Blessings

At the RV park in Mississippi (that my brother in law was able to find for me), the person we parked next to offered to help me set up the trailer as soon as we parked. The next day at church we were welcomed. I went to relief society and "just happened" to be sitting by the one person in the room whose husband had a job similar to Jacob's. She understood what I was going through and leaned over and gave me a much needed hug. Monday morning, I was up early hooking up the trailer to the van. I had everything done except for one part of the hutch hooked up and for the life of me I could not figure it out. It was something I had done before but for some reason I couldn't figure it out. I tried and tried and tried and prayed and tried some more and had the thought, "Go wake up Rachel and have her pray for you. She has the gift of faith." So I did. I woke her up and asked her to say a prayer for me while she got dressed. I walked out of the trailer and to work on the part I was trying to get. I was immediately able to figure it out and get it all the way hooked up.
Another blessing was the police officer who changed our tire. Who knows how long we would have been waiting for the other people to show up, and I went out and helped the officer for a little bit and there is no way I would have been able to change the tire on my own. Also, that crazy Monday, Elijah did not cry in the car even once. That was a huge blessing!
The next day when I woke up, again I was hooking up the trailer to the van and there was a part that was stuck and I just didn't have the strength to get it right. I had the thought, "Go turn the van off and get your keys." I went and got the keys and mentioned to the kids that they should say another prayer for me. I went back out to work on it and the part I needed to get unstuck, moved and I was back in the van within 30 seconds.
I don't usually walk around the van before we start, but I do usually walk around the trailer to make sure we are ready to go and there aren't any problems. For some reason, I did walk around the van and noticed the tires were low on air. I had a man offer to put air in my tires for free. Every one of my tires were extremely low. We were then able to make it all the way home with no other mishap's. The Lord's hand was helping me along the way. I was praying. Jacob was praying. The kids were praying. My family was praying. Jacobs family was praying. Even my visiting teachers were praying for us! The Lord hears prayers. Even though we still had problems with our trailer, things were able to work out and testimonies were strengthened along the way.

Road trip across 5 states!

Friday night Jacob got a call from work saying that he needed to go on a trip PRONTO. We were planning on starting our drive home THE NEXT MORNING. Instead they flew him out the next morning and I was left in Florida with my three kids to make the trip to New Mexico alone. I've made quite a few trips with my kids without my husband, but I had never done it with a trailer in tow. Pulling a trailer adds a whole new element of stress to driving, add to that the fact that our trailer is about 35 feet long. I've parked next to semis, and with our van and our trailer, we are almost as long as a semi. So Saturday morning I started off on a new adventure with my kids. We didn't the next two nights in Vicksburg, Mississippi (so we could go to church on Sunday) and then starts the nightmare of Monday. We woke up early because we were trying really hard to get home before Jacob had to leave New Mexico. We were making good time, made it all the way through Louisiana and into Texas before lunch. At about 12 o'clock we reached Dallas, and we blew a tire on the trailer. I didn't even notice until the rubber from the tire was all gone and we were driving on the rim. I was able to pull the van over to an off ramp. When I got out to look, not only was the river from the tire gone, but the external plumbing lines were completely gone. I called the roadside assistance we have through our insurance and after 45 minutes, they were STILL 90 minutes out. A police officer stopped and offered to change the tire for us so that we could get off the road and I gladly accepted his help. He said it was the hardest tire he had ever changed in his life. After sitting in the side of the road for about 2 hours, we were finally able to drive away. Then I needed to get a new tire, and see if it was safe for our trailer if I kept driving. After another two hours (and more than a few tears shed) we were back on the road again. I needed to find a place for us to stop for the night that was preferably in a smaller and safe place than in the middle of the big city of Dallas, Texas. So now I'm driving through rush hour traffic trying to get out of the city and going I can make it without running out of gas. At about 7 o'clock that night, I stopped with my kids at a truck stop for the night. We had started driving at 4 that morning. Talk about a tired mama and kids that hadn't been able to get their wiggles out ALL day!! We were able to make it home the next day thankfully. It was a long, hard, exhausting trip home, but through it all I could feel the prayers that were going up on my behalf. I'll write about that in my next post though.

Asleep

This is how I found Kent when we stopped for the night yesterday. I'm not sure how he did it in this position, but he was sound asleep!

Careful he bites

Florida!

Beach day!

Hermit crabs and Sand Castles

All of the shells at this beach are inhabited by hermit crabs. I thought I had finally found one that was empty and carried it around a while. I set it beside me in the sand and low and behold, it started crawling off! Rachel and I followed a hermit crab in the water a little ways, just to see where it was going. This has been such a fun vacation!! We haven't spent nearly enough time at the beach of course. Mostly because we have to keep up on homeschool too. But i would say that this trip has been educational for everyone as well. We've been able to see dinosaur tracks, sharks, hermit crabs, fish, squirrels. We've learned a little about plants, oceans, RVs, public showers, and building sand castles. We've also made some friends (something we've been sorely lacking) and visited new states that we hadn't ever been to before. I would love to just be able to travel everywhere all the time and see different things. I know we won't be able to do this forever, but I'm sure going to take advantage of it while I can!!

Elijah

I think my little Elijah boy had been playing too hard and not getting enough rest because today he came down with a cold. He decided he was done with naps about a month ago, and has exchanged them for an earlier bed time usually around 6 o'clock. While we've been in Florida, we've been spending almost all our time outside, which this kid loves, but I think it's been taking it's toll. Today is the second day this week that Elijah has gotten extremely badly in the afternoon and I've had to lay him down and MAKE him take a nap. If you have a two year old, you know it isn't easy to make them do anything they don't want to do! Once I finally get him to lay down though, he falls asleep within minutes. 3:30 is really an awful time for a nap, but sometimes it just needs to happen. I love my tired little two year old! And I especially love when he falls asleep with his cute little arms around my neck.