The weather forecast for India while we are there!

The weather in India while we are there will be upper 70s-lower 80s and RAINY!

Matthew 25:35-40

Passage Matthew 25:35-40:
³⁵ For ^(A)I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you ^(B)gave me drink, ^(C)I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ^{36 (D)}I was naked and you clothed me, ^(E)I was sick and you ^(F)visited me, ^(G)I was in prison and you came to me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? ³⁸ And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And ^(H)the King will answer them, ^(I)‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these ^(J)my brothers,^[a] you did it to me.’

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Many of you are reading this blog for the very first time.  Welcome!  To my other followers, welcome back!

Typically,  our blog Adventures in the Silver Bullet is reserved for road trip blogging.  But January 1-12, 2012 Lauren and Brenda will be taking a trip of a different kind....our 1st international mission trip!  We are nervous, excited, anxious, and blessed all at the same time. 

We first heard about the trip while we were on our road trip this summer.  If you read the rest of the blog you can read all about THAT adventure.  Fun times!  Anyway, I began prayerfully considering participating in the mission trip to India.  I also had it in the back of my mind that I would love to take Lauren on a mission trip.  Barry quickly closed the door on that idea. 

Obviously our hearts and minds were changed in so many ways.  After much prayer, thought, prayer, pleading  asking Barry to reconsider, and more prayer....one night he turned to me and said, "Okay....you guys can go."  I called the church the next day to tell them that I was seriously considering going but just had to round up the funds.  The next night the leader for the mission trip called to tell me some news that shocked me but not HIM.  Someone had felt the Lord telling them that they were supposed to pay for my mission trip.  Yep, 100%.  PAID FOR.  I'm still in shock over this.

After a lot of weekends spent baking, babysitting, etc. Lauren also raised $2100 towards her trip.  Amazing.  If God ever calls you to something, don't doubt that He is going to find a way to make it happen.  He stirred the hearts of so many to donate to her trip.  I pray that they will be blessed by their giving.

So now here we are a mere 72 hours from departure!  We are packing, making lists, praying, preparing meals for the boys to eat while we're gone so they don't O.D. on Burger King, etc. 

I would love for you to come with us to India!  Would you be part of our prayer team?  We need you!  Please follow this blog and stay up to date on our adventure.

I can't give very many details other to say that we will be in the Kolkata area and will be working with victims of trafficking.  I'm sorry I can't say much but suffice it to say that the people there, just like us, are in need of a Savior.  We are hoping to bring hope and comfort to every person we come in contact with.  I covet your prayers.

Here are some ways to pray specifically:
 

Pray for tPray for the India Justice Ministry Mission Trip (12 Women) that leaves today, Jan 1-12, to minister to women/girls caught in brothels in Kolkata, India

• Pray for the women/girls of these brothels to be delivered and come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior
• Pray for the team as they teach sewing and jewelry making skills as a alternate form of income
• Pray for God to use the presentation of the Jesus Film to touch the hearts of each woman/girl with the gospel
• Pray the team’s eyes will be open to needs and they will be bold beyond their comfort zone
• Pray for the team’s safety as they move around on the busy streets of Kolkata
• Pray for team members Kay and daughter Kaytlin, Brenda and daughter Lauren, Jana and daughter Rachael, Sterling, Barb, Jill, Kim, Janetl, and Christine.

3 more of our Top Ten Moments

Continuing with my theme of Top Ten Moments of our 2011 Road Trip, here are 3 more (again, these are in no particular order)....

4 - Mount Rushmore
Seeing Mount Rushmore both during the day as well as at night was amazing. Beautiful. Breath taking. Made me feel patriotic. I loved thinking about the artist that had the original idea and the thousands of man hours spent on the project. I also thought it was interesting to see all of the Asian tourists at Mount Rushmore. I guess I was just impressed that they were curious enough about American history to want to see it. 

We hiked up the 350+ stairs to see Mount Rushmore. It gave us an entirely different vantage point. 

Mount Rushmore is also THE BEST PLACE to look for license plates. I bought the 99 cent iPhone app to keep track of license plates and we cleared about 30-35 in the parking lot. 

5 - RAINBOW!  
This moment is one of those "ya gotta see it to believe it" moments. When we left Montana on August 1st to head to the Idaho house we all agreed on 1 thing: the government shutdown could put a major kink in our travel plans. If there were a government shutdown that could very well include the national park system, including YELLOWSTONE!  So we agreed that we would see as much of YNP as we drove through it, even though that was against our original plan of spending the 1st day unpacking, finding the grocery store, etc. 

