Pheonix to Quinter, KS

i guess you have to be a little patient with us. this is the first i have been able to add anything and i can't figure out our emails either. soooo....this is our communication since saturday! but here is life since then.. we said goodbye to grandma and grandpa in LA and left at 6:30 on sat morning going towards pheonix. we weren't gone more than 1 1/2 hours and the boys were already asking "are we in iowa yet?" so we started the countdown...in hours and minutes...and 7 hours later we got to pheonix where we swam in our friends (old superintendent from indonesia) pool and hung out there until we left for Colorado Springs about 8:30 pm...we drove the night switching every 2 hours or so until we got to our hotel in CS about 11am. the kids did great at sleeping most of night on the road. paul and i were up together from 3-5:30am watching the sun rise over the mountains and talking the WHOLE time. we were having a race to see who would see the sun first and just as it rose over the mountain i looked back to let him know it was there and he had just fallen asleep...oh well...quietness is good too! when we got to the hotel we all checked out the pool and then took a quick nap and went to garden of the gods to climb the mountains there...this was our 7th anniversary and several times we got a good laugh at how we were spending it! we all went to bed at 7pm and woke up at 8 am...what a great night! the next morning we checked out focus on the family and let the kids play in "oddessy" and we bought new stories to listen to while we drive with the money grandma and grandpa gave the kids to "buy something special with"...so then we went on to kansas...just a measley 4 hour drive...but it was difficult...stopping nearly every hour to appease our 3 kids in the back...good thing we are doing most of this trip at night! the skitters have come in handy at rest stops to just run and run them! so keep reading...i know this is getting long but here comes the good stuff! we got to quinter...a town of 900 people on monday afternoon. the kids were so excited about this area. we weren't even here an hour before they saw the cat dig a whole next to them in the dirt and poop right there and cover it back up! a first for them! amazing! we walked 2 blocks to visit another aunt and uncle (the uncle is 102 years old!) and we heard him play his harmonica and sing a song so the boys each sang a solo! another first for them! in kansas everyone has basements because of the frequent tornadoes (or tomatoes as paul calls them...he really believes we are talking about huge spinning tomatoes) but the boys were extremely excited to sleep in the "basement" so they were eager to go to bed...until they got down there...then the shadows and all became very scary and not so cool but yet another first to sleep in a real basement. the next day we visited grandma chestnut in the long term care center and the boys were amazed at all the older people living in one building. we did sittercises while we waited for our lunch with all the residents and played dominoes on the floor. later in the day the sky became dark and the clouds began to circle...we thought for sure we were getting a "tomatoe" so we stood outside admiring the weather going on around us... the lightening wouldn't stop lighting the sky, the thunder was constant and we even had some hail...all of these new to the boys! we did end up going to the basement but only briefly after realizing that the whistle that had blown was for 6 o'clock supper and not a tornado warning...silly. well, all the weather stopped us from having a big family picnic in the park so we met at an activity center instead and that was good fun to see everyone including 2 new babies! so now today we are awake and getting ready to go see grandma and aunt patti who has a super cool little yippie dog and then we will head out to salina where we will see greg's two other uncles and their wives. after we have supper with them we will drive the night to audubon. only a 6+ hour drive from salina. so we are nearly done driving and i'm glad! roadtripping with 3 little ones isn't like it was in college! but we are surviving and missing southern California people already. thanks for all the phone messages...we aren't ignoring you...we will call back! i must go...there is a real live bunny in the backyard and they can't wait to show it to me! kansas is great!!!!!!