New York, New York...well not really

Yesterday we set off for Rochester, New York. One of our absolute favorite long weekends of every year. Kevin's two best friends from PT school (Mario and Mike) and their wives (Michel and Karen) and all our kids (Samantha, Jordan, Erin, Taylor, Abigail, Kyle, Samuel, Cole, Amanda, Quinn, Travis, Luke and Bryan...plus Henry) get together, either in Michigan or New York, for a few days of food, laughs and making memories (notice I put food first?...it's big:-)). This year it is our turn to head east so we loaded up Clifford and left around 2:30 Friday afternoon. (only 90 minutes past our planned departure time...not bad). The ride was perfectly pleasant. It is unusual for it to be only our family in our van, usually we have extras. So there was some stretch out space. Somewhere around Toledo someone (and Travis confessed) tooted. We think it was that, and not Toledo. I've grown fond of Toledo so I will not blame the tortured city...and it's almost always Travis. By Cleveland the air was clear again. Everyone was awake so we decided to listen to some music from my Ipod. Kevin asked for the job of "picking songs". BIG MISTAKE! Kevin is not the most technologically advanced person in our family and he didn't seem to grasp the concept that it was and Ipod touch. Plus he must have overweight thumbs (it is only fair that I have some body part in better shape than him!) At any rate, he would choose a great song, we would all begin singing a long, then his monstrous thumbs would hit something else. It was painful and funny, but mostly painful. We stopped at a rest area off the New York Thruway in Angola. Honestly, I have done a lot of driving in my life and New York is one big toll road. We would just hit cruising speed and would have to stop for a toll booth.

This picture below is of Travis...really!...I wasn't just pretending to take a picture of Travis to capture the Harri Krishna in the photo. I would never be so disrespectful:-)
Below is a moment of peace and tranquility amongst my offspring. It happens! Travis is actually NOT in this picture but you can't really know that unless I told you...which I did...I am painfully honest at times. So just pretend that he is in the picture and not wandering the rest area aimlessly.
The team huddle has ended and they have moved on to the scavenging portion of the stop. Moments earlier Kevin had been in the picture too... grabbing food from in front of his children and eating it...but Kevin never stands still long.
After this stop, we hopped back in Clifford and completed our journey to Rochester. The Melidona's were patiently waiting our arrival and we shared hugs and such before all went to bed to rest up for our first big day together...more to come...:-)