We spent the day at Mammoth Hot Springs and Old Faithful (more on that later). By the time we arrived at the house it was dusk. After fumbling around trying to find the house for about 45 minutes (have you ever thought to yourself.."so close, yet so far away?") we pulled over and started talking to this 11 year old kid riding a 4 wheeler. He tried to figure out where we were going but he was just as confused by our directions as we were. The house is brand new so we couldn't find anything online. 

About that time one of the kids noticed a rainbow. We all got out of our cars to find THE MOST BRILLIANT RAINBOW we had ever seen. It was a full rainbow and appeared to be painted in the sky not with the typical pastel colors. It was brightly colored, the brightest I have ever seen. Inside it was a smaller rainbow. It was amazing. If you've seen our pictures on Facebook, trust me...it doesn't do it justice. 

Yes we eventually found the house. The directions sent us down a gravel road for 2 miles to turn into a new subdivision. We drove for 3 miles before we gave up. Finally we tried it again and we found it after 4 miles. Our house sat on 6 acres in a gated community. It was perfect for the 18 of us. It was 3 levels. The 8 girls shared the basement. There were twin over full bunk beds and a pull out couch. The main level had the main living area and master bedroom (the Soroski family won the coin toss!). The upstairs had 2 more bedrooms and a loft for the 4 boys. 

6 - Junior Ranger program
I am so thankful to the national park system. Our tax dollars are well spent protecting and improving our national parks. They are worth protecting. Stepping off soapbox now. 

The kids earned their 10th junior ranger badge in Yellowstone. They also earned Devils Tower, Grand Teton, and Little Bighorn Battlefield this trip. Before this trip they earned White Sands, Natural Bridges, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Bandelier, and Carlsbad Caverns. 

The Junior Ranger program gets kids involved in learning about the national park versus just "visiting" the park. The Yellowstone badge was definitely the hardest that they have ever done. It was a 13 page packet!  If you are planning a trip there I would request to have the packet mailed to you ahead of time so the kids could work on it on the way there. 

Funny story:
When we arrived at Little Bighorn our 1st stop (as it always is) was the visitor center to pick up the junior ranger packets. I told the ranger, "I would like 12 junior ranger packets, please." First his jaw dropped, apparently he had never seen 12 kids before. Then he basically said that yes, they had a JR program but that it would be too hard for the kids and that we should just skip it. I respectfully told him that we would have 12 disappointed kids if we didn't do it so again, politely asked him to fork over the packet. He reluctantly agreed and left the counter to go get them. While he was gone we endured the usual questions from the other park ranger as well as other guests. "Where are you from?  Are you related?  Do you have a different shirt each day?  Do you do this every year?"  Apparently when 18 people in matching shirts arrive on the scene it always turns heads. Especially when the adults are outnumbered by kids 3:1. But I digress. 

So the ranger comes back with the packets and again asks us, "Are you sure you want to do this?  There's a lot of questions on this paper. Plus it's about a battle and it was a gruesome battle." Seeing as how our gaggle of boys were already drawn to the tomahawks and guns, I didn't think they would be too disturbed. :)

We all laughed when we saw that there were only 10 questions on the sheet!  They finished it pretty quickly. We watched the video and then walked around the battlefield grounds. It was really cool!  When we were done we went back into the building so the kids could be sworn in as junior rangers and get their badges. The park ranger was so amazed that 12 kids earned it that they took their picture and posted it on their Facebook page!  So if you are in Montana please go earn Junior Ranger badges at Little Bighorn Battlefield...apparently they don't get much business. 


Look for my 3rd and final installment of Top Ten Moments of the 2011 Road Trip soon. 

TOP TEN MOMENTS - Here are the 1st 3 (in no particular order)

Okay I am a terrible blogger. I had high hopes of blogging every moment of our vacation but that obviously didn't happen. I will try to catch you up. We are currently on the road from Island Park, ID enroute to Colorado Springs, CO. I have 10 hours to get caught up. 

