ray reunion - day 1

day 1 of driving also happened to be my birthday! day-o-driving? good thing i love me a good road trip!

we had a little pre-trip snafu that matt discovered when he was changing the oil in the truck. we had some kind of leak that needed shop work. as i was bathing the girls i was thinking about our problem and how we could leave and stay on schedule and i came up with the idea to just take the camry. grandpa had rented a car that seated 5, the camry seats 5, and there were 9 of us. i told the guys my idea (uncle glen flew in tuesday afternoon) and everyone agreed that i'm brilliant. ;) it was a tight squeeze, but we made it work!

*addie shots

we started off the day with the 3 girls in the back of the camry with matt and i. 

lex, chris, grandpa, and uncle glen rode in the rental.

our first stop was at a mall up near dc to add matt to grandpa's rental, and while we were there we ate some chicken salad sandwiches i had packed.

the girls were good but wiggly.
love addie's selfies!

somewhere in pennsylvania we traded out matt for alexis so he could spend some time driving with his dad.

our backseat was super crowded! i didn't even know 3 carseats could fit back there, but apparently with two forward and one rear it works! 

ps - i love fat baby feet!

 we drove through west virginia where lexi bought me a wv magnet for my birthday. addie helped her pick it out and also wanted to get me this lovely christmas license plate, but lexi was able to talk her out of it with just a picture. phew!

 

 we stopped just a few times to let little's run around and to let big's go potty and stretch their legs. parking lot playground.

after what seemed like forevah, we finally made it to cousin brad and his wife lea's house in cincinnati around 8pm. i had never met them before, but they were so sweet! they had a full brisket bbq spread waiting for us when we arrived and it was all delicious after a long day of road trip eating. then i came back from a restroom trip to an ice cream cake for my birthday! did i mention that i had never met them before? 

so nice!

grandpa and glen stayed the night at brad and lea's and our sweet seven headed to the historic mariemont hotel. granpda sprang for our fun room and it was really neat hotel.

chris couldn't believe that a hotel room wouldn't have a tv but upon further inspection he found that the picture above the fireplace rolls up to reveal a flatscreen tv. 

swanky!

these girls were so glad to be out of the car!

 this was one happy baby who suffered from a bad case of flash blink!

day 1 of safe travels, yay!