Moot Thoughts & Musings

This past week, my mom, Ellis, and I drove my youngest sister, Luisa, to college. Since she is attending my alma mater, I was excited to go along and catch up with a few people. The time, though, was very short and consumed with getting Lu set up, and I didn't get to see some people I was really hoping to see, including the crumleys, dreadfully sorry. :-( I imagine, though, that we'll be down again before the semester is over to bring familial company to my sister.

Chris drove us to Lancaster, since our other car is in the shop getting a very expensive state inspection sticker.

Son, these gas prices are seriously concerning.

Do you ever wonder if there's a conspiracy with the gas prices!? We found gas 50 CENTS cheaper in Virginia!!

I was a little worried, since this was Ellis's greatest distance road trip so far, going all the way to Lookout Mountain, Georgia. And he doesn't have a great track record with long car rides. But, a little maturity has worked wonders. We broke up the 12 hr trip into two days, stopping for the night at Chris's grandmother's house, located conveniently half way in Roanoke, VA. We took lots of stops and exercise walking Ellis around the rest areas...he won't let go of our hands yet, and he loves wearing my keys. Ellis was a dream! he didn't cry AT ALL! He's my traveling buddy!!

Climbing up a green tunnel slide in an empty McDonald's playground somewhere in Tennessee.

We managed to sneak off from Freshmania for a little bit to play with Caleb and Alice. Well, Ellis had a lot of fun with Caleb's toys and trying to climb Alice and terrorizing their dog and trying to play with their parent's computer and climbing on their boxes. I think Ellis's approach to the social situation was a little bit more presumptuous than Caleb was prepared for, who now not only had his sister to worry about but also this crazing climbing machine with a name that sounded an awful lot like his sister's. They started to warm up to each other by the end, perhaps we can stay longer next time. The most hilarious part, though, was Ellis's reaction to their dog, Katie. Ellis loves being around animals, but usually they don't like being around him and go hide. But Katie is wonderfully acclimated to small children. As we were sitting around the table, all of a sudden I heard these deep belly giggles. Ellis was teasing Katie with a cracker, holding it out and pulling it back, laughing and laughing. He chased the dog all over the house; he couldn't get enough of her! Too bad we can't have pets. It was a lot of fun for me to finally meet these two kids and catch up with Bob and Michelle! It's funny to think back to hanging out with them ten years ago in college and now our kids got to play together.

Ellis Goes to College

Goodbye, Aunty Lu!

More pics of the trip on Flickr.