We all agreed that the highlights of our trip were our 3 "excursions" and seeing animals in their natural habitat.  Here are our Top Ten Best Moments of vacation:

1 - Seeing a Mama Bear go "all Mama Bear" on a male bear that dared to get too close to her cubs. Thankfully we were in our car when it happened but just moments prior to that Barry was standing photographing the Mama and babies. A park ranger happened to pull up right behind us and he used his speaker mounted on top of his car to tell us "Stay in your car, folks. This Mama has a conflict with a male in this area.". About that time we saw the Mama scoot her little cubs straight up a tree and then the Mama came tearing across the road right in front of our car, chasing that male. They were fast!  It was amazing!  The babies were still waiting in the tree for Mama to return. We took several good pictures and Lauren has a video of the babies. I wish I could figure out how to get pictures on here. 


2 - Horseback riding through Pleasant Valley for the Roosevelt Wild West cowboy cookout. The views in the valley were truly breathtaking, the weather was perfect, the horses were well-behaved, and the dinner was delicious. At the end of the dinner a cowboy quoted cowboy poems and sang a song that he had written for the Cowboy Dinner. Then we rode back home on a different trail. It was a perfect evening. 

Dinner was a typical cowboy dinner served on heavy metal plates.  Made to order steak, corn, apple cobbler, potato salad, cornbread muffin, fruit, and (according to Lauren) the best BBQ beans ever. She claims they were even better than the ones I make?!?


3 - White water rafting was swawesome, as Carter would say. The water was low so it wasn't as exciting or scary as I thought it was going to be, but it was very fun and parts of the river were definitely scarier than others. When our guide found out that he had a Carter on his boat he asked us if we wanted to jump off Carter's Bridge. He didn't know how high it was but he said it was "only a few feet". Carter said he wanted to do it so when we approached the bridge he pulled off on a sandy embankment and pointed where to walk over to the bridge. I assumed he was going to wait for the adults to go and watch the kids jump off. But I had forgotten that we were in a raging river so obviously the current would take them downstream pretty quickly. So basically we had NO CHOICE but to jump.  As we were walking out onto Carter's Bridge I began to PANIC. It was about a 15 foot jump into 50 degree water with a strong current. I remember saying, "WHAT ARE WE DOING?  THIS IS NUTS!"

Steve Kelley jumped first and he made it look pretty easy (although he did admit later that he was scared). By this time our guide Jay had already floated down underneath the bridge and was paddling like a madman (using guide oars--really big oars that are used on both sides at a time). He was hollering, "You gotta jump now. I can't hold this boat much longer!" One thing we hadn't noticed (not that we had a chance to back out) is that there was a set of rapids just past where Jay was steadying the boat. In other words, if we didn't get into the boat before the rapids then we would have to swim through them. At this point I realized we had to start jumping. The fear of swimming through the rapids was bigger than my fear of jumping. 

In order to jump off the bridge we had to climb over the railing first. That was almost scarier than the jump itself because we were wet and climbing over a slippery metal hand railing is kinda dangerous. Lauren and Emily jumped next, screaming the whole way down. It was Carter's and my turn. He had absolutely NO FEAR whatsoever. Every gray hair on my head is from him!  I looked at Elijah and he had a look of total fear on his face and that's when I really freaked out. I asked Barry, "If he doesn't jump then how will y'all get onto the boat?" That's when trust came in. I was really scared!  He told me not to worry and that they would catch up somehow. Our guide was still yelling "You gotta jump NOW!" He was really struggling against the current. Keep in mind that this kid was probably 22....does he even HAVE a frontal lobe yet?!

Carter was saying, "Come on, Mom!" so.   We.  Jumped.  Time stood still. We popped right back up. We were all wearing Class V lifejackets; I think they are the highest bouyancy?  I'm a pretty strong swimmer. So is Carter but his little 80 pound frame was quickly whisked to the opposite side of the river from where our guide had finally pulled over to get out of the current. I think he had given up on us ever jumping. We started swimming for the raft but there was NO WAY we were gonna make it. Carter was on the left side of me and getting further away from me with every stroke. I grabbed that kid by the life jacket and put him on the other side of me. I saw that if we didn't change course quickly that we were going to miss the boat and head into the rapids. Steve, Lauren, and Emily had all made it into the boat. 

I looked Carter in the eye and commanded, "Son we have to swim harder than we ever have to make it to the boat!". I think when he heard the fear in my voice it might've gotten to him a little bit because he swam HARD. I looked over my shoulder and saw Elijah and Barry climbing down the steep embankment to get into the water to swim towards the boat. I couldn't worry about them and I had total trust in him to get my baby into the boat safely. We arrived at the raft and I could finally catch my breath before realizing that I had no strength to get into the boat. Steve and Jay basically drug my behind onto the raft. I'm sure it was very ladylike. I turned towards Barry and Elijah. Eli had a panicky look on his face. I'm not sure how they got to the boat so quickly (or maybe time stood still when C and I were in the water and it wasn't really as long as it seemed).

