A Tremendous Success!

Ready for departure. Emily, Theodore in the middle with our "activity bags" and Madeleine just before leaving our driveway in Williamsburg.

First stop for gas (and a snack, and a restroom). Emily, Theodore and Madeleine with the Blue Ridge "Mountains" of Virginia (and our "covered wagon") behind them.

Second state! Rest stop in West Virginia - Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right.

Three states in one day!

11 hours in the car and 1 in the pool - Madeleine (and Theodore) are out!

So are Emily and Pooh Bear!

The most creative billboard award given to Craftsman. The billboard is somewhere in Illinois...

One of two "really nice" rest areas on the trip. This one is circled on my Illinois state map in hopes they have a similar playground on the other side of the interstate. (The other "really nice" rest area was in South Dakota where each of us were given a SD state pin and a coloring book!)

A little wind power pulling across Minnesota.

Emily at the indoor waterpark at Owatonna Minnesota's Holiday Inn.

Madeleine on the water slide.

Rather exhausted after our watersliding and swimming!

The "real" Walnut Grove. The museum there was fine. It would not appeal to older children, but had a ton of hands-on things for the girls to do and the staff could not have been nicer if they had tried.

"Grandma's House" at the Wilder Museum housed most of the hands-on activities. Emily in green and Madeleine in red cooking.

Using real slate pencils on slates.

Emily hanging laundry.

Madeleine mastering the use of a clothespin. She was the "wife" and hung the clothes, while Emily played the music "just like Pa did." Gender roles were reversed, so everyone got a turn with both activities.

Madeleine playing a pump organ

Emily's "turn to be Pa" and play the pump organ.

In the schoolroom.

Ma and the girls, "Just like Laura and Mary."

Playing with our covered wagons from Later Gators in the covered wagon in front of the museum.

Theodore's turn to drive!

From Walnut Grove it was a hop,skip and a jump (or 111 miles) to the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota. This was our second "Laura/Little House" stop of the day. This place was fantastic and I am 90% certain we will make a point of stopping again on our way back to Virginia.

View of the Ingalls' property from the observation tower.

In the recreated homestead house, built according to actual documents and in the exact location of the real house, we got to sit on the beds.....

...practice ironing...

...do laundry....

...put it through the wringer...

...and hang it to dry!

We also got to see a pony and her baby. (Emily in green and Madeleine in red.)

Madeleine riding a pony.

Emily riding a pony.

Emily removing the corn from a dry cob to make corn cob dolls.

Emily driving a covered wagon!

Madeleine's turn to drive and she got to make the horses go fast...as demonstrated by her flying hair.

Madeleine ringing the school bell while wearing a dress and bonnet.

Emily's turn with the bell...she was very excited her dress and bonnet matched.

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD...shockingly nothing like Sleeping Beauty's castle!

A close-up of one of the exterior designs.

And, inside!

Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right.

Emily, "Cornelius", Madeleine

A South Dakota dinosaur on the loose!

Emily riding a jackalope at Wall Drug.

Madeleine caught the Wall Drug jackalope too.

Theodore's turn.

Just in case you hadn't noticed...we are very fond of the backdrops you put your faces through for photos. Emily is in the wagon and Madeleine is on the horse.

Emily is in the teepee and Madeleine is holding the baby.

Making progress.......

Madeleine on the left and Emily at the Painted Canyon at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora, North Dakota.

Theodore was glad to find out there is another "Teddy" of historical significance.

Madeleine and Theodore at the park playground in Medora, N.D.

Emily took Theodore on a wagon ride instead of the train.

We are in Montana and counting down the last three states! ("Home On The Range")

Getting dressed in the last hotel - Billings, Montana.

Our last day with countdown papers!

We made it through the never-ending state of Montana!!!

Madeleine in the home stretch -watching the final movie!

Emily passing the final few hours.

Woo-hoo!!! Yay!!! Yippee!!!

3,019 miles driveway to driveway and we survived the drive across the country. In fact, we did more than survive. The girls and I had a great time. I was amazed at how well they did hour after hour in the car. There was very little bickering and I believe a total of three "Are we there yet?"s - for the whole trip. If I could drive, instead of fly, in the winter, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I have been given a bit of flack about not posting updates as we went. It is my paranoia. I don't trust public networks (i.e. in hotels) if it is a site where I have to type in a password....hence my "silence".

