Take-off!

I thought ya'll might enjoy a small glimpse into what it looks like when we leave for a trip.  It is usually extremely crazy, a little frantic, and VERY messy around our house/bus as we prepare for departure.  

My dear mother does a fabulous job keeping things sane with some detailed packing lists.  Other than that, though, we pretty much just scurry around like busy little beavers the day before leaving.....knowing that everything will get done at some point, be that 2 or 10 hours later than planned.:)

 the messy bus

 Here's the story on this photo:

Carson bought an old junker four-wheeler this spring.  It was nowhere near working condition.....non-working engine, etc.  He worked on it in his spare time all spring.  

  Finally, it came down to the day we were to leave for our summer tour.  Carson worked on it late that evening.  About 12 o clock, I heard a roar.  Running outside, I saw Carson tearing down the road on this baby.  Of course, I promptly hopped on and took a  spin with him.  It was a perfect near-finale to my crazy 20-hour day.  Of course, Josh got a ride, too, before Carson reluctantly parked the four-wheeler in our shop for the summer.

 the bus

 I snapped this photo of the clock shortly before leaving.  We ended up hitting the road about 2am.  We had planned to leave about 8 in the evening.  That's typical for the Bontragers.:)

 Ryker missed Joshua (maybe the rest of us, too?)  greatly when we're gone.  He's always ecstatic when we get home!

 the fridge...packed to capacity....little did we know that some of the food would end up spoiling because this little fridge/freezer apparently can't handle this much food at once.:)

 The couches are usually loaded with all manner of things.  

 This photo was taken when we started to pull out, but had to wait in the driveway as people ran inside to grab forgotten items.

 We love the Alaska map that dad bought!  We have it on the wall where we can point of the (very long) route we are going to take and examine our Alaska destinations.

 Yes, our bunks are large enough to fit whole people in them.  Some people just tend to spill out of their bunks, at times, as they sleep.

Little Miss Angel.:)  The littles were running back and forth from the bus to the house and around in circles (slight exagaration, maybe?)  longgg after their normal bedtime.  I pleaded, "Can't they please be put to bed?"  You see....when you are trying to get all the last minute things done or packed, having hyper-about-leaving, 4-hours-past-their-bedtime-tired children running wild is, um, complicated.  So they finally crawled jumped into their beds about 1:15pm and dozed off attempted to settle down.:)

-posted by Allison

Take-off!
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