--- Barry here...Eli and I stepped down the rocky embankment and waded into the icy river water. It was quite shallow at first with no current, so it was hard to get going. As soon as he felt how cold it was in this part of the river, Eli started to freak out, but we had no other choice for getting back to the boat. I grabbed his hand and we swam together out into the swift current in the middle of the river where we really started to make good time. The boat tried to wait on us, but continued to drift downstream. For a brief moment it seemed like they were continuing on without us. I recall waving at the boat to make sure someone would see we were in the water. The current continued to speed us along: my hand clasped firmly onto Eli's, Eli panicking from the cold water and the now obvious predicament that the two of us would have to float at least a portion of the upcoming rapids in our lifejackets! If you have a picture of whitewater rafting going in your head, let me reassure you these weren't Discovery Eco-Challenge-quality rapids, but when you're literally just keeping your head and your scared child's head above water they were rapid enough. Eli and I assumed our feet-forward safety float and after only three or four waves crashed over our heads (making it hard for me to catch my breath, which made me nervous) we made it to the side of the boat. Eli was quickly pulled up, then Steve hauled me in. We of course were both fine, and Eli, who was worried everyone else would brag about jumping off the bridge, achieved the dubious distinction of being the only kid to swim the rapids. I think next time the two of us will just jump off the bridge.
Now back to Brenda...--- 

Once we were all safely back in the boat we all agreed that it might not have been a bright idea. But then again, we all agreed that we would have done it again. 

It was just one of those moments that I'll never forget and I'm so glad I got to share it with my 4 favorite people on the planet. Plus Steve and Emily, I'm pretty partial to them, too!

I will write the next 3 Top Ten Moments later!

DAY NINE: Grand Tetons and Jackson, WY

So I will answer the questions on everyone's mind first: we did NOT see Harrison Ford, much to the disappointment of 4 teen/tween girls. We DID have a great time and a very full day.

We got a really late start from Island Park. Everyone was so tired from our long day in Yellowstone the day before. We left the house around 10 am. Our first stop was Bubba's BBQ in Jackson. They had one of the best salad bars I have ever had as well as yummy BBQ and delicious chocolate chip cookies. From there the 3 families split up as we wanted to see a different part of the park. The kids were also interested in earning their 10th Junior Ranger badge so we needed to attend a program for that.

We left Grand Tetons around 5 pm to head for dinner and the Jackson Hole Playhouse production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. We ate at Mile High Pizza Pie...yummy! We were only about a block from the playhouse but Lauren was so excited that we had to go really early.

Of course when you attend a play with 18 people in matching shirts and you are sitting in the front row, you are bound to become a part of the pre show! Barry was drug out to dance with one of the characters and then given a huge kiss on the cheek, complete with a lipstick stain on his cheek! Then they interviewed Lauren. When asked which character "brother" was the cutesy (they were all lined up) she hammed it up and said, "they're all pretty good looking"!

The show was amazing and it only fueled Lauren's desire to be an actress. We had a great time. Being on the front row definitely made us part of the show. Several times the actors fell into our seats during fight scenes. During the dance social scene one of the "brides" asked Elijah if he had ever been here before. He said "no" and she asked him to dance. She acted all disappointed when he sank down in his seat, embarrassed. It was pretty funny.

It was almost 1 a.m. when we got home. It was a full day but worth it!

DAY TEN: Relaxing at the house

Today was a very quiet day at the house. Have I mentioned that this house is amazing? Since each of the kids has a friend group they find ways to entertain themselves. There are basically 3 groups of kids: big girls (Emily, Lauren, Rachael, and (Ruth), boys (Carter, Elijah, Ki, and Isaiah), and little girls (Elisha, Jena, Erin, and Enslee). Today we swam at the lake, the big girls made a scavenger hunt for the boys, the little girls played house, the big girls had a karaoke contest and makeovers, etc. We are definitely making memories!

