We drove out to celebrate with them and to spend time with the Needham family. (The Navurskis family wasn't able to travel since they are expecting baby #3 in a month or so.)
Last Thursday's adventure at home pales in comparison to Friday's adventure of driving. Things were going great until about 15 minutes west of Rochester, MN. All of a sudden, Anna gets carsick. Yuck. Not what you want to deal with on hour 3 of an 8+ hour car trip. We pulled over at the next gas station to clean up and fill up.
And then the real adventure started; the car wouldn't start. At all. After Matt tried a few things, we resorted to calling our roadside assistance. (Matt is usually really good with this kind of thing. For example, on my first long trip with him he changed the alternater of his car in the parking lot of a PepBoys.) An hour or so later, the van was towed to the nearest dealership, 1/2 hour in the wrong direction. We were transported in a courtesy van, since tow-trucks aren't equipped to handle carseats. As soon as the van arrived at the dealership, it started ... of course. The guys there couldn't replicate the problem. However, knowing that we were at the start of a long trip, they checked everything they could, secured all sorts of connections, and sent us on our way. Five hours after we originally pulled off the interstate to clean up Anna, we passed the exit again.
Needless to say, it was a LONG day. After leaving at 6 a.m., we finally pulled into the Mischnick's home at 8:45 p.m. Looking on the bright side of things, we're really glad we pulled over at a gas station instead of the side of the road to clean up Anna. We're also very thankful for all of the great service we had from everyone we came into contact with during our car troubles. The girls handled things REALLY well. In fact, while we were camped out at the dealership, Anna turned to Matt and said "Well, I didn't expect THIS to happen on our trip." all with a smile on her face :)
In spite of the crazy start to the weekend, we had a nice time. The anniversary party was beautiful; the visits with the Needhams were fun; church with Pastor Grandpa Mischnick was special; the hotel, park, and pool were all great. Our whole family managed pretty well considering we had a late, late, LATE night (in the words of Fancy Nancy) to start off the weekend.
Our trip home was much less eventful and we're recovering fairly well. I'm very glad to be home, but now it's just a matter of waiting until home feels like home again (meaning, I can use my kitchen).
Here's the photos from the South Dakota trip.
Waiting patiently for the tow truck and courtesy van. Kate slept while Anna, Matt, and I had something to eat.
Camping out at the dealership.
The four older cousins (Jonah, Seth, Kate, and Anna) having a snack on the patio.
The two youngest Needhams (Julia and Ruth) hanging out.
A select grouping of pictures representing 40 years of memories for Mark and Marge.
The Needhams (Seth - 5, Michal holding Julia who is 7 weeks, Sam holding Ruth who will be 2 in September, Jonah - almost 7)
Our family :)
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