Home Sweet Home!!!

Jim with Jon and Becky

Nashville and on to Virginia

Last night we arrived at my sister Becky and her husband Jon's house. Uncle Paul arrived shortly thereafter. It was great to see family....and Radar too. We had a great time chatting before bed. We all can't wait till the baby arrives in August. Everyone slept in a bit this morning as we are starting to run out of gas,  I think.  We left at 10 or so and are on our way home. We are near Bristol at a chick fil a for a bathroom stop. We can't wait to get home and see everyone. Special thanks to Becky and Jon for hosting us again. Danville here we come. 

49 of 50 states

Anytime our family took a road trip when I was growing up we would always play the license plate game, trying to spot as many different state license plates as possible along the way.  Keeping with a tradition my kids now have come to love, we played the game on our trip around the US.  Jim was convinced we would never find two of the states...Alaska and Hawaii.  James spotted our first Alaska plate in a parking lot at Yellowstone, and we spotted the second Alaska plate along the rode in Kentucky today.  Noah found a Hawaii tag along the interstate in Wyoming...wondering what circumstances would cause someone to ship their car across the Pacific and how that could possibly be cost effective...still thinking on that one.  We now have 49 of the 50 states, and guess which one we still need???  The good ole' state of Deleware!  How we can travel coast to coast and not see a state that close to Va. Is beyond me.  Hopefully we will find it soon :)

Noah and the "arch"

The St. Louis Gateway Arch, that is!  We couldn't resist this play on words for obvious reasons :). Our visit to the arch today was an amazing cap off as the last landmark we visited on our trip around the US.  We all had to muster our inner brave side as the arch at first sight is a bit daunting, but we are the most proud of our kids and especially Noah who would usually shy away from anything that takes his feet off of solid ground.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, and the kids were talking about coming back again someday.  We met a couple in line that are retired Christian school teachers from Wyoming...the husband taught middle school History, so he and Jim enjoyed sharing a common interest :) Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch at the iconic Crown Candy Kitchen...the malts and grilled cheese sandwiches were amazing, and the history behind the restaurant made it interesting and fun for all!  On our way out of town we stopped at the famous Gus' Pretzels for fresh, hot out of the oven hand twisted pretzels...saved for later eating since we were all too full from lunch!  We are about 3 hours from Nashville right now which means only 11 hours from home!!!  Looking back over these last few weeks, it almost seems hard to believe that we have driven almost 7,000 miles from coast to coast...almost crazy thinking about it now...so many treasured memories!

Gateway Arch, St. Louis

Noah's blog post#2😄😃😀😊☺😉😜😝😛😳😁😔😌😒😞😣😢😂😭😪😥😰😅😓😩😫😨

We are on the way to Aunt Becky and Uncle John's house in Nashville. Right now we are in Kentucky, the state of fried chicken. :) I really liked going up the St. Louis arch. I am upset we didn't go to Telegraph Rd., the entrance to the secret base of Samurai Gluestick, my gluestick. :(  This is my last blog post. :(  Bye!