Our last week

I fear this may end up a whirlwind blog post. Probably because it has been a whirlwind week for us. On Memorial Day I worked and then on Tuesday we packed up and headed out to Pennsylvania for Great-Grandma Morgan's funeral. We came home late Saturday evening and have been trying to catch up since then. It was a difficult week for all of us. It is pretty much a given that a long road trip is hard with four small children, but it made it especially hard because we were so busy trying to take care of our four, it left little time to actually grieve Grandma's passing. Thank you for your prayers for our family during this time.

The kids did pretty well on such a long trip. Luke and Ben are pros at long distance travel. Gracie had the hardest time, 18 months is not a great age to be still for such a long time or be off of the regular schedule. One night she was up at 1130 playing peek-a boo in her pack-n-play instead of sleeping, which made for a very cranky toddler the next day! All in all, we survived (with the help of lots of prayers, books and snacks!!)














Luke did a great job trying to entertain Jacob.





Two huge blessings of this trip were time together as a family, and the opportunity to visit with extended family. The kids got to meet two new third-cousins, Max and Aidan and Jeff's extended family got to meet Jacob for the first time. For some family they met all four kids for the first time ever! We also got to enjoy some outdoor time at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Denny's house after the funeral.







Max is 7 months old!


A huge blessing was that Great Grandpa Shirey was able to meet Jacob and was able to spend time getting to know all four a little bit better. The last time he saw them was when Gracie was 4 months old at Great Grandma Shirey's funeral.







We were able to stay in a nearby hotel which was nice. It afforded us the ability to prevent from bombarding anyone with our brood. Not to mention it had a pool and free breakfast! Here are some pics of the kiddos enjoying the hotel.











On Thursday of our trip all of Jeff's family was busy working so we decided to drive near Pittsburgh. Jeff has always wanted to introduce me to a Primanti Brothers sandwich (which is a Pittsburgh staple, it is pretty much a sandwich with the fries and coleslaw sides piled on top originally intended for late night truckers who could get an entire meal in an easy to manage sandwich). It was delicious.


After lunch we headed to a local coal mine for a tour. Thankfully we had just missed the two school buses full of kids so our family had a personal one-on-one tour of the mine. We actually went pretty far in and learned about the different advancements in mining coal over the last 200 years. It was fascinating. The boys had a blast (no pun intended), and Gracie just liked playing with her hard hat and running around!











We were able to enjoy our first swimming of the season on our trip, both at the hotel and at Cousin Andy's home. Here are our little fish enjoying the water. Even Jacob got to swim at the hotel with us!









I am currently reading a book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp (it is an excellent book).



The book has encouraged me to start a "gratitude journal" of sorts. Writing down everyday things that remind me that God is the giver of good and perfect gifts even in the midst of life's circumstances. #52 on my list is from our trip home when we were about to hit a huge storm. Aren't storm clouds just the epitome of this idea? Gorgeous to look at, full of power, a wonderful gift even while the storm to come is brewing. Thank you Lord for your perfect gifts even in the midst of grief. For time to treasure family in the midst of loss.