Sunday at Granny's, and Reaching Our New Home State!

We had stayed the night over in upper SC, because we were going to visit Daddy's family that day, since we had a couple days to spare before our furniture and boxes were delivered :)!

We were originally planning on surprising Granny, but after we woke up a little later than planned, we decided to call Granny and let her know we were on our way.

A few pictures from that morning...

 *Love* him!!!

 Traditional picture...

 This seat wasn't discovered until the 

last few minutes, yay! Haha ;).

 

 Pretty Tori :)...

We got there early that afternoon. After some lunch, Mommy and Tori went to the laundry mat to do some clothes (Cousin Mellisa invited us to use her washer and dryer, but with the fact that we had four large loads, we knew that it would be better to do all loads at once if we wanted to fold them before we left ;).), and Daddy and I shifted items in the van so that there would be no "dumpster diving" that night ;).

Gramma, after planning to be there, called us early that morning and told us she couldn't make it... and than showed up that afternoon, haha. I take it that Daddy isn't the only one in the family who likes to pull off surprises- and Aunt Donna knew about this one and said nothing to us, haha! Gramma brought with her some of the biggest stuffed animal pillows you have ever seen. They got good use in the car :). (And since then :)...)

These pillows...

We had a wonderful time visiting :). We shared some watermelon that a friend had blessed us with and we hadn't had time to cut yet, due to the move, and everybody enjoyed talking and playing outside :). We got to hear about the mission trip that Granny had just taken, getting back the day before, coming home just in time for our visit, haha :). We had to leave too soon for our liking, but knowing that we would have to give baths before bed, and be up at a decent time the next morning to get the keys to our new house, with a five+ hour drive ahead of us, we knew we needed to leave earlier than usual. But we did not leave without getting a few promises that, after we got settled, several members of the family would try to make it up here for a visit :).

Aunt Donna gave us each a little some thing 

out of her and Uncle Jerry's collection. 

Emmi loves her Goofy toy :).

Once we were "on the road", the greatest example of what the efficiency is like when you drive in two separate cars came into the story ;). We handed out a few trip treats before we left Granny's, sending Tori back and forth between the vans several times, haha. (Since she had helped Mommy do the shopping for those in Daddy's car, she wanted to see their reaction.) But then we found that we had forgotten to give those in Daddy's car their snacks, haha! We were able to hand those out when we stopped at a gas station so that Daddy could fill up the vans, per plan, although the trip to the restrooms that also occurred at this stop was NOT planned ;). We started again, but then we couldn't for the life of us find "the manila envelope" with "I can't tell you what" in it, which turned out to be in Daddy's car. So, we made yet another stop, just minutes after starting yet again, because Mommy all but refused to go any farther without finding it ;), because "It's Bri's main trip treat, and it's going to be dark before we stop again!", haha. I was thoroughly confused, haha! It turned out to be the book "Will Our Generation Speak?" (a wonderful book, by the way :)!!!). We finally left Blacksburg... A town that takes only five short minutes to drive through. As long as you don't stop to do five thousand "odd jobs" along the way. Haha :)!

But, as we were leaving Blacksburg, we realized that Bethi was also missing one of her trip treats. Thankfully, that was in our car, and quick to find, although not exactly easy with all that it was under ;).

 Mag-na-doodles :)!

 Some *very special friends* sent us a special gift

 to be opened during our trip up here :)...

 Chocolate kisses, to go with the hugs they 

gave us when we said goodbye :)...

And it was so funny... Daddy and Mommy went to go get some supper, and they ran in while I stayed with the little ones in Mommy's car, and Tori stayed with those in Daddy's. While we were sitting there, I heard this beeping... beeping... beeping... and it wouldn't stop! I couldn't figure out who's car it was. It was going off for the longest time! Finally, Daddy and Mommy made it to the car, and it became obvious that it had been Daddy's car! Tori wasn't sure how it had happened, but the car's panic alarm had gone off, and she didn't know how to turn it off! She was so funny, telling us about it later, because she said "And I could see the police car right across the parking lot, and I was just waiting for the police officer to come up and ask me why in the world the car was on panic, and I would have to tell him I didn't even know!"... Haha :)!

Most of the little ones fell asleep fairly quickly, even though they were excited to have some new items to play with. They wore themselves out at Granny's ;). Mommy and Daddy of course were driving, and I tried to read my book, but about every ten minutes, Tori would ask me "Bri, I can't figure this out. Would you figure it out and then teach me?", as she handed me her Rubik's cube, haha. I think her main goal was not to be a quitter, but to get my book, because that is what she did every time I put it down to figure out the next step of the cube ;). Finally it got too dark to read even using my book light, which gets fainter the longer it is on, haha, so I decided to just go to sleep along with the little ones ;). Tori decided that she would have none of it, she was going to stay up the whole way to Virginia! I'm not sure how long I slept before I was hit by a seat. I woke up rather suddenly, and very squished, I will say, haha. After piecing together what bits I could make out between Mommy and Tori's howls of laughter, it turns out that the only light Tori was getting to do her Rubik's cube was behind her, so Mommy told her to lay her seat back so that she wouldn't have to do gymnastics while doing her cube. But Tori but didn't know how to lay the seat down, so when it did finally go, it really went. After I woke up with it on top of me, Tori tried to sit it back up, but that went even worse than laying it down... worse as in, the movement was non-existent ;). I think I only sat that way for about 45 minutes... haha!

We finally got to the hotel in Virginia... and Tori, with very bloodshot eyes, made it awake the whole way, hahaha! Andrew's nap seemed to have given him some good energy for a little bit. We got in the elevator, most of us looking like we were about to fall over asleep, but Andrew felt the elevator start moving and decided to pretend he was scared, or something... He made several gasping, shrieking, yipping noises and started pretending to try to scale the elevator walls. Daddy's face while watching him was priceless. Hahaha! We finished unloading, did bathes, and got everybody generally ready for bed before crashing ;). We were all looking forward to getting to see our new house the next day :)...