the anticipation this day held.  WE had literally been dreaming about this day for months.  The day we would finally arrive to our destination and begin a new chapter in our lives.  As we loaded up this morning, everything was different.  There was a thick veil of excitement, anxiety, relief, and just plan nervousness that hung over all of us.  The kids kept asking if we were there yet the whole way over.  They continued to ask if there were any friends for them in NH. They asked whether it would be snowing right now.  I could see that at least M and R semi-understood the importance of this day.  They seemed a bit hesitant and worried, but also super excited about all the new places to explore.  When we finally pulled into Dartmouth we all had huge grins on our faces.  We had to stop and take a few pictures of the new school, drove over and picked up our keys, before finally heading to the notorious "Sachem Village" we would call our new home.  The moment the children saw the huge forest in our backyard, they were completely won over.  Maddie and Robby couldn't get out of the car fast enough and race towards their new stomping grounds.  

we took a picture of this and sent it to our friends the Ludlow's back in AZ

On the trek across country, we managed to find someone to meet our pods on Friday (the day before we arrived), so that when we got to Sachem they would be there waiting for us.  We were relieved to see that they had indeed made it to the correct spot.  It was nice for us to begin unpacking and settling in.  We hadn't seen our belongings that were packed in the pod for about a month so it was great to have them back!  Although we still have yet to own a kitchen table, couch, or king mattress it's still nice to be here.  We were shocked to see how truly humid New Hampshire is in August and one of our first stops was to Walmart for some much needed fans and an air conditioning unit for our bedroom.  Another surprise: no Super Walmart.  We went there fully armed with two shopping carts, ready to fill them up with groceries, cleaning items, and other assorted things we needed.  Instead we left with one partially filled cart and completely disappointed.  Next stop was to the grocery store for some much needed food for our kitchen.  

Now we are super busy unpacking our lives, organizing, cleaning and keeping tabs on three very active children!!    

Road to Hanover: Day EIGHT

DAY EIGHT: Niagara Falls, NY to Albany, NY

Day eight was one of the more relaxing days on our journey from coast to coast.  We had another lazy start to our day complete with random flower picking as we loaded up the car.  Miss M begged to bring these beauties in the car with us, but we compromised and took pictures "to remember them" instead. 

 {the cutest little piggy tail haired girl with braids}

We had debated going back up to Niagara Falls and sooo wanted to take a ferry ride across just like Pam and Jim do during the getting married episode from "The Office", but when we found out how expensive it was, we elected to postpone this activity to a later date.  Instead we decided to stop and visit a few more church sites in New York.  

Bubba kept pointing out how "high" the angel was on the statue.  Miss M wanted to know if it was "real gold" and all Eli wanted to do was run around like crazy with a big grin on his face :)

Our first stop was at the Hill Cumorah monument in Palmyra.  It was a small hike for the kiddos, but well worth it.  The view was incredible and the flowers were in full bloom!  My favorite part was when Jesse sat down with the kids on one of the steps and talked to them a little about when Joseph Smith received the Book of Mormon from the Hill Cumorah {the children kept interrupting him to talk about the grasshoppers, flies, and other insects that were flying around us}.  I am sure not a lot went into their brains during this talk, but it was sure sweet of Jesse to attempt to teach them.

Our next stop was a brief look and picture at the Palmyra, New York Latter Day Saints Temple.  We had already realized that we are not a "tour type family" in this stage of our lives.  Instead we elected to stop for a minute, snap a few pictures and then move on.  

Our next stop was just down the road at the Smith Family Farm which is right next to the Sacred Grove.  We took the kids on a walk through the Sacred Grove, which unfortunately for others meant that their walk was much less quiet and sacred than they anticipated.  The only way Jesse could get them all to stop running was to pretend like he could see squirrels way up high in the trees {that's why they are all craning their necks in the picture above....they are trying their best to find those squirrels}

We had a run in with our favorite new friends the Laytons and the kids were beside themselves with excitement.  They all went running full speed and yelling for little Miss Ribbons.  

 --Maddie couldn't quite figure out why she never saw any squirrels when she would gaze way up high in the trees.

