Family Pit Stop

As we traveled, as Derrick and I were chatting in the van, Derrick reminded me that his uncle Jim lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin (one of the towns we were going to pass along the way). 

A few times, when we visited with Jim and his wife, Sally, at family functions and such, they have suggested we stop and see them if we were ever passing by.  We decided to call them, to see if they were even home this week (as they like to travel too) and let them know we will be passing through in a week on our return trip. 

As it turned out, they were home, and they wanted to see us, but they had a BBQ planned with friends for the Saturday we would be driving home.  I thought, “bummer, we should have called them when we booked the vacation and given them a heads up”… but before I knew it we were routing their address in our GPS and they were opening their home to us, with less than a 30 minute notice!  Now that's great family!

It turned out to be a perfect visit, as almost instantly when Derrick hung up the phone Eli started to fuss and the boys were begging to eat.  Eli ended up crying off and on the whole 15 minutes we were driving to their house, so it was a great time to stop.  It was after dinner, so Jim and Sally had already eaten, but I had food for the kids, so it worked just fine.  I had my standard snack bag packed; complete with bread, peanut butter, jelly, fruit and nuts, and everything I usually have for a quick dinner stop, and they loaded us up on yogurt, grape juice and cheese.

It was a great, quick visit, and I’m so thankful that they invited us in on such short notice!  They are such a blessing and a joy to be around.  I have a lot to learn from those two wonderful people!

Eli and Aunt Sally

Stretching out after a diaper change.

Funny stories from Jim.

Elliot loves to sit on Uncle Jim's lap!

The boys in Uncle Jim's stylin' car.
They had so much fun riding around from the garage to our van.

After leaving their house, we continued on our journey.  The trip from Eau Claire to Eagle River is about 3 hours, so it was a manageable stretch, and with a happy baby and children with filled bellies, it was a smooth ride. 

Our friends, who were joining us for the week, were behind us a few hours and had started to catch up to us since our visit with family.  It was going to be a long day for all of us, but we were looking forward to the week ahead.  We arrived around midnight, our friends around 1:00 A.M. and we all were happy to be at our destination.  Overall, it was a great travel day/night!

Sleepy boys.

The boys decided not to sleep in the 2nd bedroom, but to sleep together on the couch for tonight.