Day 1

Today begins our annual pilgrimage to Ohio to visit my Grandma. I went into this trip feeling very ambivalent. Maybe the feeling came from not knowing until just a couple weeks ago whether it would be feasible to make the trip because of Covid. Maybe I just wanted to remember Grandma the way she was last year yet I don’t want to miss a chance to see her again. We all had a harder time leaving Jeremy at home this year. 

Once we got on the road and the dust settled from all the last minute packing and car loading, I settled into the rhythm of this trip. 

We drove 8 hours with 2 minivans, 3 sisters, 1 Mom/Grandma and 7 cousins. 

The day went amazingly smoothly. Isaiah spent the afternoon in the other van and I heard that he got to be the big cousin and did a fabulous job entertaining Sean. 

We pulled into our hotel exit at 6pm, hungry and road weary. We tried 3 sit down restaurants that we all closed and then settled on the Arby’s drive through. After what seemed like 15 minutes but was probably only 5, we realized the line was not moving. The truck at the ordering position was in park. In the rain I walked up to him and asked if everything was ok. Arby’s did not have power due to the storm. The 12 other cars in line were glad I asked! 😂

We had to settle for McDonald’s. It was quite the process to get food, eat in the hotel room, carry all our luggage up, get settled...

Just when Janell and I thought we could settle in, at 8:30pm the indoor pool reopened from the storm and we took some very happy children to swim. For the 4 who wanted to swim, it made their day, which, of course, always makes it worth it for the Mom to put in the extra hour after a long day!