What a Week!

Saturday. Mom, Aliza and I left bright and early for a grand adventure. Our destination was Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA. Mom and Dad met at EMU. I went to EMU for two years. And Jeremy's mom went to EMU. Our first adventures though, were letting Aliza drive over the Bay Bridge for the first time and having an Autumn Spice milkshake at Chick Fil A.

We arrived at EMU with just enough time for Aliza and I to take a quick walk around campus. The highlight was going up on the hill behind campus to see the mountains. The sky was really pretty that day too. And then I was very surprised to see a friend from long ago whose son is not attending EMU.

Our reason for going to EMU was to attend the Girl Named Tom concert. This sibling trio grew up in the tiny town my mom grew up in. They graduated from the high school my mom graduated from and to top it all off, my mom is 2nd cousins with their dad.

 It was a chilly afternoon for an outdoor concert! I enjoyed the relaxed, simple, down home feeling they brought to the stage.

Sunday morning started with Mom having breakfast with a friend and Aliza and I meeting Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn joined us for the next leg of our adventure--driving to Greenville, South Carolina. Kaitlyn and Aliza will be joining a group of Juniors from the Academy of Home Education for a class trip this week. Aliza and Kaitlyn had a couple hours to get to know each other in person before I met my friend from college for lunch. After lunch we got on the road with the GPS set for Greenville. It was a longer-than-anticipated drive with several traffic slow downs for construction. 

Monday. At home, Josiah and Isaiah spent Monday fishing with Grandad. They spent the night at Grandad's house and got up before dawn to meet the boat in Ocean City. This was Isaiah's first time on the ocean and I was trying really hard not to be nervous. I didn't need to be--having a big brother with him all the time makes Isaiah very brave.

They had a great catch and all of them had a fabulous time! I got to hear lots of stories when I got home. One of the mates was Isaiah's buddy which let Grandad get a lot of fishing time in too.

Meanwhile, we slept in and then went to a thrift store. Aliza had never gone thrifting and Kaitlyn LOVES thrifting. Everyone left with some good finds.

After that we walked around downtown Greenville for a little while.

A river with falls and a suspension bridge and areas with lots of green space and sidewalks gave us plenty to explore.

We ate lunch at a local bistro right by the falls.

At 3:00 we met the rest of the Juniors at Bob Jones University (BJU) for a campus tour. It was more emotional than I thought it would be taking a college campus tour as a parent! We got the girls settled in to the dorm room for the night and then it was time for Mom and I to head back north.

Aliza spent 24 hours on the BJU campus. They played a neat game Monday night and Tuesday morning they toured the facilities where the high school curriculum is written and published and where the distance learning videos are created. They got to meet their teachers which Aliza loved. The rest of the week Aliza was at The Wilds. 

The Wilds is a church camp. There were other school groups at the camp for Spiritual Emphasis Week. This part of the week is Aliza's story to tell. My part of the story is that the kids had to turn their phones in so I did not hear from her from Tuesday to Friday. 

Tuesday. Mom and I drove the rest of the way home. Apparently we were quite anxious to get home. We drove through the last area of restaurants and gas stations before the bay bridge tunnel without stopping and then realized that the gas light was on. It was probably the longest trip over the bridge that either of us has ever had. Mom was praying and I was imagining us running out of gas in the middle of the tunnel. But we did make it across and to the nearest gas station where I put 17.79 gallons of gas in an 18 gallon tank.

I got home at 3:00 on Tuesday, was home all day on Wednesday and Jeremy and I headed back to Greenville at 1:00 on Thursday. 

Thursday. Josiah, Anna and Isaiah stayed with Grandma and Grandad. Jeremy and I are in the season of life where even a really long road trip alone together counts as something to look forward to. We had a construction detour that added to our arrival time and we pulled in to the hotel at 11:00pm.

Friday. Pickup time wasn't until 1:00 so we got to go back to downtown Greenville for a little bit. This time there was a huge festival getting ready to start so parking was harder to find. We walked through blocks of local food tents and ended up at Starbucks for a lunch of egg bites and drinks. We are real fancy like that. lol.

I was happy to hug my girl! Aliza made some great friends this week and it was hard to say good bye. Aliza and Kaitlyn told us stories from the week for HOURS. They watched a movie and then talked some more. I'm not sure that either one of them slept on the way home despite how utterly exhausted they were. We made only the quickest bathroom stops and ate supper in the car. At 10:30 we pulled in to Mom and Dad's to pick up the other children and got home to our house at 11:05.

Kaitlyn's mom came at 8:00 Saturday morning to pick her up. 

What a week! My parents get a big thanks! We couldn't have made it through the week with as much sanity as we did without their help. (My mom originally only signed up for the Girl Named Tom concert and then the trip was to SC was added on when we found out the dates. )