16 Year old Beauty

My middle has turned 16.  She is such a fun, loving, kind, happy person to be around.  After many hours of running around to get the proper documentation for her exam for her learner's permit, she finally got to drive the Jeep.  AHHHHHH'

Official

I have a teenage driver. Ahhhhh!!!!

So proud of my young man. 

He is so excited. Wants to go everywhere this weekend. But wants to go alone. Thinks that it won't feel real until he drives solo. Be praying. 

The Dreaded Drive

Driving, driving, and more driving. Our drive home felt longer than usual thanks to all the rain. We drove the entire time in rain. All different types. Thankfully it wasn't the hard type for very much of the journey.  As usual kids watch movies.  Yes, they usually take turns but someone always says they are not going to watch and end up with headphones on laughing and enjoying themselves.   

This shot happened later in the drive.  I just couldn't resist this photo.  She was very cold and thought this was a good way to keep herself warm.  (Can someone say turn on the heat!)

This is what my view was entire way! Yucky!

  Departed  a little later than expected, 10:30 am - instead of 10 am.   Arrived at 7:30 pm.   There was much to do around the house as we need to leave it in such pristine shape.  I still have that nagging feeling that I forgot something?!  Oh well!  Can't sweat the small stuff.  More importantly - aint nothing I can do about it now! ;)   

One of the things I am not crazy about when we travel is the type of food available to us.  I like the stops to be very quick and painless, so that leaves fast food.  Fast food is not my thing.   We stopped at Wendy's and I ordered a cheeseburger.  I knew it would affect me and sure enough a little while later in the car Momma felt the repercussions.   Ordered way too much food.  Josh and Ab could've shared and I will make a mental note of that for the future.
 

Don't know if it had anything to due with the leaving part but the kids were a little bit off.  Perhaps it was the late night before.  Quite possibly a combination of all the above.  What all this boils down to is that Momma was not too thrilled with the little darlings for a stint.  

 

Bill, my sweetheart, called to check and see if he needed to have dinner for us or if we were going to stop.  I told him that I did not want to stop and that we would be coming home for dinner.  Off to the store he goes and upon our arrival he had not made it back yet.   Which is good as it did allow me to get the kids focused on unloading van.    When Stephen got into his bedroom he found a surprise!   Bongos!!!!   He has been asking for drums, so Bill and I decided that this would be a quick fix until we are no longer in apartment.   I think he was pleased! 

Driving

    Kids watching movie.
Finally made it to Ohio!

Spent the day driving through 4 different states!   Started in New Jersey and ended up in Ohio.  Yes, we are here spreading our wings a bit and also tidying up some more things in the house.   We made excellent time.  Not much traffic on road and decent weather.  I call my kids "professional passengers!"   We have always travelled by car and they just shine and rise to the occasion whenever we do it.  They each have different responsibilities for packing up, stopping, eating, and video watching.  It really runs very smoothly.   I still need to work on them with the unloading part.  Well, the putting away part.  They help with unloading but not so much the "unpacking."