the drive home took longer.
we were going to pick up steven at the airport on sunday night but the flight from atlanta to allentown was canceled. ugh. so steven had 2 choices: 1.) wait until a flight that landed monday 5pm or 2.) fly to detroit and get to lvi at noon. he chose the noon flight.
the detroit to allentown was delayed and he ended up getting to allentown at 5pm anyway.
we wanted to leave monday morning and get to washington dc around lunchtime to have time to visit friends. we ended up not getting to their house until 10:30.
jenn and family were sooo welcoming though. even with a one month old little baby, they stay up with us until 1am chatting. they even made us some pasta with chicken sausage and turkey (?) meatballs. we wanted to leave the next morning super early but ended up not leaving until 10am because they were so super nice. (i totally spaced and forgot to take any pics.)
after jenn's we headed to huntsville, al to visit brandy. it took 12 hours. it was rough. we got there pretty late. she had one asleep and one that wanted to be asleep. we didn't stay up for very long because everyone was tired. the next morning, nicholas loved playing with a boy his own age. steven napped all morning and brandy and i got some chit chatting in. it was was really nice.
we left around 1:30 and went to new orleans. we got a motel room and crashed. hard. we all slept late (late for us at least). nicholas woke up and had no idea where we were.
the halldorsons came to the motel for visit with us for the morning. they gave us the grand tour of their bus. we got some good info on what they did and the things they would have done differently.
on our way out of the city we drove down bourbon st and explored a little. it was really sad seeing the neighborhoods still so rundown. i'm definitely thankful that i haven't had to deal with anything like that in my life.
but
i was really excited by the fact that nicholas got to see it. (noah did too but he's too little to get it.) he would have never truly understood what happened there if we hadn't actually been in new orleans and seen the building falling down. none of us would have, really. it makes me feel that this whole bus thing is going to be good for us. we are all going to learn a lot.
we drove across the
lake pontchartrain causeway. the longest bridge over water in the US. it was long. i fell asleep before we got to the end :P
roadside mac&cheese in texas
getting some energy out
noah seriously poured his drink into his shoe are drank it. gross.
we left new orleans friday afternoon and got to albuquerque on saturday afternoon. we spend the day hanging out with ella and family. we went out to eat with ella's bff. 6 kids total. 4, 4, 2, 1, 10mo, 10mo. they thought it was crazy. i didn't think it was so bad. lol nicholas and noah alone have acted crazier in a restaurant than the 6 of them did that night. haha
the next morning we went to an awesome park with tons of things to climb on. the boys had a blast. ella and i ran to a thrift shop while they were playing with the daddies. i got a 'simplicity' sign for the bus. she got a basket for shoes. :)
we left around lunchtime. we got home at 10pm sunday. exhausted. steven had off on monday too so we got to take the day to relax and just be home. it was really nice.
the whole step was being held up by about 3 inches on the left side. someone put a huge heavy piece of steel over top. it spread the weight out but it was still pretty dangerous. 
first i cut out the old rusty step. i had to cut it in half so i could close the door and stand on the ground to cut behind the door. once i got it off, i slathered some rust converter on the edges.
i bolted some reclaimed wood to the sides of the step on either side. then hung 2x4's across the bottom. i glopped some rubber cement on the nuts to keep them from vibrating open.
tomorrow, i'm going to cut some plywood to fit over top.
