Day 1— NC to Kentucky

Our trip pictures this year start with a picture from the night before. Jason was in Virginia at EFY and Josh had flown to Kentucky a few days before to spend time with his cousin, so we only had the little kids at home. At bedtime the girls asked if they could have a sleepover in Jared's room. Rachel was going to sleep in Josh's loft bed and Jenna wanted to sleep in the hammock. I ok'd the bed but nixed the hammock and told her she could sleep on a pad on the floor. When Russ went in to check on them before we went to bed he came out and told me that I needed to go see. This is what I found:

Jenna had taken a laundry basket, turned it upside down, covered it with a blanket, laid on it, and was using a stool for her head. I was amazed that she had managed to stay on it for 2 whole hours! But of course I put her down on the floor.

This is the earliest (by far) that I've ever left for a trip that didn't involve a plane ticket. Because I needed to pick up Jason & his cousin and her friend Niamh (pronounced Neeve, how crazy is that??) from EFY at 8AM, I had to be on the road early.

I saw a beautiful sunrise over Lake Hyco (no pictures, sadly) and enjoyed watching the sun rise as a ball of orange/pink. This was a treat for me since I'm normally pretty anti-sunrise!

The drive up to Virginia is really beautiful.

The only complication was Jared getting carsick after the first set of switchbacks, and throwing up all over everything. Himself, his pj's, all of the clothes for the day that were sitting beside him to be changed into, the seat belt, and an assortment of other things. Thank goodness I'd brought paper towels, and if I ever do that drive with kids again I'll bring a bunch of grocery bags in case of car sickness!

Fortunately he wasn't too traumatized and he was easily distracted a few minutes later when we stopped for a quick peek at a beautiful view and saw these campers on the far side of the river. What fun this would be!

Here's the main building at SVU, where EFY was held. It is just stunning. The kids appeared to have had a good time, despite having to take lots of precautions because of the swine flu.

Driving through the mountains of West Virginia is always very beautiful & peaceful.

Charleston, WV, is a fascinating city. It seems to be in a narrow valley with a river running right through the middle of it. We got to drive across several of the bridges which always entertains us.

The dome of their capitol building is really beautiful. It must be made of different stuff than the Utah capitol building. (Is it capital or capitol? Do you only use "o" for the one in DC??)

One of the things that always entertains us is seeing the names of places we pass. My favorite yesterday was a sign for Lake Moomaw in WVa, but Licking River in KY was also good. Here is a sign that is always a favorite.

When we got to Lexington KY we saw the most awesome water tower. This is the best picture I could find of it--it had different pictures all around it. As you can tell, they're into horses here.

I love visiting my brother because his family is such fun, but also because it's so beautiful here. Miles & miles of black fences. He says they're black from creosote. Whatever reason, they're lovely.

Also lovely--barn quilts!


All along the interstate you can see where they've blasted away hills to make the road.

Then, when you drive through the town you can see all of these old walls made from the same kind of rock that lines the interstates.

Quote for the day from a cd I was listening to---I'm going to have to think about this!

Hell is caring most about things over which we are powerless.