Our Trip for Jacob's Graduation

Cousins Caitlin and Ella with the boys

Jacob with the boys

Jacob opening his graduation gift...some Michigan glasses, a pitcher, and coasters

Cousins Zach and Seth with the boys after we went swimming at their house

Over Memorial Day, we went to see John's family in Cincinnati and we attended Jacob's graduation party.  It was a very fun event with all of John's family present over the weekend at some point.  We went swimming at Aunt Jennifer's house, jumped on the trampoline at Aunt Ann's, had an awesome BBQ dinner at Jacob's grad party, and enjoyed seeing all our cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  Such a fun and memorable weekend.  We are so excited for Jacob as he heads to the University of Michigan in the fall.  Congrats Jacob!

As Uncle Dan pointed out, "Enjoy the Ride" (the title of our blog) took on an entirely new meaning over the weekend as we made the 12 hour trek (one way) to our cousin Jacob's graduation party in Cincinnati.  We didn't make the actual graduation ceremony because it was during the middle of the week and Luke and Liam were doing some important testing at school.  However, we left Thursday afternoon and drove to Chicago where we spent the night and then left early Friday morning to finish out the trip.

As we got in the car on Friday morning, it was a sticky, muggy, warm summer day.  John and I separately went for a run along Lake Michigan that morning and we were still cooling off.  As we started our trip, we noticed the AC in the car was not blowing cool air.  This is a new car that we have had zero issues with thus far so we were not sure what to think.  We pulled over outside of Chicago to have the car checked.  After some time in the parking lot playing simon says and red light, green light with all the boys, it was determined that there was some type of hole in the compressor for the air conditioning.  They tried charging it and sent us on our way.  We had some relatively cooler air for the rest of the trip, but it soon leaked out.  Sadly, the entire 12 hour drive home was spent with no AC.  We opted to leave Sunday night rather than Monday morning to break up the trip a bit without AC.  It was a relatively warm ride with temps in the mid 90's as we were heading out of Cincinnati.

I know many people have probably done long car trips without AC and they survived so obviously we would have to make the most of it.  Shockingly, the boys never complained even once on the drive home.  They asked the notorious, "how much longer until we get there?"  But, not one time did they complain about the heat, the fact that it was a wind tunnel with the windows rolled down, or the fact that you couldn't hear the music or movie very well, or even talk much due to the noise.  All this to say, we survived and the car will be repaired this week.  We will have a new appreciation for AC in the car.

One funny comment from Luke during our drive....We were in a relatively remote area of Indiana and  we were passing through several cattle farms.  The smell was horrible.  We had most of the windows down because it was also quite warm outside.  As we were driving, Luke says-"Dad, what are the plans for stopping to change Finn's diaper?"  Thankfully, the horrible smell was not Finn, but John and I died laughing when Luke asked the question.

8 days until school is out for the second and soon to be THIRD graders.  Aiden's last day of kindergarten was TODAY!?