So Alone.

Well, I'm all alone for a while.  Yesterday my wife and kids got in the care and headed east...WAY east.  With family spread all the way from Virginia to Boston, she/I decided that rather than try to fly her and the kids east, and then plan rental cars and trains to get from family group to family group, she would just drive.  Our kids are pretty good in the car, and she was actually more excited to drive than she would have been to fly. 

I am terrified. I am terrified of the things that happen to mothers and their cute daughters in Hollywood Movies when they are at isolated rest stops, or staying at the Motel 6 outside of Spearfish South Dakota. 

My wife isn't worried about those things. She is focused on the positives of the cross-country trip, and the opportunities it presents to visit friends, and continue the home schooling process through the summer. 

She already had a chance to do both of those things.  The first day of the trip was a short one...just over 6 hours to stay with some friends in Missoula, Mt.  These are friends that used to live in the Tri-Cities, and we used to do a science co-op with, and so they decided to continue the science theme. When my family rolled into their house yesterday, our friend Jen pulled out a few Mail Order Frog Dissection kits that she had ordered for the kids.

That is a 100% real smile on my daughters face.

I am going to miss them a lot over the next month...at one point I told my wife it would be cool if she was back by the 4th of July since I have a 4-Day weekend...but, I have since changed my story.  As the list of things she wants to stop and see grows I told her not to worry about time.  She is never going to get another chance to do this with the kids...I would rather she comes home a few days later than planned instead of having her come home on time, and then have her talk about things she wished she had been able to see.