For anyone contemplating a similar adventure, there were a few products that were worth their weight in gold: 1. Dual-screen portable DVD player (I had balked at this, but found it was worth every overpriced penny) I am convinced pioneer children walked next to the wagon, not only to save wear and tear on the horses, but because the portable DVD player was yet to be invented! 2. Headphones that actually worked. We have never had luck with the portable DVD player entertaining the girls on the plane because the jet noise is too loud...however, I finally broke down and bought better quality kids' headphones (tricky to find) and it seemed to make all the difference. 3. Tray tables that went across the girls' laps/car seat arm rests so they could color, etc. - they could reach these so much better than those on a plane...I'm thinking of dragging them on board for our next flight.

We also read about, and happily used, a trick for those who can not yet tell time. We taped numbered tabs of paper to the back of the driver's and front passenger's seat. For each hour we drove, a tab of paper was removed...nice little countdown. I always added at least two hours to the estimated drive time so we had time for stops, etc....and one day there were a couple of 75 minute "hours", but it really worked well. I knew this was a great trick when the girls got into the van on the first day to face 11 pieces of paper....when paper "6" was removed, Madeleine looked at Emily and said "Look Emily! Only five more hours!!" When your preschooler is excited about "only five more hours", you know you are on to something.

The other trick (of my own compulsive invention) was to map the course using Google and the "add destination" feature. We ended up with a map of the U.S. and each night was labeled as a letter. The girls knew the first day we had to drive to A, the second to B, etc. Each night we would highlight what we had driven that day, so the next morning it was obvious progress was made.....each girl had a map - taped under the hour tabs of paper.

A silver lining to the recession cloud is the lack of roadwork on interstates across the country. Granted, we went through many work zones, but not as many as I thought we would and those that are out there are pretty small. Luckily, many areas seem to do their work at night, so we sailed through, never going slower than 35 mph (and that was rare - usually it was 55). I hope we are as lucky on the way back.

The first day the only thing that gave me pause was realizing we had a red Subaru trailing us with some determination in the Richmond, VA area. I wondered: A. if I had left something at home B. what it could possibly be to have Till jump in the car and follow us for an hour. However, when I slowed a bit, the Subaru - not driven by Till - shot by and we went on our merry way.

A Sad Farewell

Miss Felicia, Emily, Miss Judy and Madeleine at "Promotion Day" 2010.

Amidst many tears and much angst Madeleine and Emily said goodbye to their Teddy Bear friends yesterday. The overwhelming majority of the class has been together for two years and five of the bears (Emily, Madeleine, Camden, Emerson and Ella) have been together since they were itty-bitty ones in Mothers Day Out. The consolation, at least in our house, is we know we will be Teddy Bears again next year...." But, our friends won't be there."

Westward Bound

Courtesy of the National Archives (photograph #42)

There is a GPS on our dining room table; it looks a bit intimidating so I have yet to actually put it in the van. There is a portable dual-screen DVD player propped against the dining room wall. I picked up our maps, books and Triptik from AAA yesterday. Madeleine, Emily and I are driving across the country (and back) this summer. Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, I think there is a "Melissa is Crazy" club forming complete with membership t-shirts.

Supplies are slowly starting to pile up. Hotel rooms are booked. Retail locations where one can replenish the ice chest dry ice have been located. The van has been looked over and will be again when it goes in for its pre-trip oil change. I have considered switching my "P.E.O. - Educating Women" license plate frames to something extolling fictional support for the NRA, but doubt it will happen.

I'm not sure where the idea came from. Maybe it really did start four years ago when Till and I made our three-day-stay-ahead-of-the-moving-van dash across the country and I saw a sign for something related to Laura Ingalls Wilder. We didn't stop....we didn't stop to see anything at all that trip. Over 2,600 miles in 3 days, you can do the math. I said something to the effect it might be fun to drive across the country with the girls when they were older and they could see this kind of thing. If I'm remembering correctly, Till snorted and laughed. The same laugh he now uses when I mention a third child; right before he says "You and your second husband enjoy that baby."

Maybe it is the I-assume-you-will-misbehave-simply-because-you-are-a-young-child glares our children receive from other passengers whenever they so much as step on a plane Note: Not that our girls are angels and everything is butterflies and rosebuds around our house, but our kids actually behave on planes. I literally bring about 40 pounds (Don't worry Spirit Airlines, it is all in one back-breaking backpack that goes right under the seat in front of me!) of snacks, toys, coloring books, crayons, mini etch a sketches, pipe cleaners, beads, plastic lacing, portable DVD player, headphones, movies, emergency change of clothes, wipes, hand sanitizer, etc. to keep them entertained and comfortable. They sit in their seats. They stay buckled in. And, unlike adults, the girls don't get drunk and loud, they don't wear too much perfume/cologne and they don't yammer loudly on cell phones until the last possible moment to demonstrate they are VERY important people.

