Amazing Race Part 3

At this point in the race the kids were excited. Like I said in the last post they really got into the license plate game and then they all wanted to help navigate. They would either find the cities in their kids atlas and help us get there that way or they would hold our phones that had directions plugged in and read the next move out loud. The interpretations of the directions and way we were supposed to go were pretty dagum funny. Little Man would say "Dad, make a loopty loop.....NOW!" Ribbit would say "we are still 6 polka dot (meaning point) 5 miles away! Luckily Goober and I were able to help navigate as well so we hardly ever missed a turn!

The next answer to our clue took us to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial in OK City. It was beautiful and quite moving. The first thing you see as you walk up are all of the momentos and signs still on the fences. There are pictures of victims and letters and key chains, flowers, wreaths, any little item that meant something to one of the victims. We looked through that long walkway and saw several people who were crying or standing in silence. We were able to talk to the kids about anger and self control and how one person's actions could hurt a whole lot of people for a long time.

Beautiful statue of Jesus Weeping

The Field of Empty Chairs

We read about each victim.

We were also very moved by the statue across the street. It was of Jesus weeping with his back turned to where the building was. It was a reminder that Jesus weeps over his children and was just as hurt over the decisions made that day as we were. As we walked into the memorial we saw two black walls with #'s on them. The first said 9:01-the time that the bomb went off and the other 9:02, the time that healing began. They are separated by a shallow black wading pool. The kids had to count the chair sculptures in the large field beside the memorial to get their next clue. Each metal chair sculpture represented a person who lost their life that day....with the smaller chairs representing the children. They counted, very respectfully I may add, and told their #'s to the security guard who then gave them their next clue. The #'s were 168 chairs and 19 small ones.

The kids were very respectful and interested in the momentos on the fence.

Ribbit looking at the second memorial.

It began to look like it may rain at that point but we pushed onward to our next pit stop-Palo Duro Canyon at the northern part of Texas. We were amazed by the canyon, which literally appears out of nowhere in the very flat landscape of Texas. It was a beautiful sight to see as we drove down into the canyon at sunset. We wound around canyon walls with boulders and rocks barely hanging on and couldn't wait to set up camp! We had a great spot and immediately cooked dinner. We were on our way to the bathroom when we saw our first FRIGHTENING ANIMAL...I spotted a TARANTULA in the grass...like as big as my hand. It was fuzzzzzzyyyy and way to close to our campsite. We all ran back to the tent and put our shoes in the car and in the tent in case that thing decided to make a home in our shoes!

Then we all 5 cuddled on the two camping mattresses that Adam and I used and played the question game. I asked "If you could eat ice cream with anyone in the world who would it be? Little Man immediately said "President Donald Trump" and we all busted out laughing. Then someone asked "If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be?" Little Man said "CC and Papa's", Ribbit said " here because I want to get married in this canyon". Goober said " Dubai!!"

Some late night tent reading. Love my little readers!

 My brave kiddos, sound asleep in the van!

We all fell asleep very easily but around 11 we begin to feel the tent move and could hear thunder and see lightening. Adam and I lay very still for a few minutes as the tent began to be whipped from side to side and all of sudden I saw Adam grab a corner of the tent that had come loose from the ground and was capsizing down on us. A split second later I heard him say "GO, RUN". We grabbed 3 terrified kids, all of their blankets and threw them in the van as lightning flashed all around, rain poured and the wind whipped everything around, including our tent. It completely capsized before we could get Ribbit to even think about stirring so I literally grabbed her and threw her in the van. Keep in mind we had kinda unpacked at this point so the kids were stepping on everything and Adam was grasping for everything he could to keep the tent down. I had run into the van on the driver side but climbed over to the passenger side as Adam came running, holding our cell phones, lanterns and all of the library books the kids had taken into the tent to read. We assured the kids that we were okay in the van and hunkered down for the night. All three kids thought it was a light show for the next 3 hours and I must admit I have never seen lightning like that. Surprisingly we all slept that night and in the morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise in the canyon.

Our collapsed tent the next morning.

Little Man crawled up and cuddled me for a long while, dozing off and on. As we all scrambled out of the van we found out that one of the poles of our tent was broken and that we had left a library book in the tent that was now ruined. However, we were safe and HUNGRY---so we got started on campsite pancakes!!!!!

Trying to take a family picture with the canyon in the background..hehe.

A Beautiful windy and cold morning after the storm!!!

Our sweet little spot!

Any day that starts with hot chocolate is a good day!!!

Amazing Race Part 2 - Oklahoma

We first headed to the PopEye Statue in Alma, Arkansas. We had collected coins and wishes from family before we left so we threw those in. The little kids had all kinds of questions at first about the race but I think Goober caught on pretty early that we were on our own (no other teams were actually racing us). Therefore we brought him into the secret and asked him to help us make it exciting and play along. I think he felt honored and has been doing a great job at getting the kids riled up and searching for clues!