On tomorrow's agenda: Roosevelt Wild West dinner. We will ride on horseback in Yellowstone National Park to a chuck wagon dinner. Our tour leaves at dusk which is the best chance to see wildlife.

http://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/Old-West-Dinner-Cookout-7201.HTML

Grand Teton and Harrison Ford!!!!! Written by Lauren

So you have probably guessed that today we are going to The Grand Teton and hopefully will meet Harrison Ford!! :D I am so excited for both! Yellowstone was beautiful and it was SO worth the drive! We are on our way right now to the Grand Teton and than later tonight we are going to see the play Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which is my favorite musical! We will see the play in Jackson Hole, Wyoming ( which is where Harrison Ford has his ranch). We (The big girls)don't know for sure if we are going to see him because of his new movie Cowboys and Aliens. So we are hoping but even hope can be crushed under the strength of reality ( I just made that up myself )Well I got to go if we do meet him I will blog immediately and tell about it! :)

DAY FIVE - Wyoming and Montan

We left Custer at 9 this morning. We were all a little sad to leave. Custer is a beautiful town with much to offer and see. Wish we could've stayed longer!

We headed west and arrived at Devils Tower after a short 3 hour trip. Devils Tower was amazing! I really expected a big rock but it turned out to be so much more. The history and mystique surrounding Devils Tower is very intriguing. We hiked all the way around...did I mention it was HOT? The kids earned their Junior Ranger badge and we stamped our National Park passport.

We stopped for lunch in Moorcroft. We had fun playing "What's Her Story" with an interesting young woman eating a footlong sub in the back of her SUV at Subway. We were thrilled because she gave us the ever-elusive MAINE license plate. We decided that her "story" is that she is leaving her small-town life in Maine to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. Yep, pretty sure we will see her on the big screen someday.

After we solved THAT mystery we entered Montana, our 7th state. We saw some amazing scenery, vast expanses, snow-capped mountains, and desolate homesteads. Barry kept mentioning how gorgeous it was. Of course I just couldn't help but think about how miserable it must be in the winter. Carter even said, "Mom, you'd hate it here in the winter, wouldn't you?". He knows me too well.

Our next stop was Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. It was sobering and solemn. The park ranger showed us a cool movie about the battle and specifically the Last Stand Hill. It was cool to then walk that hill, visit the cemetery, and read the different accounts from both sides. Did you know that's where the phrase "won the battle but lost the war" was first coined? The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges. The park ranger tried to talk us out of doing the Junior Ranger program because the packet was "really hard and it might be too graphic for young kids since it's about a battle." Ha! Apparently he doesn't know the DeKelSki kids! I didn't have the heart to tell him that their "worksheet" was one of the easiest ones they had ever completed.

Well I am off to bed. Tomorrow we enter our 8th state...Idaho. I'm really looking forward to checking into the house and "staying put" for 10 days. 5 nights in 4 hotels is enough for this Mama! Thanks for checking on us.

DAY FOUR - by Elijah

Today we went to a lot of exciting places and views.one place was a canyon with a valley "hundreds of feet below" and most people in the family thought it was a mini Grand Canyon!
And in a wildlife preserve we saw 3 buffalo!(my favorite animal) well, thats it for today bye!

DAY FOUR - by Lauren

Today we went to: Walls Drug Store, Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, and Iron Mountain! It was so cool! Walls Drug Store is definatly the place to go for souvenirs! :) the Badlands to me was like a giant desert! I see why they call it the "bad"lands . Mount Rushmore was a beautiful as ever! And Iron Mountain had some of the best views I had ever seen! It is so cool to think that God made all of what I saw today! I thinK my new favorite state is South Dakota.....<3 :)

DAY FOUR

1 - Mount Rushmore at night. It. Is. Stunning.

2 - Seeing buffalo, antelope, and prairie dogs within minutes of arriving in Wind Cave National Park.

3 - Carter and I feeding a horse an apple under the "Welcome to South Dakota" sign. He followed us along the fence line like a puppy so we ran to the car to get him an apple. Fun memory!

4 - Stepping out of the car this evening to NO HUMIDITY and 62 degrees. It felt amazing. Texas I love you but you could learn a thing or 2 from South Dakota and their weather.

5 - Cheesy Carhenge. That's just funny. I don't care who you are.

DAY THREE

Today is Day 3 of our road trip. After a too-brief stay at a mediocre hotel in North Platte, NE we are headed to western Nebraska. Our 1st stop is Bayard, home to Chimney Rock, Courthouse Rock, and Jail Rock. From there we will angle north to Alliance, NE.  What's in Alliance?  More on that later. 

