Some of Arnett's family lives in Ohio. Right before we moved to Africa, we drove up to Ohio to visit with them before we left. Labor Day weekend they were having a big family get together, so we decided to make the trip again. Well, a lot has changed since then and driving just the two of us, is a LOT different than driving with 4!!! It was a 16 hour trip and we were both a little hesitant about making that long of a drive with 2 kids.
Despite our hesitation, we set out about noon on a Thursday afternoon. We had to run a few errands in town before we left and finally at about 1:30 we were on the interstate, on our way!! We had just made it into Georgia and Zeke starts complaining about his pants hurting. I was kinda like, "What?" So I turned around and pulled his shorts off. He said it was better. That lasted about 5 seconds. He started complaining again and I turned around trying to see what was going on. I could see where is underwear had been but that was it. At this point he's crying hysterically and Nema was following the lead of her big brother. I turned to Arnett and said, "It's not to late to go home!!" We decided to get off right before the Lake Park exit. We get to the truck stop and I get out looking for some cotton shorts for Zeke. Arnett comes to the back and says, "You better hurry, I think he's gotta pee!" So, I quickly found what I was looking for and went to Zeke. He had already started peeing a little in his car seat. I pulled him out and he just stood there in the parking lot and peed and peed and peed. He literally peed for a minute!! Guess that's why his pants hurt so bad!! Poor little guy, we're such awesome parents (LOL!!). Arnett took him into the bathroom to get him changed and I worked on getting his car seat dry. Poor Nema, she was hungry and not being taken care of, so she was not happy. Arnett comes back out and says, "Zeke says he's hungry!" I was like, "Okay, let's go up one exit to chick-fila, eat and let him play on the playground." Arnett agreed that that was a good idea. We got to chick-fila got something to eat, got Nema fed, let Zeke play for a little bit, and I got a milkshake!! Finally, at about 3:30 we were on our way!! Up until about 10:00 that night the trip had been pretty uneventful. We were making decent time considering we had two little ones in the car. Well, at 10:00 our trip went from smooth to completely crazy!! All thanks to this little guy...
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Our little "stow away"
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Yes, that is a snake and it's in our car!! Here's what happened: we are driving somewhere through Tennessee, it's dark, Arnett's driving, Nema's sleeping, Zeke's chilling in his car seat, and I'm chilling in the front passenger seat. Thanks to the lights of the cars passing by us, I see the shadow of a snake crawling on top of where my seat belt goes into the wall of the car and he's headed down by the bottom of my window!!! I said, "Oh (bad word), Arnett there's a snake!!" He was like, "Are you serious??" I mean, seriously, would I make this up!?!? I was like, "YES!!!!" He says, "Okay, don't freak out too much cause you'll scare Zeke!" He proceeds to get into the next lane and onto the shoulder of the road. I was trying my hardest not to make any sudden moves but at the same time get on top of the console. In my mind it was a rattle snake and any sudden move I made, would cause him to attack me!! Arnett hadn't yet flipped the light on because he said if it had been a rattle snake he would have wrecked the car trying to get off the road!! When we stop on the shoulder, he flips the light on and the snake is now 1/4 the way onto the dash!! We see it's an oak snake, so Arnett tells me, "Get in the back!" He then grabs the snake behind the head. We take this picture, show the snake to Zeke, and throw it out the window!! Zeke was like, "OH! Daddy there's a snake!!" Arnett also tells me, "I thought I felt something go across my foot but I felt around and didn't feel anything, so I thought it was my pants!!" I was then even more freaked out because that thing had more than likely been next to my babies!! Another funny thing, we had just bought the car from our friends a couple of days before this happened!! We sent the picture to them thanking them for the present!!! It was definitely a memory we will NEVER forget!!
We finally made it to Ohio Friday afternoon!! Besides the snake, it was a really great trip!! The kids did great!!
We got to take Zeke to Amish country, eat at an amazing Amish restaurant, get some amazing homemade peanut butter, and even go to Lehmans!! While there we went to a zoo type thing. You rode through this big fenced in area on a horse drawn wagon and got to feed all the different types of animals!! Zeke loved it!!
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| Zeke feeding an ostrich |
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| Feeding some big horned animal, sorry forgot the name. |
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| This crazy guy wanted to get onto the wagon we were on!! |
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| They let each child have a turn driving the wagon. Zeke had his serious face on! |
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| They had a little petting zoo. There's a bunny in Arnett's lap. |
Arnett's cousins, Denise and Larry, have a little boy who's just a couple years older than Zeke and those two boys played and played and played!!
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| Zeke and Aaron playing in the dirt! |
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| Cousins!! |
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| More cousins. |
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| One last wagon ride before we head back to Florida. |
It was a great time visiting with his family and sharing old memories!! His aunt even taught me how to make homemade strawberry jam and we have been thoroughly enjoying it!!! I also got some of her yummy recipes while I was there!!! Until next time...
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| Arnett's great aunts, uncles, and cousins. |
