Cross Country Eggs

We just arrived in Arizona from our cross country road trip to visit my family for Christmas.  We couldn’t leave our 3 full cartons of eggs behind, so they came with us, and Knut and my Papa enjoyed some country egg omelets this morning.

The kids did fabulous during the trip.  In fact, I don’t remember them ever doing so well.  We modified our trip heavily this year.  We took a different route down to avoid some snowstorms.  We drove at different times and for longer amounts for a variety of factors, and lastly, we left later in the morning than we normally do.  Normally we get the kids up super early to get a really early start (as in 6am or so).  This year we let everyone wake up when they normally do, had a great breakfast and started off.  It was amazing the difference in the kids.  They were just so good the whole way.

We saw more snow in crossing New Mexico than we have seen at home all winter.  Driving through Flagstaff, AZ was a bit painful for Knut as the conditions were perfect for some skiing, and we were just 2 hours from our destination.  It was a beautiful trip.

We got here a day earlier than planned because we just kept driving instead of normally stopping half way for the night.  We could have stopped, but things were just going so well and we were all feeling so good so we decided to just keep going.  We’ve never done that before and I must say it did feel a bit wild and crazy to just keep going.  That’s pretty much living on the edge when you have 4 kids.

Silje and Elias are our “carsick kids” so Silje knows now that she can’t read in the car.  It was so funny that as soon as we got here she ran with the urgency normally associated with having to go to the bathroom into the grandkid bedroom to the bookshelf, grabbed a book and read for about 2 hours.  We had some books on tape in the car, but she was so reading deprived for those 2 days of travel that she needed that bit of sanity when we got here.  It made me smile.

Today we’ll visit with some family, perhaps go to the park, and I think we may stop by a bookstore for some last minute stocking stuffers for the kids.  Knut always picks a book for each of the kids for Christmas, and writes a lengthy “yearly” letter to them in the front.  I hope that will be something they’ll look forward to each year.

The sun is beating down on my back right now, and I think it may be time for a walk to the park as soon as Solveig wakes up from her morning nap.  Grammy and the older kids are reading a book on the couch, and Knut and Papa are discussing fishing boats over coffee.  I think it will be a good day.