Maybe it is the increasing audacity of airlines' fees, all based on the premise oil prices are at record highs, yet conveniently not noticing oil prices have come down. And, why are the luggage fees based on destination instead of length of trip? We flew to Germany for one week and, between the four of us, were allowed to take 8 checked bags for "free". We didn't, but we could have. We flew to Spokane for two-and-a-half weeks and had to pay to bring more than three changes of underwear.

Perhaps it has been the all too frequent occurrence of passenger planes being diverted and/or escorted by fighter jets because of a passenger who makes some kind of threat. Off the top of my head:

1. The pilots who were so engaged with their computers, they forgot to land in Minneapolis.

2. The flight to Hawaii that had to turn around over the Pacific and go to Portland, complete with F-15 escort.

3. The same airline had to divert another flight, during the same week, because one passenger insisted on harassing another.

4. The oh-so-classy Qatari diplomat who decided the FAA ban on smoking didn't apply to him and that 30,000 feet was a great place to launch his new career as a stand-up comic.

5. The genius who mentioned his fake passport and explosive luggage causing an international flight to divert. Apparently, he is now saying he was carrying classified information and didn't want it to draw attention to it....smoooooth!

Or, possibly it was the air traffic controller who brought his young children with him to work and let them chat with pilots who literally had the lives of hundreds of people in their hands. On yet another side note - I don't know if you have read/listened to the transcript of "Captain Sully" landing in the Hudson. While his actions were obviously amazing, so were those of the air traffic controller in the tower. That man was beyond-words calm. Every time an option he provided was refused, he had another to give. I'm guessing he didn't have time to yank the communication equipment out of a child's hands and dislodge said child from his seat. He had to be ready to go and thankfully he was. That's how emergencies work. They sort of sneak up on you.

I guess I really started thinking about this in January. I had just come off flying with Emily and Madeleine to Spokane in August, to Frankfurt in October, and to Spokane in December/January. Maybe I had a bit of an airline hangover and what started as a comedic musing, has become reality.

We are also not sending Madeleine and Emily to kindergarten next year. They will get to have another year of pre-K, so this is our last summer of not worrying about working around an "official school schedule" and seems like an opportune time for an "adventure". Never mind when I first broached the subject with my buddies I was told by Emily "But Mommy, that will take a lot more days than flying." to which Madeleine succinctly added "No, Mommy. That is a crazy idea." From the mouths of babes.

Till is not coming because our absence is a good opportunity for him to get some work done this summer (and he is too smart to get snared in my plans). But don't fret, I have intrepid co-pilots.

On the return trip we have a very good friend of mine (Obviously, because who else gets roped into this?) Sarah. Sarah has always wanted to drive across the country. Although under pressure, she admitted she didn't picture two five-year-olds as part of the plan. She graciously agreed to drive with us. So, she will come back to Williamsburg for a few days and then fly out of Richmond back to her home in Portland in August.

We will also be traveling with Theodore; the Teddy Bear Class mascot from preschool. We will make a scrapbook about our trip and the states through which we travel. Theodore will use the book to teach next year's Teddy Bear class about the U.S. beyond the tidewater area of Virginia.

A few brave souls have had the courage to ask me how I think Emily and Madeleine will handle this. I have no idea, but "challenging" pops to mind. When we lived in Washington we frequently drove from Edgewood to Spokane. However, we usually got Madeleine and Emily ready for bed, put them in their car seats and hit the road, meaning they slept most of the way. Plus, it has been four years since they have participated in a drive of that length. When we make the three hour trip to D.C. they are usually whining before we have cleared our own county line.

I'm not going to post our exact dates on the internet because there are a few loonies out there (not that any of the five of you who read this blog qualify). If you want specifics, and actually know me, send me an email and I can send you dates so you know when to begin looking for headlines along the lines of "Deranged Mother Refuses To Get Back In Van: Says She Prefers Riding On The Roof Rack".

A rough outline of our itinerary is as follows:

Day One - Williamsburg to Lexington, KY. Mileage 544, Hours 9. Things to see/do: Study the pattern of the van's upholstery. Contemplate buying plane tickets from Lexington to Spokane. Pray the kids will actually buy into the idea the Lexington hotel having a pool is reward enough for the drive, but know full well they justifiably will not. The basic idea is "make hay while the sun shines". The girls won't know what to expect that first day, so let's cover some ground.

Day Two - Lexington to Galesburg, IL. Mileage 444, Hours 7.5. Things to see/do: More upholstery studying . I have some new DVDs and think they might get used heavily on this day. We will still be trying to cover distance while the novelty is there. This is one of two hotels without a pool, but I have already promised going out for ice cream. There is also the The Big Blue Chair.

