At 5:15 in the morning Lily woke up with a ton of energy. I, on the other hand, was exhausted out of my mind. Since Lily has had her horrible foot problems, I have been doing the night work for Clarissa, and on the trip her sleep training went out the window, so she usually had one night waking. I really wanted to keep sleeping.
But, Lily was awake and ready for the day. I grumbled, but having woken up, I couldn’t really get back to sleep anyway.
Then, I caught Lily’s vision. We were up early enough that we could drive home in a single day and have a whole day at home on Thursday before I had to go back to work and before Lily had to go back into her normal grind. Once the fog of sleepiness left my mind, I was completely on board, and super grateful Lily had woken up so early.
We packed, got ready, and loaded the kids in about two hours and we hit the road a little after 8:00. I loved that little cottage that we stayed in. It was so charming. Here is a picture of the kid’s beds:
Lily drove the first leg and we stopped through Portland so she could buy some more books at Powell’s books, which is the most amazing bookstore on the planet. Lily said she almost cried when she saw the religion section because of all the books on faith crisis and faith transition. She is so happy and at home at Powell’s. Her heart was pounding the whole time. I wish she could have had a whole week there.
After Lily’s turn driving, I took over around noon. I enjoy driving, and I especially enjoyed driving through Idaho, because it reminded me of Guardsmark and I always enjoy a trip down memory lane.
Clarissa was so cute in the car. She loves Baby Beluga by Gerry Raferti, and when she wants to listen to it, she says, “Baby Ga.” I’ve been reflecting on how much I love having a baby in the family, even though it is so hard some times. She is so adorable, and I can’t imagine what it will be like to not have all these cute baby things happening when she gets older because we are not planning on having more children.
On the way home, Lily and I talked a lot. I love connecting with her so much. We talked about religion and faith, a topic on both of our hearts recently. Also, Lily read me passages from Marilyn Robinson’s The Givenness of Things. I love it when she reads to me and shares her wonderful ideas with me. Being married to her is so heart and mind expanding.
I was really in the zone with driving. We skipped lunch because I wanted to keep things going. We had dinner in Boise, and then I powered all the way home. Lily helped keep me awake with good conversation and letting me listen to Gerry Raferti, who I’m sure she’s very tired of listening to by now.
We pulled in around 1AM and Georgia had waited up to greet us. I was tired out of my mind, as I’m sure Lily was to, and we were so grateful to hit the sack. All in all we had about 12.5 hours of driving and 1.5 hours of stopping