The Troops are Headed East

Let the holidays begin!!! Last night Derrik's dad flew out to Arizona to help Derrik bring the car back east for the holidays. This morning Derrik and Ronnie headed to the field to do Derrik's exit physical for the holidays and for Derrik to throw one last time. Ronnie got to check out the Reds new facilities which was pretty cool too.

This afternoon we started our packing of the car. Let me backtrack a few days real quick for you first though... Packing has been a chore! We weren't just packing for a trip, but for many different things. First off we wanted to get some things in the car to get back home that we've had with us since we left for spring training back in February. I mean we hardly need to be lugging Ryder's infant carseat around the country with us anymore. So yeah... we got that stuff in that car. Then I had to pack for almost a month which meant basically pack anything warm we have. BUT I didn't want to have to lug everything we had into Derrik's mom's house when we get there for Thanksgiving. I wanted a weeks worth of stuff that we could just bring in instead of everything. So yeah.. it was like packing for three different occasions all at once. A nice little 3-for-1 deal.

So back to the car today. We managed to fit all of our stuff in the middle row of our car. That left the whole back part for the cats. In case you forgot, the pets are the reason for this ridiculuos trek across country to begin with. We just couldn't afford/think of putting our pets in a kennel for weeks! Derrik is trying to do this trip on a budget which means no stopping at hotels (F.Y.I - they are already contemplating stopping tonight! They left at 3:30 PM!). That means we can't keep the cats in their cages the whole time because they need to eat and go to the bathroom. Plus... Derrik's dad is allergic to cats so they can't be crawling all over him in a confined car for a 36 hour trip! I bought a huge table cloth that we used to make a wall kind of and to protect the car. In this area we put their litter box, a cage with a bed in it (Thanks Wood's... were getting great use out of Abbi's cage still!), a cat bed, and Chloe's cage with food and water in it for them. I tried to get some pictures.

During my last phone call to Derrik when, Ryder was telling him good night, he told me that Turbo had broken through our "wall"... it's going to be a LONGGGG trip! I feel for them... BUT I also feel for myself and this awful flight I am going to have to take with our extremely active, never wants to sit still, doesn't take no for an answer 15 month old on Tuesday!!!!!

Ryder loves his Papi :)

The Boys and Chloe heading out

DRIVE SAFE BOYS!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!