Day Three - Galesburg to Owatonna, MN. Mileage 340, Hours 5.75. Things to see/do: Ha ha! This is the carrot I will use the first three days. There is a water park!! Yep...we will hit the road early, get there as close to check-in time as possible and play to our hearts content.

Day Four - Owatonna to Mitchell, SD (via De Smet, SD) Mileage 305, Hours 6. Things to see/do: Let the good times roll! This year the girls were part of Later Gators at school. Students bring lunch and stay later (2 PM!) and learn about a specific topic. LG meets once a week for six weeks. One of the LG choices this winter was the "Pioneer Club" and Madeleine and Emily learned about Laura Ingalls Wilder and the pioneers. So, we will have our "Little House" day driving through Walnut Grove, Sleepy Eye, Mankato (even detouring to De Smet - which has option one and option two) and consequently arrive fairly late in the day in Mitchell.

Day Five - Mitchell to Spearfish, SD (via Wall, SD). Mileage 320, Hours 5.25. Things to see/do: We will start our day at The Corn Palace. We will then proceed to Wall Drug, where I want the girls to establish their mining and panning skills so we can strike it rich in northern Idaho later in the summer. I have budgeted most of the afternoon for this stop. We are skipping Mount Rushmore as that is Sarah's one request and I'm guessing I can only pull-off "Cool! Faces in a mountain!" once a summer, so we will see it on the way back.

Day Six - Spearfish to Billings, MT (via Medora, ND). Mileage 487, Hours 8. Things to see/do: Yeah, I blew it planning this day. There is a lot to see and I think I may have been a bit too ambitious about how far into Montana we will get. I want to do the vast majority of driving during daylight hours, but this may be a later hotel arrival. However, this is the second hotel without a pool, so if we get there late - it isn't a crisis.

The girls really want to see the Grand Canyon. The theme last year at Bible Camp was "Discovery Canyon" and it think they somehow translated it to the Grand Canyon. I looked into the detour and there is just no way. However, Medora is right next to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park with the Painted Canyon. The girls can't read!!! So, we tell them it is the Grand Canyon (I've been referring to it as "the canyon", but if under immense pressure - I will flat-out lie), take their pictures, and have "I Saw The Grand Canyon" t-shirts made at shutterfly.com. There is also the Medora Children's Park and something about A Cowboy and His Horse. Nearby Dickinson has the Dakota Dinosaur Museum.

I did, briefly, consider staying in the Wooly Wagon at "Custer's Cottage", but threw out the idea when I learned they "run an extension cord" for power and the restrooms are at "the campground across the street". Maybe next time...when I'm sure I won't be traipsing around at 10PM searching for a restroom with a child who is only semi-conscious and wearing footy pajamas.

Day Seven - Billings to Mom and Dad's. Mileage 541. Hours 8.75. Things to see/do - Hey girls! Has the upholstery changed in the past week? I'm not sure we are going to make it this day. I am assuming we will all be so sick of it we will be willing to push through. If not, we'll stop in Missoula and come into town a day later. Missoula has a Children's Museum we may use as a stop to stretch legs....only time will tell.

Five!! And A Whole Lot Of Other Things

Emily on the left (polka dots) and Madeleine on the right. For those who may be concerned about equity and/or adequate sugar intake...each child had her own birthday cake on the day of her party. However, not wanting to have cake kicking around the house, the girls shared a cake on the actual day.

Early last month Madeleine and Emily celebrated their fifth birthdays! I had no idea "5" was such a big deal, but I swear to God there has not been this much fuss over the girls since their initial arrival. Their pediatrician gave them a goody bag with stickers, games, a book, etc. (Although, this is a new doctor/practice, so I don't know if the bag is an annual event or linked to a milestone birthday). The actual day was a rather big deal at school and we had lots of visitors over the month for which we stretched the birth"day"s.

On the magical day, the girls ate cake for breakfast (one day a year isn't going to kill anyone), went to school where they were given gifts and we went to dinner at a dining establishment of their choice (IHOP - contain your jealousy).

Each year I decorate the girls' bedroom door and set out the "correct" number of balloons for each child. This year with five (ten) balloons, it was getting cozy in the car and I'm envisioning this possibly becoming an issue as the numbers climb. Madeleine in the foreground.

Presents from Oma and Opa. Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right.

Madeleine (wearing her birthday dress and crown) being given her gift at preschool by her teacher Miss Judy (the woman is a saint). Each child gets to pick one gift out of the bag.