From there we headed to Sallisaw, OK for our first pit stop. The staff there was so warm and friendly and gladly handed us our next clue which was a detour of either cannonballs in the pool or free throws on the basketball court. We did both- along with kayaking, tetherball, and a candy scavenger hunt put on by KOA. My favorite part of the night was watching the kids collect lightning bugs….they were thrilled.

The owners wanted us to take this picture.

Everyone took a turn out on the lake.

The boys got brave and went down into the stream a little more.

Hot dogs and smores....MUST HAVE CAMP FOOD!

My version of camp smores....banana with a mini twix roasted over the fire....YUM

She loves her amores!

They were exhausted at 9:45 when we finally laid down in our tent. We are a big podcast family—I kinda got hooked on them from running and so we listened to a modern day twist on Rapunzel while we fell asleep. In fact, only 2 of us made it through the whole 30 minute story J….Ribbit and Adam.

 

Every place we stopped became a Ninja Warrior training course!

He made some friends and played basketball and football while the little ones played gaga ball.

Candy Scavenger HUNT.....this candy lasted us the whole trip....and then some!

Our sweet campsite...Adam put up lights for us at every site!

The next morning I woke up and had a picturesque gym in front of me…complete with a sunrise, gravel roads and other early risers who were out drinking their coffee. I got in a good workout using my bands and jump rope I had brought. Then I added in some fast ½ mile runs and used the benches around the campsite to do step ups, leg, arm and core exercises. I just kept watching our tent for signs of life and finally everyone woke up J. We ate breakfast and packed up as we commented on the awesome weather and beautiful campsite.

A beautiful outdoor gym!

Our first clue that day took us to Pops Soda Ranch in Arcadia, OK. On the way there we had our own church service in the car as it was Sunday. We read our daily chapter from the bible as we do every morning and then begin to worship along with Pentatonix. Then Adam and I listened to a podcast of one of Matt Chandler’s sermons on marriage.

We got to Pops Soda Ranch and the staff there was a little puzzled…..I think the two teenage girls up front really thought we were on the show and kept saying “ woah, really?, as they looked around for our film crew .....haha. Our waiter was awesome at playing along and was very talkative. To get our next clue we had to try bacon soda…and let me tell you not a one of us thought it was good or tasted anything like bacon. It was actually revolting. We let the kids pick out some other fun flavors to try and Goober settled on a rootbeer-but only because of the souvenir bottle it came in and the littles wanted to share a Vanilla Dream-they thought it tasted just like vanilla ice cream. We had GREAT FOOD, ate outside in perfect weather and  when our waiter had made sure we had all tried our sodas he handed Goober the next clue, along with the receipt.(***** Now that we are home, every kid has said that the bacon soda drink was their least favorite part of the whole trip...hehe, it was that awful)

This child peed on the side of every Hwy, every national monument and in every state park!!!

Ribbit described it as tasting like poop, Little Man said it tasted like socks and Goober said "cleaning solution or mouth wash"

They both enjoyed this root beer!

The haven't stopped talking about how good their Vanilla Dream was!

I was IN LOVE with this wrap...turkey, avocado, salsa, lettuce...YES PLEASE

I think there were over 500 soda flavors to try!

I kept trying to like it....but it had an awful smell, taste and after taste....and BACON is supposed to be good!

Even though our next clue was for the Oklahoma City Memorial we had seen a Red Circle Barn about ½ mile before we got to the Soda Ranch and our waiter encouraged us to stop there too. We felt like we had a big enough lead on other teams so we stopped and checked it out. The upstairs of the barn was incredible. You could see how they constructed it in the round and honestly to look at the domed roof made me dizzy. It was beautiful and a true historic landmark. The kids of course were more intrigued by the outhouse.

 

See the weave work of the ceiling of the barn behind us?

Look close, you will see 4 Harvells hanging out of the windows!

Completely intrigued by the outhouse!

I must mention that I had given each kid a clipboard filled with age appropriate travel games, trivia and coloring pages in their camelbaks. Four of the games were ones that they must complete together to get prizes at home. One of those is a map where they have to color in each state as they find a corresponding license tag. (*****Now that we are home, we found all but a few NE state tags...we even got Alaska, Hawaii and 4 Candaian provinces....but not a Deleware, Rhode Island or New Hampshire in sight!!!)As we walked back to our car from the Red Barn the kids spotted several different license plates and interest in that game picked up heavily!!! Even Adam is really getting into it!!!

Amazing Race Part 1

WEEEEEERRRREEEEE BBBBBAAAACCCCKKKKK!!

Oh, Home Sweet Texas Home. I have never wanted to be home so bad. I have never loved TX road construction so much. I have never cared that it was 94 degrees outside with 50% humidity. I really love my home and the people that help make it that lovable!!!!

I am not sure how many segments of the Amazing Race there will be....but I documented the snot out of it by journaling and taking pictures...which is my favorite thing to do on trips or experiences.

