Tille Family

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Our First Road Trip

We have successfully completed our first road trip as a family. The trip went well and was a good learning experience for everyone involved. A week ago, last Friday, Oma and Opa drove to Wisconsin early in the morning. They helped us get packed and loaded. The kids have their final meal and bottle for the night around 7 pm with all of them usually going to bed by 745/800pm. Instead of carting them all off to bed, we loaded them up in the van for a nighttime drive. During the trip SW to Rock Rapids, Oma sat in the back of the BAV and Opa followed behind. The crying stopped very quickly. 3 of the kids were sleeping in the first 15 minutes of the trip. Alex was in the front row of the bench seats along with Meredith. He lasted about an hour before he finally gave up. Meredith though, made an amazing performance of endurance and stamina. She talked and talked and talked. I was upset after two hours of all the talking but by the third hour, it was becoming laughable. The highlight of the drive was probably the following conversation (keep in mind that Meredith in is the first of 4 rows of bench seats and Oma is in last row):

“Oma!”

“What Meredith.”

“Oma!”

“Yeah Meredith.”

“Oma!!!”

“What honey?”

“I saw the chicken nugget sign!!!”

Conversations like that took place ALL NIGHT LONG.

About 3 hours in to the trip, we were treated to one of the most impressive lightning storms that we’ve ever seen. My brother Robert called and warned us of the storm, but we barreled right down the interstate in to the teeth of that storm. We watched for a solid 20 minutes or so before it started getting hairy. Opa called and warned me that he heard on the radio that a semi had been turned over on the interstate just 10 miles from where we were. I could see the rain coming down from a half mile away. Just like a wall. It was impressive. Once it started, I didn’t last a mile. I couldn’t see outside of the windshield at all. The wind was deafening. I quickly pulled over, but that was challenging because I really couldn’t see where I was going. It was disappointing because we were making such good time. Typical comment coming from a man, I suppose. The wind was so strong. The van was just shaking and rocking. Thank goodness that we didn’t get any of the hail that fell in other parts of the storm. The storm really scared Meredith. Keep in mind that it was near 11 pm and she’s still wide awake. She screamed and cried quite a bit and that woke the other kids. Our control of the inside of the BAV was quickly slipping away. Before you knew it, two more cars pulled over behind Opa and one more in front of us. After 5 minutes or so, we decided to continue. I had to get that BAV moving or the kids would have lost it. Due to the pending traffic issue due to the turned semi, we got off at the next exit and headed south. After dodging another developing cell to the storm, Meredith finally fell asleep with 45 minutes left (around midnight) in the drive. We arrived quietly in the drive between 1230 and 100 in the morning.

The week went remarkably quick, but there were times that we felt like it would never end. I got a chance to play a round of golf with my dad, which hasn’t happened in years. I also worked with my boss in Sioux Falls during the course of the week so I didn’t have to face the brunt of the weekday activities back at the house. Meredith spent some time with Opa in the afternoons and she told us a wonderful story about the airplanes that she saw. I’ve included some new photos of Meredith with her airplanes and Opa. Click here to see them. We had a wonderful assortment of family and friends from the community help out with the kids during the week. We had shifts for people to come, much like we do at home. Becky Carlin and Anne and Tina Ageson spent a lot of time with us, but there were many others. Thanks so much ladies. I promised Sabrina Sieperda that I’d get her pic on website. She and her mom were a couple of our helpers during the week too.

My parents acquired a nice swing set for the kids to use during the day. They have a lot of shade in the back yard and that helped out a ton. The kids spent a lot of time outside. Oma and Opa also inflated a pool and they all had a dip with Oma early in the week on a hot afternoon. I have a video, but my mother seems to have a problem with it showing up on youtube. My grandmothers had an opportunity to spend some time at the house and feed the kids as did many others from the community. We learned a few lesson too. A lot of people wanted to visit and see the kids. We get it. Our situation is kind of unique, but the kids really didn’t respond well to all of the attention (extra bodies); especially during feeding time. They got very crabby but we did our best to adjust.

Everyone was getting tired by the end of the week. Following our previous travel routine, we took off on Saturday night after the kids’ final meal and bottle and arrived back at home a little after midnight on Sunday morning. We had a bit of a navigational issue, but that was my fault. We still made very good time even though we needed to make a trip through the city instead of taking the back highways. By noon on Sunday, Oma and Opa got back in the car and headed south.

I’ll leave you with this little funny story from the week. If you’ve ever ridden in the back row of a bus, you’ll know what I’m talking about. We were flying down the interstate a little before sunset as we headed south to Rock Rapids. I hit one of those dips in the interstate where you can see all of the oil spots. In a car, you may not notice the dip too much, but in the BAV, it’s apparently a pretty big deal. I saw the bump coming and as we hit it, I saw out of the corner of my eye in the rear view mirror my mother fly off her seat in to the air. I wish I could have seen the look on her face. While laughing, I yelled back at her that I was sorry. It was hilarious. She asked me to try to miss the next one. That will teach her to not wear her seatbelt.

Thank you Oma and Opa, my brothers and their families, and the rest of our extended family for your help. Thank you also to everyone else in the Rock Rapids community for your help during the week. It really takes a village to raise this family.

Until next time…