Saying goodbye to the casita ;(

So all good things have to come to an end our trip included ;(

We drove all day on Friday July 5th.  We were actually pretty excited about pulling an all nighter and just pushing through from Jersey to Tybee Island.  However, sanity entered in after late night waffles at the Waffle House and we ended up at a motor lodge somewhere in North Carolina.  The pups first motel stay.  John did not exactly mention to the lady we had 4 dogs.  His excuse.."Well, she did not ask..."  I am pretty sure we would have been staying in a Walmart parking lot if she had.  The KOA was full and we were pooped.

On Saturday July 6th we made it to Charleston, S.C.  We visited with a grad friend of John's, David Payne and his wife Bev and their two boys George and Charlie -- So cute.  It was wonderful to catch up with them both.  That night we then drove down to Tybee Island, GA to see John's sister, Laur and her husband Mark and our nephews, Calvin and Tanner.  Nevermind the fact that we left Charleston at 11:30 pm (we kept the dogs at the Mt. Pleasant KOA for the afternoon while we visited) and then drove 2.5 hours.  We both drank some energy drinks to keep us going --- oops!  and listed to some Entertainment radio on the way.  We arrived at 3:00 am.  Awesome.

We enjoyed a day at the beach with Laur, Mark and the boys on Sunday July 7th.  We played in the ocean and the sand and went kayaking. John and I successfully got burnt.  Incidentally we did put on sunscreen --- once-- and it was 15 SPF. Wow, what morons.  Anyway, SPF 50 is always a good idea especially when your body has not seen the sun in  quite awhile and you are white as as sheet.  :) Lesson learned. I must say we are learning lessons all the time!

We rode our bikes to dinner with Laur and the boys to a restaurant called Social.  The food was great.  After a full day of sun we were all exhausted the boys were practically falling asleep at the table.  However, after our gelato they were buzzing around like little bees.  We took a walk down to the beach and let them run around like hooligans for awhile.  John even got in on the fun with a race....

1 cute nugget - Calvin

Another cute nugget - Tanner

The next day we were planning on heading to Clemson but this was before we realized we did not have our passports.  Mom and Dad Lattimore had driven the RAV4 from Texas to Tybee Island, GA (remember we had 2 cars in Texas -- I know it has been awhile--try to keep up).  Anyway, John had thought he had put all of our important documents in the RAV.  After tearing through bags and emptying boxes and making several phone calls they were found in Texas at the Emerald Bay house.  Luckily, Mom Lattimore has some amazing neighbors who went over and found our file folder for us.  Thank you for sweet neighbors!!!

Since we had 2 cars John decided to come on home to wait on our passports and I went on to Clemson to see some of your friends for the night.  I  got to see some wonderful friends Sarah and Bryan Mudder (Ruby and Ransom), Lauren and Jimmy Butts (and baby Selah), Megan Sanders, Kandace Terry, Jessie Strickland, Rachel Hite, and Stephen Chapman.  It was great to see friends from the DCF community. I miss them all so much.  I got to attend a bible study with Sarah on Tuesday morning.  So refreshing!  I also got to meet babies Ransom and Selah who were both born while we are traveling.  It is always great fun to meet new babies!

We have been cleaning and getting packed and ready for Ireland the last couple of days. Yes, Ireland.  Crazy huh!  We are off for 3 weeks while the dogs get to enjoy a nice stay at a pet resort that includes training!  We hope that sticks!

John and I have enjoyed our adventures. They have been wonderful.  However, I can safely say that this was a once in lifetime experience traveling with our 4 dogs.  I do not recommend traveling with 4 medium sized dogs in a 17 foot trailer.  If you do so, don't travel for 3 months!  :)

So yeah maybe having 4 dogs is crazy BUT our lives are full of adventure everyday!

Thank you so much for following our adventures.  There may be more to come with our trip to Ireland even though the pups won't be there.  We will miss them but it will be nice for it to be just the two of us for a bit...

C&J + 4 glad to be home pups (well at least for today---they don't know about the pet resort yet :)

Lessons I have learned from the dogs

1. Fiona -- it is never to early to play -- in fact playtime should be all the time

2. Ralph - persistence is important -- especially when it involves staring at someone until they give you food!

3. Phoebe-- you can never pet and cuddle your pup too much -- it really does lower stress levels!  

4.  Lilly -- keeping a schedule is very important -- this is why we get up at 7:30 am every morning because of our little alarm clock :)