Cali Drive: Day 1

Hello everyone!

So it's here.  Bittersweet.  Sad and happy.  So excited for the new adventure ahead and the incredible plans we know God has for  us.  Sad to leave all our family and friends behind.  We know and believe it is right, and it is only for a season, but it doesn't make leaving easy by any means.  With that being said, I am going to jump right in!

So today was our first day of travel.  Although I don't really think I would call this a "travel day" our van is packed to the brim and we did drive a distance.   Today we went to Atlanta.  Not far, but a very important day.

We got up this morning after only 4 hours of sleep.  We were up late with the help of Aaron (Robin's cousin) and Alan Abdelhadi (more on him in later blogs… stay tuned) packing up the van to the brim.  It was quite a chore but I am quite impressed with the awesome engineering smarts my husband put to use to pack the van with very minimal space left over.   Once we were all up and going we sat down to an awesome meal my (Robin's) parents made.  It was just like my maternal granny used to do when we were leaving her house to go back home after a visit.  It felt great and my family came over REALLY early just to send me off.  Many, many tears were shed.  They weren't tears of upset or hurt, but joy and happiness with a little bit of sorrow for the loss of being close.

Then we were on our way to Atlanta.

We got there right at lunch and ate at a wonderful pizza place with Josh and Brian's mom Julie also met us to take the kids and surprised us by eating with us and treating us all to lunch! Then we were finally able to see our best friend Josh's school, Georgia Tech.  It was great!  He gave us an awesome tour and I included some pictures below to walk you through just some of the highlights of what we saw.  It was great connecting all these stories he had told us with the actual places where the stories took place.  More than that, it was awesome being able to spend a few great hours with one of our best friends right before we leave.  We love you Josh and will miss you not being around all the time.

Josh in front of his dorm room for his LAST year of college!!!

Brian and Josh showing us Josh's (small!) dorm room.  He lives alone in the room but has 6 roommates in one apartment.  It has a common area, kitchen and two bathrooms.  

This was the view of downtown Atlanta from one of the top floors of their work out facility.  That would make me want to work out more! How about you?

This was a very cool bike we saw on campus.  Evidently you use your student ID called your Buzz card and it has money on it.  You rent a bike for an amount of time.  You just wave your card in front of the number "36" you see there near the wheel.  Crazy, right?  We might not have hover cars yet, but this is so awesome!

A beautiful fountain area in the middle of campus.  It was a gorgeous day with a wonderful breeze.  Also Brian and I were thankful to be walking so much the day before a long trip.

One with us and our buddy.  He has meant so much to us through the years.  We love him.  We are so proud of you Josh! :) Thanks again for the amazing tour! 

We then headed to Brian's mom, Julie's house.  We played there with her for a good while.  The kids enjoyed playing with all the old toys that were once Brian and his sister's.  They always have a great time playing with Grandma Joowee (as the kids pronounce it).


Then a couple hours later we headed over to Brian's dad and step-moms house, John and Cathy.  Again, we had such a great time visiting and playing with them.  We ate a wonderful BBQ meal they got us.  We are now here getting a really great night of sleep in a Temper Pedic (be jealous…haha) before we head for a long trip on the road tomorrow.  Make sure and keep checking back for updates!  We look forward to hearing from you!