Trip to Cincy

Oh my! That's what I have to say about Friday. We left the house about 4:20 am and about 5 minutes outside of Siloam we heard a terrible noise coming from the front passenger side of the car, towards the wheel. The noise sound much like when you hit the ripple strip (you know the strip that tells you to wake up, you're running off the road), only the sound wasn't quit that loud. Ross pulled over and checked all of the tires but there didn't seem to be a problem so we started driving again. Everything seemed fine until we reached 65 mph. For some reason this was the magic speed for instigating the noise. Strangely if we slowed to 60 or sped up to 70 mph the noise went away. We pulled over for the second time at Wal Mart in Lowell (off the Pleasant Grove exit). We called my parents to see if Daddy had any ideas of what could be causing such a noise, and in his wisdom he suggested it could be weight. Of coarse none of believed that the van was overloaded with weight, but decided it could be the way it was distributed so there we were at 5:30 in the morning unpacking and rearranging the luggage in hopes that it would help. The one good thing about having to stop there is that by the time we were done Starbucks was open! It was really quite the sight. The "trunk" was pretty well loaded to the top of the backseat, two suitcases were shoved between Jonathan's seat and the door; you know the place where you step into the car to get to your seat. Needless to say every time we stopped we had to move the big suitcase to let the girls in and out of the backseats. It was a hassle but worth it because the redistribution of weight made the noise cease. The best part of the arrangement was what we lovingly referred to as the "Redneck Airbag," which was the foam mattress that fits in the bottom of the playpen. It was crammed between Blair's seat and the door. It really was quite a sight! After everything was re-situated we were on our way.
St. Louis is our halfway point so we stopped at the mall for lunch and headed to the Gateway Arch when we were done eating. You can see the Arch for miles before you actually get to it so I asked the girls if they wanted to get out and look at it up close and touch it. Hannah had the best response ever! She said (in her giggly voice), "No. I want to slide down it!" Only my Hannah girl. ;)
After spending a couple of hours eating, stretching, and sight seeing we were on our way...again. Other than having to make a few stops everything went well. We could not have asked for the kids to be any better. Especially considering it took 16 hours to get there. Normally it only takes about 12 hours but our difficult start and extended stop in St. Louis made it longer than normal.