Our Trip and Ryan's Game

Our visit with Michael's family was so action packed, I thought I'd break it up into several blogs.  Especially since I came home with 575 pictures.  :-)

Friday Michael had his interview.  When he came home, we packed up the truck and left.  We were on the road before 4:00, just to crawl in traffic.  *sigh*  Is it time to move yet?  The "ring of fire" as I call it is a terrible circle around us that always has traffic.  Any time we need to go outside the ring, yucky traffic awaits.  And if it's rush hour or a holiday or, I don't now, a full moon, it gets worse.  Blech.

If we want to go north, we need to go through Baltimore.

If we want to go south, we need to go through DC.

If we want to go east, we need to cross the Bay Bridge.

If we want to go west, we need to go through Frederick.

And they're all bottlenecks.

And I'm so done with it.

I'm certain God put hating traffic in my heart for one more reason Alabama is calling us.

Anyway, we went west through Frederick hoping it would be the easiest, and it was.  We only sat through traffic for about a full hour.  People on the radio were calling in saying they had been just sitting on 95 south for hooooours.  Yep, smart decision!  (And the bay bridge?  Fugghet-about-it.)

Since we left late (we usually travel down Friday morning), we found that once the sun set, the traffic eased way back.  Then it was really pleasant.  My ears popped a lot and I have a feeling the views were nice.  Oh well.  We got to Michael's parent's house around 11:45 to put the food I brought in their fridge, then head to the hotel.

We checked in and got our luggage to the room and I set up Kara's fold out couch and called for them to bring sheets up and showered, blah blah blah.  I said, "Michael gets the bathroom first since he worked a full day."  He fell right to sleep, bless him.  Kara and I were in bed by 1 and asleep by 1:30ish.

My alarm woke me bright and early at 8 to get ready for a fun day with the Days!

Shower, sunscreen, breakfast, camera, go!

We loaded Michael's truck and headed to Ryan's game about an hour away.  First, we arrived at Liz's house to find Hannah wasn't there.  Kara was crushed to have traveled so far and counted down the days to see Hannah wanted to go with her dad to get his hair cut instead of wait for her.  I explained that we were missing her for about 5 minutes and she'll need to not be so sensitive.  She must get that from Michael.  :-P

We followed Liz to the fields and got to Ryan's game in time for him to head out and play his heart out.  Seriously, those 8 year olds took this game seriously and gave it their all.  I was so impressed with how good they are!  Way better than I would be!

Meanwhile, Kara and Hannah were off being big kids:

While we were watching, Michael's dad was getting a bit sunburned, so he took the umbrella and Abby crawled up on his lap.  She is always right with him.  She just talks and talks and talks and he is sweet to her as long as she'll talk.  Tim and Vicky always have made time with their grandkids their number 1 priority.  As long as their grandkids will sit and talk with them, they will make time for them.

And this post is long enough!  I'll continue more tomorrow.