Road Trip

This was the weekend we were gonna be super busy! We planned our trip out to Dave’s wedding like this:

• Drive down through Kentucky and visit Nyree
• stay and play for a day celebrate Ny’s birthday
• Leave friday for DC Maia staying with the girls
• Saturday wedding + reception then turn around and 12hr drive back to KY!

We overall were preparing for about 40 hours in the car, but we were prepared with our books on CD and an emergency kit in the trunk. So we began our journey Wednesday after Jesse’s exam. We got on the road around 11am so we made it in time for dinner to Nyree’s. We haven’t seen them in over 2 years, before Jesse and I were engaged in fact. And it was our first time meeting Sayaka, she is only 6 months older than Maia they are about the same height have the same wispy brown curls and the same squishy cheeks!

  Uncle Jesse and his girls!

from left to right : Chie 10, Naomi 4, Maia 13 months, Saya 19 months, Senae 7

On thursday we had the whole day to hang out with the girlies because it was a snow day! There was a whole Inch and a half of snow on the ground! Gotta love Kentucky winter weather (we sure did!!). We played Just Dance on the Wii, Uncle Jesse is the dance master. I did alright its quite a workout all that dancing; it was super fun though! Then we had story time, which nearly lasted the entire weekend, Jesse as many of you know is a big fan of the Wheel of Time. It’s a great series I am nearly finished with it, it is currently 14 books long 1 more to go! We recommend to all our friends to read it! Anyway Jesse gradually told the girls the story of the first two books, Eye of the World and The Great Hunt. At every loll in action the girls would badger Jesse about hearing more of the story, they will probably end up reading it soon themselves. Jesse was even able to get some flashcard making in (he had an exam monday morning). That night we went to a Hibachi Grill/Sushi Bar/ Buffet for dinner it was fantastic! When we got home we got all the girls in bed and got our stuff together to prepare for our trip to DC starting the next day.

 

Come Friday morning the two big girls left for school (they only had a half day, but 2 snow days before that!) and when we got up to get ready it was just the two babies and Naomi to play with. We couldn’t help notice that something was different, the energy in the air felt almost colder as we got ready to go. I was telling Nyree about Maia’s routines and writing down both our cell numbers and emergency numbers just in case. During this time Maia was unbelievably clingy to both of us. Neither of us could leave her sight without a total melt down, which is really odd for her. We had things all ready to go and decided we should have a prayer before we left, especially because the forecast predicted some more snow on the east coast atop the frozen tundra they’d already received that week. As we knelt in prayer with Nyree I began to cry, and it wasn’t the usual warmth of the spirit that I felt, I felt unbelievably sad; as the prayer ended I could see the others felt something similar. So we began to chat about it; Nyree mentioned to us that’d she’d had a dream of calling my mom and talking to her about how she could get a flight to Nashville to come pick up Maia, because in her dream something had happened to us. That on top of the feelings we’d just felt and Maia acting so out of character we decided to think about this trip a little more thoroughly. Jesse and I excused ourselves to our room to discuss it, Maia cried the entire time, we looked up a weather map and called Dave about what the weather was actually looking like. A line from my Patriarchal Blessing came to my mind about how my very life may be protected as I follow the promptings of the spirit, as I shared this with my husband we decided in faith that we should not make the drive out to DC.Once we decided to stay put and have some more family time the whole spirit of the home returned to a warm happy one. We are so grateful for the blessing of personal revelation. You can read more about our belief in revelation here.  That Friday also happened to be Nyree’s birthday so we planned to help celebrate it. When her mom called to sing happy birthday she also inquired about whether we had left to DC, she shared the experience we’d all had and her dream and that we’d decided to stay. Mom Fox was beyond relieved, she had also had a bad feeling about our making the trip, along with several others in our family. I am so very very grateful that the Lord watches over me so carefully; That just in case I didn’t catch on to the promptings he’d sent to me, members of my family had also received them in order to keep us safe. I am truly blessed to be a member of the Fox family, not only do I have a Marvelous, Amazing, Wonderful husband but I have more parents and siblings that care for me and my family. I love them all!!!!

So Nyree’s birthday! We had a fun surprise to the girls when they got home from school and realized we had stayed! So we had them help us make their moms birthday special. They still had some lessons and homework to work on, so we helped get that rolling and Jesse was able to study too. Naomi did not want to do her reading so she was asked to run around the couch until she could smile and do her reading. What started out as punishment soon became a game even the babies wanted to play!

  began with Naomi, then Chie then the rest of the girls!

We made dinner and a birthday cake! Those girls were great in the kitchen! Dennis was on call that evening but we promised to babysit the next evening so they could go on a date. For birthday dinner we made Cheddar Stuffed Chicken with mashed potatoes, corn and a salad, then dark chocolate cake with chocolate icing and vanilla ice cream for dessert!

We had a great time and after dinner we did some skpe-ing with Auntie Julie and Grandma Fox

Hopefully we helped in making it a great birthday for her!! (those are princess stickers on the girls foreheads from valentines from Naomi)

We had a saturday to play with the girls that we weren’t planning on so we had some fun and some story time that morning and then decided to do something touristy and Jesse Maia and I went down to Nashville to visit the Parthenon.

  It was such a nice break from the cold! we didn’t even need our coats! There were people running outside in shorts etc Gorgeous day!

Next time we are in town we hope to visit the temple, and my friend Rachel from Massage school! Then we went back home to watch the girls so their mom and dad could go on a date!

Although we are still bummed we couldn’t make it to Dave/Uncle Teeny’s wedding we are glad we were able to spend time with family. We know Teeny understands about our not being able to make it too, his wedding WAS scheduled in the middle of winter on the east coast. Sunday we were able to make the drive back to Davenport safely. Now that we know the drive and that its only about 7 and a half hours we will probably be seeing more of those fun Fujii’s!