HOME SWEET HOME

Even as I am typing this, the girls are still asleep. It's almost 9AM. Catherine wanted to sleep with Becky so we set up the air mattress so that they could be together. I am beginning the cleanup and doing the laundry seems to top the list. We are leaving for Lake George on Sun. At least packing is going to be very easy! I look forward to a great time with my family.

Thanks to all the blog watchers. We enjoyed writing this as much as you enjoyed reading it. What a great journey!!

HOME SWEET HOME

We were also greeted with beautiful flowers on the table.

HOME SWEET HOME

When we got home we were greeted by this sign Bob had made. He modified a WELCOME HOME MOM sign that has been up in the diningroom since I came back from the 8th grade DC trip. Becky was secretly hoping Bob would do that.

DAY 34

So here we are about 1 minute before we got home today. The girls became used to looking for the checkered flag when we were looking for our destination so they were very excited when they saw the checkered flag that meant we were going to be home. We got home around 3:30 PM. After saying hello to Bob, the girls immediately went to Donna's pool and Bob and I went to return the car. We traveled 9303 miles on our trip! I am not sure I can explain what this trip meant to me. Spending the time with the girls was incredible. I count my lucky stars that I am blessed with such super children and a supportive husband who never once gave me slack about following through with this trip!

DAY 33

This is my Godson Ethan...isn't he cute?

DAY 33

Having ice cream at a cute little place around the corner from the Miller house.

DAY 33

Here are all the kids together. I can't believe how big everyone is getting.

DAY 33

Here are Catherine and Ethan. They were having lots of fun too!

DAY 33

Here are Becky and Kailee in a friend's pool. They were having a great time.

DAY 33

Here we are ready to start our day. After breakfast we drove to Lancaster, NY to visit the Miller family.

DAY 32

Our official last night in a hotel is tonight. Last night when I was preparing for our trip from OH to NY, I realized that the trip was going to be 13 hrs. I didn't realize that before and I know I didn't want to do that. We decided to split the trip in half by visiting Colleen, Dave, Kailee and Ethan. They happen to be home Mon and don't mind us inviting ourselves over.

The girls and I decided that tonight was bittersweet-- on one hand, we LOVED our trip and don't want it to be over but on the other, we are excited to go home and see friends and sleep in our own beds.

I hope the girls always remember this trip. I know I will.

DAY 32

...but then we saw a sign for this.. so we took a detour and went to see the spot where Lincoln was born. We watched a little movie, went to the gift shop and saw the exact place our 16th president was born.

DAY 32

This was going to be our big accomplishment today..traveling through KY to get to OH. Yahoo!!!

Memphis News...

Check out this video from WMC-TV in Memphis!
(I am not sure how long the video will be around, but scan the crowd scenes for a familiar face. After the commercial.)

DAY 31

See Becky in the back right?

DAY 31

So if that wasn't enough, the NBC camera crew came over to the group of girls to get interviews. Becky was standing in the back of the group. When we got home from our day, we found the channel on TV and watched the news to see if Becky made it on TV.

DAY 31

So who is this you ask? Well, it's Justin Bieber's guitarist.Justin is in Memphis for a concert tonight. Yesterday, we were next to him on line at Graceland. He noticed Becky's Justin Bieber necklace and bracelet she got when we saw him in Reno and asked her if she liked him. Anyway, it was then that the guy with him told us that he was in Justin's band. Truthfully, none of us believed him at first...but then I noticed the purple NY Yankees cap (something worn by all Justin's peeps). While Becky did bring up the idea of having backstage passes, Dan (the guitarist) told her that nothing exciting happens backstage, but if she wanted his guitar pick, she could have it. Unbelieveable... I spend thousands of dollars on a trip across country and a little piece of plastic is what makes the trip for her. Go figure :) We parted ways on our tour and it never occurred to me to ask for a picture.

So let's fast forward to today.. How did I get this picture then?? Well, we were walking back to the parking garage to get our car before the cruise. Lo and behold, there was Justin's tour bus right in front of the hotel he was staying in (which happened to be right next to the parking garage) A bunch of girls are all around with their cameras - so of course we stayed. Dan is putting his luggage on the bus and starts to take pictures with different girls.

When he sees Becky, he points to her, gives her the nod and says hi.... talk about making her day. Even though he had to go and pushed all the girls away, he came over to Becky and Cat and allowed me to take a picture. How cool is that for Becky?

DAY 31

Too cute - huh?

DAY 31

We then had lunch here -- of course we had ribs. We split a full rack of ribs and they were deeelishous!! We walked up and down Beale Street a little before heading to the dock to go on a riverboat on the Mississippi.

DAY 31

We started our day at Sun Studios. Our tour guide was amazing - he knew so many things. I didn't know I was going to like this as much as I did. It was incredible standing in the same place people like Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis stood. The tour mixed together history, interesting facts, music and video clips.

DAY 30

Our hotel is about 15 min from Memphis -- in Mississippi. Tonight we are going to hang here - the girls have already gone in the pool and are showering. Tomorrow we will go to Sun Studios, go on a Mississippi Riverboat and eat ribs at a restaurant on Beale Street.

I can't believe there are only 3 more nights to our vacation!

DAY 30

DAY 30

DAY 30

Our goal today was to get to Memphis. We got there in time to go to Graceland. There were lots of people, but the place did a really good job of moving people through. I couldn't believe all of the rooms in Elvis' house - and to think that he bought it when he was 22! I could really only relate to the sequin - outfitted Elvis. He is the one that I remember seeing on TV. I also really like the trophy room - the place where all of his gold and platinums were hung. The girls seemed so so with the idea of going, but I couldn't be in memphis and not see Elvis! Something very exciting happened to Becky here today. I will not spill the beans though. My guess is that she will blpog about it...

DAY 29

Part of the original Murrah Bldg that is still in a corner of the Memorial - The Survivors Corner.

DAY 29

The Survivor Tree. It is in the same place it has been in for 90 years despite the fact that everything around it was blown to pieces on that day. It stands where the parking lot to the Murrah Bldg was.

DAY 29

Notice the smaller chair? There were 19 of them - one to represent each of the 19 children who died on April 19, 1995.