Always an adventure

Imagine a 4 month stretch of working 12 hour week days and 5 hour Saturdays. Add in a twosome of Daddy-missing kids, a wife who wants some sense of normal family life and a Holiday weekend approaching! We were told Mike would be off for three days straight...something we considered a true miracle! In the end, it wasn't a reality. They were forced to work today after all. BUMMER!! So when he came home this afternoon, we were determined to make the most of our evening together...LITTLE DID WE KNOW!

We have been wanting to pick strawberries and decided today was the day. It's somewhat of a haul to get there, but we knew it would be worth it. Sadly, I forgot my camera so I have no photographic proof of the saga that will quickly unfold here.

Upon arriving at the farm, we learned that the "picking" season is over for strawberries. Thankfully, they actually have a farm so we were able to walk around and see the animals. The kids loved it!

We stopped for dinner on our way home in North Myrtle Beach. For those who don't know...we live at the southern most point of Myrtle Beach. It's at least 20 miles between here and there. This week is "bike week" here. We've heard people talk about it, and now know their stories were not fabricated. We spent an hour in the car and traveled about 5 miles. Nate was screaming, we had no snacks, no paci...you get the picture.

Once we finally got on a different road Mike mentioned we needed gas. I asked how long the light had been on and he said, "a while." To which I responded with my great intelligence, "Once the light is on, you get only 20 miles." Mike says..."we're fine!" You can probably tell where this is headed...within 10 minutes we were parked on the side of the highway...OUT OF GAS!! Nate was screaming, LOUDER...and we still had no snacks or pacis.

Thankfully Mike's folks were home and came to the rescue! Sadly, the gas didn't quite do the trick and our car wouldn't start. Eventually (and I am sparing you MANY details...like how Nate was 2 hours past his most recent need for a diaper change, or how we were an hour past bed time, or how said "bike week" attendees were flying by us as we stood by the side of the road making us feel like we would lose either our hearing or life itself before the night ended, or how we transferred the children, their seats and most of our belongings into Dad's van...across 6 lanes of highway) we got the car started and made the journey home.

Do you ever feel like it's just one thing after another? It would have been easy to feel that today. It would have been easy to get frustrated by any of the many little things that didn't go our way. In the end, we were together and we had LOTS of laughs. If these crazy things didn't ALWAYS happen to us I think life would become pretty boring! Life is always an adventure in our home!