Emily's turn with the gift bag.

Miss Judy says a prayer and blesses each child (as you can see we took it very seriously). Then all the other children come up and say socially appropriate things (suggestions given if needed) and give the birthday person a hug.

Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right at dinner. Our crowns were worn, with great confidence, all day.

Uncle Paul came for a visit in late February/early March. He single-handedly completed 3 years of yard work, fixed the porch railing, washed the siding, painted the deck railing (I painted half - but only because I don't mind painting as much as all the other stuff he did), etc. (sounds like a lot of fun). However, his work was not the primary focus around here - what mattered was he was here for the girls' "real birthday", for which he gave them a bird feeder. He even painted it to match Emily and Madeleine's house.

Uncle Paul shows Madeleine (green) and Emily (yellow) how to mix cement for the new porch railing post.

Walking around on chalk drawings Uncle Paul drew on the driveway.

Madeleine in the background and Emily with Skeeter's toy - trying to "make him dance too".

The Monday after Uncle Paul left we had our ballet "performance". Apparently, the teacher isn't really into parent participation (as in she covers the studio windows so you don't see class at all) and grudgingly lets parents watch one class each year. Our pictures did not turn out to be the greatest....so, above is a backstage pass, pre-performance, photo.

One random day, Emily came downstairs laughing and informed me (with underwear on her head) that she was a snowgirl! Madeleine followed suit and after I got them off to school - I put clothing back in drawers.

Emily Snowgirl
Madeleine Snowgirl

Grandpa and Grandma arrived in mid-March. Madeleine and Emily waited to have their birthday parties with their friends until the grandparents were here to partake in the celebrations. We are once again in debt to the Balloon Lady who successfully entertained the entire preschool class for a significant amount of time.

Both girls wanted a princess theme (shocking). Emily chose to focus more on Cinderella whereas Madeleine was a bit more inclusive toward a selection of Disney princesses. It was nice to have help with the cakes this year. Grandma even figured out how to get photos of the respective princesses on their cakes and thought to back the photos with wax paper to eliminate photo paper chemicals getting on the cakes.

Madeleine's castle cake with Princess Madeleine in the tower.

Madeleine's end of the table.

Emily's carriage cake with Princess Emily riding in the carriage.

Emily's end of the table.

Emily with her balloon hat.

Madeleine with her balloon hat.

Grandpa and Grandma left for nearly two weeks in Paraguay, so they were unable to attend the preschool Easter Pageant. Near as I can tell, "the donkey" was the star of the show. Emily was a "woman at the tomb" and Madeleine was a disciple. When I asked her what a disciple did, I was told "I walk with Jesus and get the donkey". I told "Jesus's" mom about this. She asked him what Jesus did and was told "Walk with the disciples (all short 'i' sounds) and get the donkey". The pageant went off without a hitch and was blessedly uneventful. Miss Judy told me during the Christmas pageant of '98 (I believe) Mary got a bit miffed with Joseph and a custody battle ensued. The tragic (although to my mind hysterically funny) outcome was the sorrowful decapitation of Baby Jesus!

In other theology-related news...The girls were told about Jesus dying on the cross at preschool (Don't even get me started). I asked what they had been told, Madeleine - "Just that he got on the cross and died." Emily asked if I knew how they got him on the cross and I asked her if she knew. You bet. "They said, 'Come here Jesus. Come here and get on this cross and all of your wishes will come true.' So he did, and they killed him." Okay.

Disciple Madeleine in blue and Woman at the Tomb Emily in green (still with the My Little Pony tattoo on her arm from the Balloon Lady at her birthday party!)

Emily and Madeleine (purple) decorating a bush in the yard with Easter eggs. The house at the end of the street does this every year with one of their trees, therefore....

Madeleine (l) and Emily (r) with their eggs at the school Easter Egg hunt.

Grandma and Grandpa flew back in on Good Friday. This means they got in on egg dying, Easter itself and Spring Break (which ended up being a rather busy week).

Emily (pink) and Madeleine playing in the sand at Yorktown.


Emily (stripes) and Madeleine on the ferry on the way to Chippokes Plantation State Park.

Madeleine driving the tractor at the Farm and Forestry Musuem.

Emily giving the tractor a spin.

Learning about harvesting peanuts from one of the park rangers.

Madeleine milking a cow at the Children's Museum of Richmond.

Banker Emily beginning her career at C-MOR.

This past Tuesday night was the Annual Art Show at preschool. The whole family got dressed-up and had a great time seeing all of the gorgeous artwork.

Madeleine with her blue ribbon piece.

Emily with her blue ribbon artwork.