So any of you that know Seth and I well know that we aren’t very spontaneous. Although now that I am writing that and analyzing the 5 moves in 7 yrs of marriage I realize we might have put on a good front. Anyhow, we aren’t naturally spontaneous. We over think most things. And I talk myself out of lots of adventurous things.

But then there are the crazy drives we do…

Seth and I started dating in November of 2004. Soon after we started dating I went home to Houston for a month to work and he stayed in Dallas to work. We were so bummed that we had just started dating and now wouldn’t really see each other much. About 2 weeks into it I decided it would be a good time to go back to my apartment and “check my mail”. I had to work on that Friday until early afternoon so I decided that I could leave after work and make it to Dallas by dinner time to go out with Seth. The only catch was that I had to be back Sat morning for my mom’s church Christmas tea. Which was at 10 AM. Yikes. So I drove up to see Seth, we went for dinner and then drove around Highland Park looking at Christmas lights and then I went home, got a few hours of sleep and had to leave at like 4 AM in order to get back to the tea. Crazy, huh? But somehow it was adventurous and so worth it to see Seth! 10 hours of driving and all.

Then there are the drives we have done when we know a friend or family are here or there, not exactly on our home leave travel route but worth the detour!  We’ve been known to take rest breaks around meeting new babies and celebrating birthdays.  We added a couple days of layover on our way back to Switzerland last year because we just couldn’t be in the US and not meet our nephew James!  And a trip to Austin to hold my bestie’s new Annabelle! And quite a few more stops in between. If there are enough hours to make it work we try to, even if it feels a bit crazy for us not so spontaneous people. A couple of weeks ago I drove to Wilmington, DE for lunch with a friend. I told a friend I was doing it and she couldn’t understand why it was worth it to drive there, visit a few hours and turn right back around. It was so worth the time with her catching up face to face and seeing her life in action. It just isn’t the same over the phone.

This weekend we are doing another crazy Kolb drive! We got the itch this Fall to go to NYC and long story short we thought we could stay with a friend and make a weekend of it.  Our lodging didn’t work out but my brother and his wife were able to get a hotel and we couldn’t cancel the opportunity to see them in person in our neck of the woods (ie not exactly our woods but in our corner of the country). So, we decided to make a big day of it. Saturday morning we will load this kids up around 4 AM and make the trek. We will spend the day with them and then we will drive to a hotel outside of the city to crash for the night before making the drive back Sunday morning! But on the way back we will detour through Wilmington again, just because we can’t fathom passing our friends along the highway and not seeing them, even if just for a bit.

These kind of posts always get people commenting on how all of our moves and travel must make our kids easier to travel with. And I always feel the need to keep it real and let you know that they can be really tough travelers! They are 5 and 3 and human children after all.  The boys don’t know we are going and they don’t know that magical NYC will await them, or that they will see their Aunt and Uncle!

Call us crazy. We’ll be wiped out. But it will be worth it.

And there are no more crazy drives on the horizon…but we’ve had the itch to meet our niece Madeleine since she was born nearly a yr ago. Oregon is more than a brave road trip so that will be less spontaneous!

Over the past week if you had been at our house you would have experienced dough people baking and bake fest 2012. Whew.  We also did our gingerbread house which thankfully required no baking, but smelled as if it was freshly baked!  Here are some pictures from our baking adventures!

lest you think it was all dreamy, take a look at my zopf loaf this yr! Terrible without those Swiss girls here to help me!

Oh me oh my!  Thankfully, Bake fest 2012 was more successful!

Bake fest 2012

Gingerbread house

there might have been a wall collapse

Thanks, Grandma for the gingerbread house! The boys loved working on it together! We’ve never had such a fancy kit!