14 hours of...
...actually, relative peace and quiet!! We were very thankful that the boys were extremely agreeable travellers. Joshua didn't read to us for the entire trip, but he did provide a variety of in-flight entertainment options free of charge. David was amazing, too. Once in a while he got to the point where he just wanted OUT and that was it, but usually he would wake up from a nap and we would realize he was awake when we heard him giggling at the pictures in his book or shaking a toy. So, we made it to Illinois and back, a grand total of about 28.5 hours snugly packed into our little car, with very little space to spare! Good thing God gave us lots of love for each other! We also were grateful that our failing car battery got us all the way there and never had trouble starting once. We prayed at every pit stop that it would go, and it did! It was a good way to grow our attitude of gratitude as we approached our Thanksgiving celebration.
...actually, relative peace and quiet!! We were very thankful that the boys were extremely agreeable travellers. Joshua didn't read to us for the entire trip, but he did provide a variety of in-flight entertainment options free of charge. David was amazing, too. Once in a while he got to the point where he just wanted OUT and that was it, but usually he would wake up from a nap and we would realize he was awake when we heard him giggling at the pictures in his book or shaking a toy. So, we made it to Illinois and back, a grand total of about 28.5 hours snugly packed into our little car, with very little space to spare! Good thing God gave us lots of love for each other! We also were grateful that our failing car battery got us all the way there and never had trouble starting once. We prayed at every pit stop that it would go, and it did! It was a good way to grow our attitude of gratitude as we approached our Thanksgiving celebration.
We made our traditional stop at Josh and Erin Miller's home in Indianapolis (above). They once again outdid themselves in hospitably hosting us. Their home always feels like an oasis in a desert of interstate highway. And with 3 girls and a little dog, Joshua and David were amply entertained! At one point it became very quiet downstairs, and to my surprise I realized Joshua had just scampered upstairs with Maggie and Mackenzie and was happily playing with them in their bedroom, just one of the gang!
Note to the Millers: Thank you so much, dear friends, and by the way we did find our pack'n'play sheet! Maybe for once in our lives we didn't leave any little mementos behind! But, I did just find one of your bottle caps in my cupboard...whoops...
Then we finally arrived in... Kid-dom!...a.k.a. Washington, IL
Here are the boys with their second cousins Benjamin (3) and Isaac (almost 1) Porzelius. We were amazed to see that Benjamin and Joshua were able to play together pretty well. Benjamin would say, "Come on Joshua, let's do X" and off they would go! Isaac and David are only a few days apart and it was fun to see their similarities and differences. Isaac has been walking for about a month now and loves to throw a ball and go get it, and do it again. David is taking some baby steps but still is mainly a cruiser-crawler. Isaac and David, and Benjamin and Joshua, seem to have similar personalities and tendencies in how they interact and approach life. Definitely some noticeable differences between the firstborns and the second-borns!
Here is the whole Kinsinger tribe...almost. Joshua and David are surrounded by their first cousins once removed excepting the two eldest. From left to right in the back are Morgan, Adam, Allison, Ben, Weston; on the laps are Kathryn, David, and Joshua. With all these wonderful cousins, not to mention their uncles, uncles' friends, aunt, great-uncles, great-aunts, great-grandpa, great-grandma, and their grandma - not to mention that two of the great-uncles and Great-Grandpa are train enthusiasts! - Joshua and David received plenty of attention and had a fantastic time hanging out with their relatives for a week.