After finishing up at the Sacred Grove I so wanted to go and tour the farm a little more.  I was a little sad that it just wasn't plausible to do anymore touring.  I did take a few pictures before jumping back in the car.  J was excited to find out that one of his Father's cousins is actually serving a mission at the Smith Farm visiting center and did go in and talk with him for a bit!

*I love the old school fences that were built around the farm*

The rest of our day was rather relaxing.  We drove for a bit and then stopped for dinner at Moe's in Albany, New York.  We got out and the kids ran and played in a grass field for awhile.  Miss M impressed us with her gymnastics floor routines while the boys picked out the biggest sticks they could find, so they could pretend like they were Ninja Turtles.  We ended the night with swimming at our hotel= Perfect Day!

 After our last scare with eyes burning while swimming, there was no messing around this time with Miss M. She was prepared for anything!

As we went to bed, we almost couldn't go to sleep we were so excited to finally be in our new home the next day!

Road to Hanover: Day SEVEN

DAY SEVEN: Cleveland, OH to Niagara Falls, NY

My children were thrilled to wake up in the morning, and in an instant remembered that Leah was sleeping next door.  Maddie hurried and got dressed and then made her way over to their room to "check it out." After we were done getting ready we all headed over to McDonald's for some breakfast.  I am pretty sure there were some tantrums by our children and other misbehaviors, but all in all it was fun to begin to get to know our new friends better.

Our beautiful wrong turn while trying to make it to the Kirtland visitors center.....I seriously love all the greenery :)

Our next stop was in Kirtland, Ohio to sight see a bit.  Now I say "a bit" loosely because that basically means stop and see some church sights while the kids ran wild.  By this time we realized that tours were pretty much impossible for us and that going inside church buildings were pure torture on all of us.  I was lucky enough to take Mr E into the tail end of the Kirtland tour just in time for the Newel K. Whitney Store.  It was lovely and   I enjoyed every bit of it.  Eli was remarkably good as well and toward the end when he got tired of sitting I managed to bribe him with my phone :)  After finishing up the tour and smelling some pretty flowers it was time to hit the road for us!

 Mr E

 Newel K. Whitney store

--the tiny little bed that was used by an employee in the store.  I could not believe how skinny it was!

Then it was back in the car for more driving fun.  We had some more texts back and forth before finally arriving in Niagara Falls that afternoon.  The drive went without incident and even featured several of these, lucky us?!

Funny, not so funny moment of the day:  Finding out that somehow M and R booked a room at the same hotel as us with a pool, only to find out there are two hotels under this name in different locations in the same city.  Freaky coincidence huh?  It was only after we tried to coordinate going for a swim that we realized we were not in the same hotel.  Lucky for us they decided to come over to our pool for a little dip in the outdoor pool.  Let's just say I am a big old fat Arizona sissy when it comes to swimming in pools. My idea of a wonderful swim would be water at 85 degrees or above.  So needless to say the water was a bit chilly for me.

Favorite memory in the pool: watching Leah dip under water like a pro, and also the laughter and giggles out of that cute little girl while splashing in the pool
Least favorite memory in the pool: having my kids scream bloody murder when their eyes hurt from the alternate  chlorine/salt water solution in the water.  Then having to go running into the hotel lobby dripping wet to their bathroom to splash my children's eyes out.  After two episodes of this, I smarted up and whipped out our swim goggles and persuaded my kids to wear them.

Once we were all cleaned up, we headed over to the Niagara Falls touristy area and ate at the overpriced food court.  My kids loved this random picture moment horse and argued over who's turn it was to climb on the beast.  Plenty of pictures were snapped and Miss M was pretty pouty when we forced her to share her turn with the brothers. aren't we so mean?

By the time we made it to the Falls it was dusk and our kids were worn out and tired with a capital T.  It took all adults to make it safely through our Niagara Falls sightseeing that night.  It was beautiful to watch the "light show" where they alternately shine different colors of lights over the rushing water.  My kids were even captivated for a moment by this.  Maren was nice enough to capture one picture of all of us, which basically explains how crazy we felt that night!

Eli, Tiffany, Jesse, Robby and Maddie
{I give complete credit to Miss Maren for snapping these two pictures that night on her super nice camera!}

Is it horrible to say that we {I} more than looked forward to putting kids to bed that night?  Because it is 100% true.  I was tired, they were tired, and that was that.  Jesse dropped me off at the hotel with three very tired, nearly asleep kiddos and headed off to do some much needed laundry?  The kids went to bed well and I nodded of to sleep shortly after them....

