Getting Back on Track

• I am not going to update the blog with pictures from our trip as that would be would be a massive and overwhelming job! Ricky’s social media posts will have to do: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. I am still slowly trying to download and upload all the pictures and videos; sorting and editing them sounds like an unrealistic dream!
• I thought that it would take 1-2 weeks to unpack and catch up, but it looks like it will take 4-6 weeks (five months is just a long time to be away from home).
• A few of Raphael’s romps from the trip: When he was crawling and wanted to get somewhere fast, he would tuck his head down and plow forward like a bull charge ;) Every animal is a woof woof; got seven teeth; started walking in Dallas at a hotel one night (12/22, 14 months old); and, would put each hand on the sides of his head and shake his head back and forth as we said Oh my!...
• Trip quote log:

“When can we go to the Bible aquarium?” Micaiah, about the Bible museum  

"West Virginia is a good place to do school. It’s like the Prairie.” Aolani 

“Oh, I just love when hotels have refrigerators!” Micaiah  

“God could make me pregnant like Mary. I’m already ready.” Aolani, age 8  

“Whenever people play Mommy they get fretless.” Micaiah  

“There’s another one across the streeeeeet!” Tim Hawkins, we quoted from his Sounds of Starbucks song way too much

“Every time someone gets hurt, you look at me like this [glares].” Micaiah  

"Luther was going to the bathroom? Why would they put that in the book?“ Aolani, about Eric Metaxas’s Luther biography, which Ricky listened to in the car

“My favorite cereal is that frozen cereal baggy." "What’s frozen cereal? Oh, you mean Frosted Flakes? Yeah.” Micaiah and Ricky 

“How much longer?” “Not long." "I want Mommy’s answers. You don’t tell the numbers.” Micaiah and Ricky 

“The reason [why can’t ride in the front seat] is because there is like this air thing in the front seat. We have it, and they don’t.” Micaiah to Aolani

“I’m going to be a doctor. You can tell because I have long fingers.” Aolani 

“Mommy and Daddy, I’ve been thinking. I always think.” Micaiah  

“Why do we always have to eat lunch at dinner time?” Aolani 

“Mommy goes through lots of honey, cans and cans and cans of honey.” Micaiah  

“Mmm. This would be a good place to eat the mistakes.” Aolani about Dairy Queen (Ricky worked there in high school and said that the employees got to eat the orders they messed up.) 

“I love being in the car for two more hours. Perfect!” Micaiah 

“Don’t you think this place is half a quarter of heaven?” Aolani, about California  

“I love being in the car for my whole entire life.” Micaiah  

“I’m 100% fluent in Scottish.” Aolani 

“I’m practicing how to pretend faint so that when I really faint, it won’t hurt.” Micaiah 

“We’re one hour late.” Aidan, the family said this was the phrase I repeated the most.

“I’m checking for bombs.” Micaiah 

“I’m always worried about people getting stuck in the elevator—even people I don’t know.” Micaiah  

Aolani called her new friend Kamila, "Chamomile."

“Since goblins are cool, I make them believers in my setup.” Micaiah   

“Oh, Pennsylvania, like Hotel Pennsylvania, with the vampires.” Aolani  

“You want me to get sick. That’s why you planned this trip, to get me sick.” Micaiah  

“Daddy, I’m on ‘Tweeter’ with Lecrae." Aolani, on her play phone 

“Why do we always have to drive by other people’s schools and houses? It’s such a waste of time.” Micaiah  

“For one thing, they want privacy because they’re old." Aolani 

“All I wanna do is sleep and think, and you guys won’t let me." Micaiah  

“Whoaaaaa!” Raphael

• After staying in 70 different places, we were the recipients of some amazing hospitality. Here is my new definition of that term: 

Hospitality is when, instead of making your guests feel like they’re imposing on you, you make them feel like they are blessing you just by being there.

• Verses memorized on trip: Micaiah — Psalm 1, Genesis 1:1, Jeremiah 29:11, Deuteronomy 6:4-6 ; Aolani — Psalm 128:1, Galatians 5:22, Philippians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Matthew 17:20, Psalm 63:1-4, Psalm 100
• I started adding back new ones this year: Habakkuk 2:3, Micah 6:8, Hebrews 13:5-6, Ecclesiastes 5:2