I've been a nanny for the Bryson family for 4 years now and I've grown to love them a lot, so much so that I'm willing to move across the world and live with them for a year. :) The road trip plans started on an average work day and basically turned an okay day into the best day of the month. I was working with a couple of the kids and Scott and Chelli walked into the schoolroom talking about a trip they were taking this summer and what days would work best for it around the different schedules they had. They told me they were planning on taking a trip to Washington and asked if I'd like to come along with them. I played it off like a joke because, while I'd love to go, it's just not something people mean when they say it. However, they were serious. I verbally committed to go at that point and the excitement for this summer began growing.
My mom and I drove out to Hunt, TX (Kerrville area), where the Bryson's were staying, and kayaked for a little while before my mom headed back to San Antonio. The plans were up in the air at that point and we wound up not leaving that Saturday, but had plans to leave at 7am the next day. I spent the day with the kids and enjoyed getting the baby ready for bed while the bigger kids went to the Hunt rodeo down the street. The river house in Hunt is a creaky old building and I was paranoid the entire night, partly because I had no air conditioning and partly because the ceiling above me sounded like it was going to come crashing down on me at any moment. Needless to say, I had a rough night of sleep and was restless for the alarm to go off at 6 (the first and probably only time that will happen). I got up and was about to head upstairs when an extended family member came down the stairs and told me that the Bryson's had been up late into the night packing the car and that we were not going to be leaving at the time we had planned. I tried to go back to sleep but, of course, that didn't happen so I watched the sun rise over the Guadalupe river and enjoyed the cool morning air.
Eventually everyone got up and we left at about 8:30 with a van full of 4 kids (1,3,7,9) who went back to sleep shortly. That first day seemed rather boring until after dinner in Roswell, New Mexico. We left Roswell and quickly discovered that, unlike Texas, New Mexico doesn't have tiny towns and gas stations scattered across the highway every couple of miles. This became apparent when we were 40 miles outside of Roswell and were hitting empty on the gas tank with no gas stations anywhere near us. I was in the back seat so it took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I got very nervous once I realized that we were out of gas and it was over a hundred degrees outside with very few cars on the road. My phone was the only one that consistently had internet (thank you, Verizon) so we texted the Bryson's friend in Albuquerque and then searched for gas stations while we tried to pacify the kids and assure them that it was all ok. We found a gas station 40 miles away and were riding on empty at that point. Not very helpful. I don't think I've ever prayed as hard as I did in that 40 miles to the highway interchange. Chelli was tracking how far we had left to drive on my phone and once we hit under 5 miles we started to be more okay since you could easily walk that (says the people in the air conditioned car with children as well). By God's grace and provision (pretty sure He was supernaturally filling our gas tank as we drove) we made it to a Conoco gas station which then became the trip's favored gas station in memory of this moment.
We arrived in Albuquerque at 8 or so at night and quickly unloaded the van before we all fell asleep in our prospective beds and couches. I slept quite well that night and figured that it couldn't get much harder than that day had been (I was so optimistic).
In the glorious 75 degree morning the kids found a massive amount of snails, which may or may not be grosser than slugs, and covered huge rocks with them. I was not a fan of the snails, but I put up with them long enough to take a few pictures and document the lovely moment.
The garden at the house was beautiful, especially in the morning light.
The full day we had in Albuquerque was July 4th and the family we were staying with threw a big party full of delicious food (I had elk twice while I was at the house) and plenty of fireworks. I didn't grow up shooting off fireworks, so that night was pretty special. I think it's the second most fun 4th of July I've had (this one was my favorite).
Joshua being all cute.
Scott, Joshua, and the minivan that brought us all the way to Washington.
The aftermath. The dad's had way too much fun, especially with the bottle rockets and the mortars.
On the morning of the 5th we said goodbye to our lovely hosts and departed to a restaurant 5 minutes away where the Bryson's had a meeting with a couple. I had a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with homemade macaroni and cheese and, yes, it was as delicious as it sounds. That meeting didn't go that well so I ended up holding Joshua and walking in circles around the restaurant for an hour while the other kids went a bit haywire as well. We piled back into the car (having a few "discussions" along the way) and headed north to the Grand Canyon where we spent the night in a Best Western (my first time in that hotel chain and where we subsequently spent every single night on the road). That was the only hotel where we spent the night all in one room and was also the most seamless night because all of the adults still had energy enough to corral everyone to bed without getting angry.
Stay tuned for the next post about the national parks we visited on our road trip to Washington.
No comments:
Post a Comment