It's a Cotten life: Lily's graduation and friends

When we set off on this road trip, I had all sorts of ideas of blog posts I would write after each stop, keeping everyone up to date and arriving home with just a "Home" post to write. I also had a notebook that was going to be a travel journal of sorts, where we were writing down how much we paid for gas here, how much toll where, when we stopped and ate, where we ate, and probably, what we ate. Brilliant idea! I am so optimistic. (I have all this information for the first day, if you would care to see it.) And then we drove through the night to be in Fargo, ND for Sunday morning meeting. Something about driving through the night changes things. A meticulous travel journal faded into the back of my mind, while basic survival reared its ugly head. I hate driving at night. I hate Justin driving at night. Yet, we did it repeatedly on this trip. There is something so alluring about driving along while the kids are sound asleep. Multi-tasking. I am getting my kids to sleep and tucking 400 miles behind us. Super mom! And then daylight and stopping to let the kids play. While we stagger around in a stupor, grinning stupidly as our children burst around with pent up energy. If I were someone who didn't require sleep, it would be ideal. Unfortunately, sleeplessness is not my super power. And all thoughts of organization, blogging, and travel journals were discarded. Which is probably just as well. Do you care what we ate in Billings, MT or Waddy, KY? (In case you do, McDonalds to both of those.)

And so, here I am, with about 8 Gigs of pictures to upload to my computer and bore everyone to tears with. And if all else were well with me, that would be fine. Instead, I am huddled around my computer, with large stacks of laundry, toys, coloring books, pillows, blankets, and various other trip flotsam and jetsam towering around me. So today, I will just put up pictures of the day of Lily's graduation. Because I can squeeze that into about 15 nice pictures and sign off to stare stupidly at my to-do piles.

Pictures Livie took of the roses at Mom and Dad's.

Love this one.

And the proud graduate

With Mrs. Aubrey. Yes, I was in the wrong spot, so did not get the full smile angle.

Lily's part in the class play "Spring Cleaning." Lily's line was "Throw away the old food so we don't get bugs." Deep stuff here. It was all very cute and funny.

And the class of 2013. Or, 2025. Wow.......

Doing something with rhythm sticks.

After graduation, we went to Mom and Dad's. We had some friends we knew in Alaska, Aaron and Janelle Gomez visiting us, so the kids had a high old time showing Paxson and Eloise the farm. The Gomezes are travelling around at this moment too, so they were merciful to my the-van-just-exploded-into-the-living-room house. Awesome to see them after all this time.