Road to Hanover: Day SIX

DAY SIX: Nauvoo, IL to Cleveland, OH

Our next started out pretty much at our standard time: 10am start once packed and ready to move.  Day six encompassed a pretty boring day that included driving, driving and yet more driving. Here are the highlights/lowlights of the day.

#1: (highlight) During our lunch break, we stopped at McDonald's {which by the way, I don't think I ever want to eat McDonald's again after our many lunch/dinner stops at that joint} and the kids were so cute sitting on these bar stools together.  I had this really adorable grandma come up to me while we were eating and say that she was very impressed with how well behaved my children were.  This filled me with pride, because normally my kids are the crazy, misbehaved ones running circles around the restaurant....especially during this trip due to being in the car so long every day. 

 Miss Maddie, Robby, and Eli

#2: (highlight) Jesse and I were totally addicted to Reese's Pieces during our trip.  We looked for these at almost every gas break.  Then on one of our stops today I found a HUGE bag of these gems.  We were totally set for about 1 day before they were all gone once again :)

{yes, that freakish alien skin behind the candy is my hand}

 #3: (lowlight) Once we hit Chicago, we were in for a sore surprise.  We had a total wall of traffic on the I80 coming into the city and at one point had barely moved in over 30 minutes.  Luckily we had Maddie to entertain us with her own artistic rendition of the traffic.  I think she nailed it: our car is the tiny one stuck right between two huge semi's.  

#4: (highlight) During the day we started text messaging back and forth with Maren and Ryan Layton.  We discovered partway across the United States that we seemed to be moving at a similar pace and it was becoming more and more likely that we may cross paths prior to arriving in New Hampshire.  Luckily this ended up being the day that it happened!  After quite a bit of messaging we realized that we were all stopping that evening in Cleveland, OH for the night.  It was pretty fun to find out that we were all going to be staying at the same hotel.  I have to admit I was a little nervous as we pulled up.  I was hoping that they would like us, that my crazy kids wouldn't scare them away, that we would all continue to have common interests and "click" like we did at ASW, and that our families would mesh well together. I think the moment we got out of our cars and reconnected those fears all vanished away.  Maren walked right over to my car to meet the children and we were instantly smitten.  She was kind, friendly and geniunely interested in her conversations with the kids.  Robby was so excited when he found out Maren had a little girl that was four and enthusiastically replied "we're both four! We are kind of like twins!"  We ended up being next door neighbors that evening in the hotel and first thing in the morning Miss M was more than ready to go explore their room and get to know Leah better.  We were so excited to meet up with them because they will be living in the same community as us for the next two years and both hubbies will be starting at Dartmouth's business school this fall.  I was also very excited to meet the famous "Leah bean" that I had heard so much about since April.  Leah was a champ and already asleep, while my kids were all bouncing around like crazy as we pulled into the hotel.  Luckily we were able to calm them down fairly easily and all get a decent night of sleep.  

.....to be continued :) 

Road to Hanover: Day FIVE

DAY FIVE: Kansas City, MO to Nauvoo, IL

We were so glad to be able to spend the night with family yet another night.  The best part, other than the entire basement we had to ourselves without ANY windows {you heard it, I loved that part because my kids slept in sooo long}, was the fact that there were other children for our kids to play with that morning.  We stayed with Jesse's cousins: Nathan and Melissa and their three children.  They had two girls (slightly older than Miss M) and then two boys that were pretty close to R and E's age.  My children were so excited to have some friends to play with.  After some yummy waffles for breakfast, we went swimming at their community pool.  They happened to live just a few houses away from the swimming pool so we were able to just walk down to it.  Although we only stayed in the pool for maybe an hour, it was so nice to allow the kids to run around, play, laugh and pull some active energy out of them.  We stayed at their house until mid-day and then it was time to pack up again and head out.

J's cousin Melissa and their youngest son

R being silly in their family room

Cute little boys that quickly became buddies for the few hours we were there :)

  All the kids (except for Eli)

Their daughters were so cute and kept trying to climb in the car with us as we packed up to leave!