Have I mentioned the importance of laying down the Fodor's and Rand McNally books when traveling on a road trip?  Instead think "outside of the box".  If you truly want to SEE America, you gotta get off the interstate  im sure I sound like "Sally" in Cars 1, but she makes a great point.  If we had been on the interstate, we would've missed meeting the fun waitress in Grainfield.  We would have not seen the World's Largest Hand Dug Well.  And we would've missed today's other stop....CARHENGE in Alliance, Nebraska.

The World's Largest Hand Dug Well?!?

Huh?! What a bizarre stop on a road trip! If that's a place that you wouldn't stop then remind me to never road trip with you. Stops like that are Americana and kitschy. You can always meet interesting people at bizarre stops like that.

The well was....well it was huge. And it was hand dug. And it is the world's largest. That's all there is to it, really. God bless America!

DAY ONE

We left Bartlesville around 9 am. We are stopping for lunch in Wichita before heading to Dodge City. Today's final destination is North Platte, NE.

Lauren's First Blog

I am SUPER pumped for this DeKelSki Road Trip! I can't wait to go see Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone and so much more! It is really hard to believe that we leave tomorrow! After months of waiting we are now down to these last few days of packing and cleaning! :) I will be blogging as well as the rest of my family so make sure to read read read! Can't wait for this fun filled 2011 vacation!

Elijah's 1st blog

Road trip 2011,the silver bullet is going to Yellowstone,Mount Rushmore,Car henge,Olympic training center and many others. In Yellowstone we'll see water shooting up in the air,mountains,canyons, petrified wood, bears,wolves, and elk.I can't wait for road trip 2011!

Making a list and checking it twice....

How does one go on a road trip for almost 3 weeks?  Oh and did I mention that the temperature range is 22 - 103?  And that we need to be able to eat at least 2 meals/day out of our cooler?  Make a list!  I've been adding to "the list" for almost a year.  And now that we are less from 48 hours from departure that list is in my hand constantly.  We have a staging area set up in the dining room.  I would show you a picture but it is pretty overwhelming right now.

The kids travel binders and journals are ready to go.  The border surprises (more on that later) are all wrapped and labeled.  The laundry is done.  The food is purchased.

On tomorrow's agenda: ask bribe Lauren to vacuum the car, clean the house, make lists for the housesitter (she's the BEST!), transition the "piles" of stuff into actual bags, and follow up on some last minute details, reservations, etc.  We are getting so close to our ADVENTURE IN THE SILVER BULLET!

How to make a road trip eduational

As a homeschool mom, I am always looking for ways to make everything educational.  Lauren is quick to point out "my mom makes everything into school".  But life is our classroom and the American roads are our teachers.

Using the book "Cantering the Country", a website called Enchanted Learning, and other internet resources, I am creating notebooks for my kids.  They will each have their own binder with their own
"assignments".  This serves 2 purposes.  1) It helps them keep up with where we are on the trip, how many miles we will travel each day, possible stops along the way, lodging information, etc. and 2) they will learn about where we are traveling.

I am in the process of printing out all their worksheets for the trip.  The binder is divided by day (Thursday, Friday, etc.)  Their are word finds, crossword puzzles, maps, a license plate game, car bingo, etc. in there.  Some activities are fun and not required while others are educational in nature and a requirement.

The other fun idea that I'm working on today is wrapping up small border surprises.  Every time we cross a border they receive a small surprise.  When we cross into Oklahoma they will receive travel diaries, Kansas = fun money to use as they wish during the course of the trip, Nebraska = new DVD's, etc.  Still working on the rest of the states.  I was going to tailor each gift to the state but my brain just wasn't willing to work that hard.  LOL

Our travel mates....

This road trip is actually a 2nd road trip for the DeKelSki family.  We are obviously the "De", our friends Steve & Gayla Kelley are the Kel's, and the Ski's are Jason and Jana Soroski.  They are fun traveling mates and our kids are all best friends which makes it more funner!  :)

You can follow the Soroski's blog here.  I think the Kelley's are setting one up as well but I don't know her blogger address yet.

Test

Is this a hot mic?

Blessings,
Brenda

Sent from my neato burrito iPhone

On the road again....

I set up this blog so that friends and family could follow us on our Summer 2011 Road Trip.  Okay, okay...truth be told....I set this up for me.  So I wouldn't forget a single fabulous minute of our trip.  I'm so excited!

I will have some guest bloggers (perhaps you know them?) as we travel.  I am also taking an amazing photographer along with me (perhaps you know him?).

We leave in just a few short weeks!  So excited!