Remember we started from AR since we needed to pick up Goober who went to student camp with my brother and sister in law.


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The Amazing Race 6/22

We left today to head to Arkansas to grab Goober. The two littles have been counting down until they get to see their big brother again. They are also ready to hug and love on Baby Levi, CC and Papa for 2 days while we wait for Goober, Aunt Micah and Uncle Chris to get back.

Of course the van is PACKED with things we will need for the Amazing Race…we chose not to use our car top carrier or hitch as there would be many times we would have to leave those thing unsecure as we entered state parks, tours, etc. Plus, on the amazing race teams only race with one bag each so we limited each person to 1 bag.

The kids did great on the way to Arkansas, little did they know that that was their longest “leg” of the race. Baby Boy peed in his car seat within the first hour….I am going to blame the excitement over being able to play the Wii in the car though. Adam rigged a flatscreen behind the driver seat so that the kids can play games and watch movies over our 17 day trip. (please don’t think we aren’t truly enjoying God’s creation though..I am writing this on the morning of Day 4 and the kids have played 1 round of Super Smash Bros, watched 1 movie and Adam and I have not had cell service in 2 days)….its quite nice actually.

We had a great time in Arkansas…we brought what we thought was a watermelon from the school garden and it was actually the biggest spaghetti squash we had ever seen. Half of it fed 4 adults and 2 kiddos. We also spent a lot of time with Baby Levi..my parents had been watching him all week. The kids fed him, helped change his diapers, but him down for naps, played with him and wanted to hold him. Ribbit wanted to DO EVERYTHING for him which was very sweet to see. Little Man got to go to the Harley store with his Papa and was in heaven. Ribbit also got to get her nails painted and learned how to play battleship on paper with CC. One of the sweetest memories was hearing Ribbit read “Ferdinand” out loud to all of us one night on the back porch and Levi just stared at the pages and listened along with my parents…it was picturesque to say the least.

I could eat him up!!! My favorite time both days was drinking coffee out on the back porch with everyone after breakfast!

Bedtime stories.

Papa's boys.

Babysitter in training!

Levi loves his swing!

She wanted to do everything except change his dirty diapers!

All this was great….but it made the beginning of the Amazing Race a little disappointing. You see, we picked up Goober and in less than 2 hours we were leaving to head out. Goober had THE BEST TIME at camp and talked about it the whole 20 minutes from the church back to Chris and Micah’s house. He loved his counselor, his friend Sam he made, he loved the worship, the go-carts, tubing on the lake with Micah and Chris. He also loved that he got to play x-box with Chris late at night, eat pizza and have 1 on 1 time with Baby Levi (he loves carrying him around like Superman). He was also exhausted from 5 days of camp and so……the tears came on hard and lasted well into Day 1 of our Amazing race. It reminded me of his past and how he has said Good Bye repeatedly to people he loves. It reminded me of his great love for his family which I am eternally grateful for..not all children who are adopted as late as Goober was will attach to their family like he has. In fact he didn’t stop crying until Aunt Micah sent a text saying he could come back anytime and Uncle Chris agreed and said maybe even before school starts again. 

He had a blast and made great new friends!

I'm so thankful for these two and their desire to be a part of our village as we raise our kiddos.

Push up competition with Sam...his camp bestie!

Adam and I had mixed emotions about his tears (as I guess all parents do)…especially when he said “ I didn’t even think about y’all the whole time I as gone”…hehe. We were excited that he was able to go do something on his own and hear from God and be with family…..but couldn’t he have missed us one bit?....Honestly though, I got a great big hug when he stepped off that bus and he willingly held my hand as we navigated through the crowds…I will take it!!!

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He sure does love his Uncle Chris!

Being a pre-teen!

Love this SuperMan shot!!

My heart was beating so fast and I was sweaty as we approached departure time for the Amazing Race. We wrote a script for my brother that went something like this “ Harvell Family, you only thought you were heading out to see the Grand Canyon but you are actually heading out on a 15 leg Amazing Race around the West. Along the way you will face detours that will challenge you physically and mentally. You must work together and grow closer to God and closer as a family. You will find everything you need in your travel packs behind you. When I give you the first clue you must read it out loud and what you do after that is up to you. Safe travels. 3, 2, 1….

They were SURPRISED...in the video you can see that Goober is smiling and staring like we are taking a picture, not knowing what to think about the theme music and trying not to cry as we leave. They loved getting matching shirts and camel baks though!

Chris did great…he even had the Amazing Race theme song playing. Adam and I had stepped back behind the kids and put out their camel bak bookbags and changed into our Team Harvell shirts. They opened the clue, came and put on their shirts and we were off……well sorta….there were a lot of tears (especially from Goober) about leaving family and then everyone wanted a picture. So, most of the excitement came from Adam and I at first….but after the first detour the kids got excited!!!