So here we go again- road trippin'

 Well, you may be wondering why I'm going to be reposing the first few days of our road trip we went on in June and the reason is because all of the blogging we were planning on doing didn't exactly pan out. For starters my mom's new laptop broke days into our trip, damn. Secondly, the new tablet she got to replace her laptop didn't upload photos to my blog, great. And lastly, do you know how hard it is to find time to write while traveling with four kids and sight see at the same time? Hard! So here I am, three weeks later updating you on our crazy adventure!

By the way, the stories of our trip are written by my sister Clair. She's better with words and was able to bring to life the days on the road to the my blog. Enjoy!

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 Road trip.  The words evoke images of open roads, mixed tapes, and bottles on the floor boards.  Road trip... with 4 kids. Those words evoke images of a different kind, mostly accompanied by a wince. Yet here we are road trippin our way across the US, 4 kids and three adults, packed into my favorite 8 passanger Expedition.

The purpose of this journey is actually 54 years in the making.  My mother was 6 when her mother gave a little girl up for adoption.  My mom still remembers the excitement of being a big sister and the confusion she felt when her mother came home empty handed and empty bellied.  That was the end of the story.  Until Feburary 2013.  My mom got an unexpected Facebook message from a women who thought she might be her sister.  

So here we are, driving east across the Rocky Mountins and the great plains to visit Marie, who is indeed her sister.  And my aunt.  And her kids and their kids, our cousins.

As we head out across our beautiful America, we are seeing sights we've never seen before, on our way to visit family we've never met before.
 
 Just a wee mom and her papa.

 My mother in 1957, Phoenix Arizona

 My mom and her grandfather, "Senator" Clarke Crandall. He was a famous magician and one hell of an eccentric man. He was associated with the mob in Chicago, had six monkeys, wore kooky outfits at a time when men only wore suits, played the banjo and adored my mother.