Day 1 2016

I cannot believe this trip is finally happening!  The last three states on our Lower 48 list are being seen by our Gouch Gang and we are all so thankful.  It is funny how circumstances happen that totally change your perspective.  I always appreciated our trips, but not being able to go last year definitely made me appreciate these trips even more.  I will admit that I got into a bit of a funk last summer.  Between Jonathan's hip issues and recovery and Trey going off to college for the first time, I was sad. Knowing that Harvey's goal of getting to all the Lower 48 states before Trey graduated was not going to happen made me sad.  Being scared for our son and wondering if he would ever be able to walk and run again made me sad.  Realizing how much we were going to miss our oldest being down the hall and going off to new adventures made me sad. Even through all my "sad," though, I still had hope.  God carried us through that tough time, as He has over and over again and I am forever thankful.

Fast forward one year to now.  We are at almost one year post-op from Jonathan's fourth and final hip surgery.  He can walk and run.  Don't get me wrong, it is not as it was before all of this happened and sometimes he still has pain.  But after being somewhat immobile for almost a year, we will take it!

So, now to start documenting our fifth and final Lower 48 Adventure trip :)...

Here we are waiting for our very early morning flight.  Harvey and I have flown a handful of times over the years, but our kids have never flown commercially.  Four of them have flown in a Cessna with my brother in law who is a pilot and loved it, so they were excited to fly again!  Packing for this trip was so different than our other trips. But more on those details later!