As we charted out our course for the day, it became apparent to me that today would be the day of the many states.  We went through four different states in a matter of hours as we flirted between the corners of each of those states: Missouri-Kansas-Missouri-Iowa-Illinois= exhausting!  We did make a few stops along the way which in turn broke up the drive just a bit more.  The first stop was about 45 minutes after we left in Independence, Missouri.  We went to the jail tour where they discussed Joseph Smith's incarceration in the 1800's. It was a great place to see and tour, other than the fact that the kids were seriously out of control.  Like running around during the tour and trying to take the poor missionaries remote {for sound and lighting} during the presentation out of control.  To our benefit we did warn her that we needed the kid-friendly version to which she smiled and then went right into the same spill that she gives to all tourists. After having such a difficult time at this stop we learned our lesson and the rest of breaks included picture taking, playing in a cornfield, learning how difficult it was to get on and off toll highways, many potty breaks/food breaks, and finding redboxes for new movies for our children. 

 Independence Missouri Jail Visitors Center

 Cool looking building in downtown Independence, MO

 More cat nap sleeping in the car by the kiddos :)

I especially love the one below of Maddie and Robby laying across each other to sleep!

Much of our drive involved cornfield after cornfield combined with rustic old barns, tractors, and other farm equipment.  The kids {okay, okay Jesse and I} loved looking for the large rolls of hay all packaged up and ready to sell.

 During one of our breaks, we ventured into someone's cornfield for awhile to let off some steam, or rather bring more of it in our car.  It was incredibly humid and the moment we stepped out of the car, it felt like we were hit with a warm, wet mist.  The kids enjoyed running through the fields and Jesse and I commented on how much we felt like we were on the movie set for "Signs." 

The funniest part was when someone pulled there car over and asked us for directions while we were playing.  We had to tell them we weren't from around the area and they replied "oh, I thought maybe you lived here."  Seriously, do we already look like small-townish? J/K

 Our little Cornfield "Princess"

I did love love love the signs they proudly display in Missouri for each of their little towns, so quaint!

(The signs were somewhat misleading however. We kept thinking we were hitting a "real" town only to discover that it consisted of a population <1,000 people)

Luckily it was a much shorter drive than usual and we arrived in Nauvoo, IL right at Sunset.  Jesse was so excited to capture a picture of the sunset along the Conneticut River and would pull over every few minutes to take another picture.  I thought others driving would think we were crazy, but sure enough there was a whole chain of us cars that pulled over every so often for the beautiful view.  

{in J's words: "Sunset on the Mississippi River. Without question one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen."----I can't agree more with him}

Soon enough we pulled into historic Nauvoo which brought a flood of emotions for us.  Last time we visited this pretty little town was nearly five years ago when I was big and pregnant with Robby. We spent 4 days perusing the streets, going through the temple, and drinking in our Church history.  This time experiencing Nauvoo was much different than the last, but the strong emotional pull we felt towards Nauvoo remains.  Our children enjoyed visiting Nauvoo and loved pointing up and showing us where the temple was.  After some picture taking, we headed to our hotel.  It turned out to be this really cool semi-out of town motel place.  We had our own little cabin that had one bedroom with a sleeper couch in the living room.  It even had a couple of television sets and a small kitchen with a dishwasher, microwave, sink set up.  That evening we relaxed and watched a new Redbox "Rango" with the children.  The one downside was the inadequacy of decent inexpensive food in the town.  We were tired and hungry when we arrived and just wanted to grab a cheap Little Caesar's style pizza for dinner.  J dropped us off at the motel and then went food scavenging.  He returned later with one tiny pizza in hand that was CRAZY EXPENSIVE and announced it was the only joint in town that was open after 8pm.  We munched on our pricey pizza and some snacks from the gas station while we enjoyed our movie.  Eli was an angel and slept in his pack and play in our room that evening.  It took a little bit o coercing from the parents to finally get Miss M and Robby to go to bed that night. J and I counted on the number of fingers how many more nights to go until we could permanently separate the two of them again at night :)

 My three prides and joy {Eli, Maddie, and Robby}

{Maddie wanted to show us how "strong" her muscles were when we didn't believe that she could pick up her other brother as well---see previous picture where she is "holding" E}

Nauvoo Temple