Road trip {to West Virginia)

My Gramma is a treasure to me. I spent so much time with her when I was little and loved being with her.  She let me bake with her and clean with her. I helped her snap beans from the garden and watched her cook delicious things. We rode the bus into town together and played together.  I drank a lot of her coffee and she always had chocolate around.  

When I was little and my friends wouldn't let me play, she would say things like: Two is company, three is a crowd, four is too many and five isn't allowed.  But then she would remind me that if I wasn't allowed with my friends, I was her company. It's the little things, you know? 

Either way. My Gramma isn't doing so great.  She was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer in the spring.  Hospice is helping care for her at her home. But she's still feisty and as spunky as a 92 1/2 year old woman can be.  We decided to drive up and spend some time with her this summer.   I wanted her to meet Elise and tell her that I loved her, face to face.  And I'm so glad we did. 

We stayed with Kent and Sarah {and baby Cole} and enjoyed spending time with them.  We visited my Gramma often and ran around town.  We spent time with my mom and John, my sister, Carol and Frank, Jason and the girls and even got to see my Grandma Royce {and more Royce family!} -- all in eight days time.  Patrick drove us up and flew back the next day.  And Carol drove home with us {and then stayed for a week!}.  It was good to see family.  It was good to have a car :)

Just a few a lot of pictures from our trip:

Elise doesn't love the carseat.  I spent a lot of time beside her on the way up.

Candy Land with Uncle Kent and Aunt Sarah.

Early morning play time with my crew.

Me and Elise on a rainy day at Chick-fil-a.

Uncle Kent letting Benjamin power wash his truck.  

Gramma's feet. And my feet.  And Elise's {fast moving} feet.

A picture of me hanging in my Gramma's bedroom.

Baby cousins, baby friends.  Cole and Elise are 2 1/2 months apart!

Elise is clearly not as friendly as Cole.  BUT someday they will love playing together :)

Watching Uncle Kent's softball game.

I mean...it's Andrew.

The kiddies with my Grandma Royce.

Andrew having fun with my cousin Audrey.

Elise loved playing with Gramma's oxygen tube. Haha.

Uncle Kent with the little boys.

Playing at the park.

Sharing a bed and snuggling.

Pool time!

Just playing at the pool on a {not so warm} beautiful day!

The boys did a lot of ninja/jedi training with Uncle Kent.

Pap-pap and Elise.

Me and Gramma.

Snapping beans with Gramma.

McBride children with Gramma and Pap-pap

Sweet Gramma kisses.

Treasure! We got to celebrated Cole's first birthday with him! I can't tell you how sweet it was to be there and to spend time with this little guy {and his parents}.

Me and my peeps.

Pit stop selfie on the way home.  

Mimi was all smiles with B at our first {of many} bathroom stops.

So long WVa. See you next summer.

Road trippin.  Maybe this was right before we took a wrong turn and spent an hour trying to get back on our correct route home while trying to hide from Patrick that we were going to drive through the night and come straight home.  Good memories, people!

Elise was not amused with all the pictures. 

Four generations of ladies.

Sweet treasure! Me, my mom, my Gramma, my children!

We will be back in Morgantown next summer for Audrey's wedding!!! Yay! Until then, I treasure the time we got to spend with family and wished they would all move to Oklahoma ;)

Remember when we went on "vacation"....

SO, remember how I was going on about our two week road trip vacation? Here is more of it :)

After we left Morgantown, we drove up to PA to spend some time with Frank and Carol {aka. Gramps and Meme}.  They recently moved into an old home with 16 acres that is close to Morgantown.  They had chickens to play with, a front porch swing, four wheelers and a tractor.  This was pretty much boy heaven.  I barely saw Patrick, Benjamin and Andrew.  They all had a great time being outside {despite the insane heat and humidity!}.  Carol and I stayed closer to home, ran errands and simply sat around the kitchen table talking.   We also cooked and baked a little bit, too!

Gathering eggs and feeding chickens.

Andrew dislikes all animals.  Chickens included.

Tractor ride!

Just taking a ride...

Andrew needed to be with daddy at all times. All. times.

Playing in the pool...

Just the beginning of an hour long water fight!

Poor Meme really got it from Patrick and Benjamin!

I also gave Carol a quick hair cut -- I guess I missed my hair stylist calling! :)

After we left Frank and Carol's we headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo.  Both boys were so excited to see a new zoo.  We frequent the OKC zoo and wanted to see different animals!  Benjamin loved seeing the sharks and cheetah {his favorite animals} and we also got to see a baby gorilla and a few animals up close.

It was hot, but we trekked through the entire zoo in about two hours. Just in time to drive a little and grab lunch in Wheeling.  Patrick and I decided that, while it was a nice zoo, we much prefer our OKC zoo!

Only zoo family picture. I asked some random girl to take our picture and there was absolutely nothing fantastic around us -- I just wanted a picture before everyone melted down :)

Giraffe and elephant.

We left Pittsburgh with an incredible desire to just be home.  It had been such a long two weeks of being out of our routine and sleeping all over the place.  We drove to Louisville {again} and stayed at the seminary for a night.  We left around 10am the next morning and as we packed up, Patrick said this: "It's only 11 hours to home.  I bet we could make it today."

And that is just what we did.  It was so nice to be home!!! But we continued "vacationing" at home....

McB road trip -- Morgantown

Our entire purpose of going to Morgantown for vacation was in hopes that we would see our new nephew/cousin.  We were hoping to be able to help Kent and Sarah and squeeze and kiss a new baby.  As the Lord would have it, he was born four days after we left -- but we did get to spend some time with Kent and Sarah!

We stayed with my mom most of the time and we were able to have a great visit and do a lot. I'm just going to give you a list to save words and time :)

*We had family pictures taken.

*We enjoyed a cookout with lots of family and friends.

*We watched fireworks.

*We went to church with Kent and Sarah and were able to visit with friends!

*We were able to celebrate Frank's birthday with him.

*We hung out downtown and rode the PRT, went to the courthouse to see my mom's friends and went into a few stores. 

*We went swimming. And played with water balloons and water guns.

*We got donuts one morning.

*We went for a few walks. 

*We went to Coopers Rock.

*We got pedicures. And by "we" I mean me.

*Patrick and the boys went hiking with Kent.

*We had a date night and ate a great local restaurant.

*We did a lot of laundry.

*We played games.

*We went on the lake. 

*We went to the Geological Survey {what? you don't do this on vacations?!}

And I'm sure we did a lot more -- but you get the idea.  We were busy!

family pic.

hiking.

riding with Uncle Kent.

Just hanging out.

Typical.

Coopers rock cutie.

Second born.

Crazy fam pic.

Normal. 

Water balloons.

And water guns.

Nap time snuggles.

Pregnant sisters. 27 & 39 weeks

Playing with Uncle Kent.

More family.

Sweetness.

Pregnancy at it's finest. We are consecutively 6 weeks apart. With Sarah due first (with her first), then Bethanie (with her second)  and then me (with our third). 

He loves the boat.

Tubing brothers!

Jumping {err, thrown} Benjamin!

four-wheeling

Excited.

Whew! SO that was a recap of days 4 - 11 of our trip. Always glad to visit family and see everyone, but it's always so exhausting!!! Such is life, I suppose!