on the road again

So you know how I've been alluding to the fact that we Carr family were going to be leaving the great state of North Carolina?!  Well the time has finally come and we are en route to Arizona, our next {brief} duty station.  There are so many things we will miss about NC; our church, neighborhood, and the close friends we have made.  It broke our hearts to hear Kayla sob as we left her school for the last time about how much she was going to miss all her little friends.....this is one of the hard parts about Army life.  We were in NC for 3 1/2 years, the longest we've ever been at one duty station and I could feel the moss begin to collect under our feet.  Garrett and I have come to really love our nomadic lifestyle.  It suits us.  Namely because we 100% believe this is the path God has designed for us.  We love to travel, we love having friends all over the world, and we love meeting and experiencing new people and ways of living.  We hope our children will grow to have an appreciation for these things as well.

Our family's journey out West started with Smokey.  

He does not travel in the car well and the thought of having him with us made me want to poke my eyes out.  SO.  I booked him a one way ticket on an American Airlines cargo flight to San Diego!  My mom graciously agreed to temporarily adopt him until we could get out there and bring him back to AZ with us, which is just a days drive.

Then the big week arrived.  We had two days of professional packers.  And of course the kiddos has to confiscate a big box to engineer a tunnel slide :)

And the third final day when the moving truck arrived..

The next day after the movers left we finished packing up our cars and u-haul and hit the road!

Day one lunch break ~ a rest stop in NC

 My little man at our first pit stop in Knoxville, TN.

Day two lunch break ~ amazing park in Lebanon, TN

So, about this park.  About 45 minutes before this we stopped at a rest stop/visitor center for a quick potty break.  We asked the nice ladies at the counter where a good place would be to stop for a picnic and to let the kiddos run around and ride their bikes.  It was a little bit off the freeway but we were ok with that because we had planned on taking a good long lunch break every day so the kiddos could get out and really burn some energy.  Afterwards we wished we could go back and give the lady a big hug because this park was truly one of a kind!  It was HUGE!  Three different play areas, one of which was a spray ground.  Tons of picnic area and all surrounded by well maintained grass and trees and about a 3/4 mile loop walking path. We felt like we hit the jackpot.

Pit stop two was in Memphis and we had Bar-B-Q for dinner.  I kinda wished I took a photo...instead it will just have to be a fond memory in my heart.  Super yummy!

Day three lunch break was at......drum roll....Walmart!!

It actually was a huge blessing and I will never make fun of the store with crazy shoppers again!  We were in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, and it was H.O.T hot!  Stopping at a park for a nice picnic was out of the question and we REALLY did not want to go through a drive through.  Besides, the kiddos needed to get out and properly stretch their legs!  And then we saw it {choir ahhhhhhs} a Walmart.....with subway inside!  Perfect because I needed to replenish our limited food supplies anyways.  We ate a healthy lunch and the kiddos ran around the store with Garrett while I did some shopping.  I wish I got a video of them doing jumping jacks in front of the orange juice!  And the highlight of our stop ~ while eating our sandwiches Gavin and Kayla were being their usual squirrelly selves and the senior citizen Walmart employee with huge curly bleached blonde hair leaned over and whispered in my ear how happy it made her heart to see me interact and handle my kiddos in such a loving way.  She said it saddened her how often she sees people being ugly and just yelling at their little one all the time and she commended me on raising two beautifully behaved children in such a loving way.  I said thank you and totally cried a little as she walked away.  Strangers can be so nice.

I'm writing this from our third pit stop, Mt. Pleasant Texas.  We got in at a very relaxing hour of 4:30pm and for the first time on this trip ate out at a restaurant instead of doing take-out to eat at our hotel.  We walked across the parking lot of the La Quinta to..of course...a super yummy Mexican restaurant!

And had margaritas!! 

They, of course, had water!

And that's our road trip so far!  I feel like there's so many more details...memories..I want to write down, but I'm beat and this will just have to be good enough for now :) ..........