Road Trip!

A few days after Christmas, son Steve, Beth and their girls arrived our house from New Mexico with a 26' van packed to the gills, on their way moving to Michigan City, Indiana. They stayed with us in Littleton for a couple of days, we celebrated Grace's third birthday, and a friend flew in from Wisconsin to help with the drive east. On January 2nd, we took Beth and the girls to the Denver airport, they flew to Chicago where Beth's parents picked them up, and the other four adults (Steve and friend Jim, Sharon and Dwight) started the drive east in two vehicles. Sharon and Dwight drove Steve and Beth's family van (accompanied by Mello, a gentle and sweet Chocolate Lab, who kept asking where we were taking her!) Steve and Jim drove the truck hauling Steve's other car on a trailer. Steve and family now live near Beth's parents while Steve completes a master's degree in social work at Indiana University NW. They will probably be there 2-3 years.

The following are pictures of Grace (3) and Ava (1) with Dwight and Sharon, also one of Grace with granddaughter Kyra (age 11) who came down from Boulder with her mom, Angela, for Grace's birthday party. Our first night on the road was spent in Kearney, Nebraska, so we got to have dinner with grandson Caleb (age 7) and his mom, Dawn. On our second day, we stopped for lunch in Omaha so Steve could visit with friend Howard. We spent our second night in Iowa City and it was so cold that the rental truck wouldn't start the next morning so we spent half of day 3 waiting for mechanics to get it going. By the time we arrived Chicago, it was rush hour, but fortunately we were skirting the southern edge of the metro area and had no problem.

We arrived Michigan City, Indiana in the early evening of day 3 and the unpacking and moving in process started the following morning with help from Beth's sister, Mary, their father, and some friends that work for Beth's parents. Dwight and I flew home on January 6th. It was nice to discover that after 38 years of marriage we could still enjoy 3 days in a car with each other!