As per usual, Austin and I decided to take our summer vacation during the hottest part of the summer. This year we decided to go with friends making it the Francis, Deters, and Wichman (Freterman) family vacation! We woke up early the day we were going to leave and were both ready to tackle the last minute lists before we left. That meant Austin was going to work to take care of a few service calls and I was getting everything packed and trying to get the house in decent shape before we left. Austin’s day started off rough and delayed his coming home to help with last minute loading. After lunch, I had to call in backup when one of the kids *Emery* got poop all over Gran’s bedroom. My mom came over and helped get Emery and the room cleaned up and I got Orwell to go down for a nap. This was about the part of the day that I started to have flashbacks to our last RV trip. If you know, you know!
Austin came home, we got the last minute things loaded up, the Deters showed up, loaded their camper, and we got on the road. As we were getting ready to pull out we realized that our A/C on the camper wasn’t working but we decided to get on the road and deal with it when we got to where we were going. After about 30 minutes on the road, Drew and Hailey texted to let us know that we needed to stop to get an alternator for their truck. We just happened to be going through Holton so we were able to stop at the O’Reilly’s there and find what we needed. After about 15 minutes of parking lot loitering, we were back on the road! Ellie said something about us always breaking down. I don’t know where she got that idea and Austin responded “if vacationing was easy, everybody would do it!”
Things started looking up when we found a Sonic with indoor seating and air conditioning!
Thursday was a relaxing day at the campsite. We swam and played at the playground. The kids loved the jumping pillow and the zip line! We are now trying to convince Austin that we need a jumping pillow and a zip line at our house. Garrett (the Wichman part of Freterman) couldn’t come with us Wednesday night so he drove our van here Thursday to spend a few days with us. He texted to let us know that the van had started vibrating on the way up here and he would let us know if anything happened. Well, something happened. He blew a tire on the van about an hour from us. He was able to get the spare put on it and make it to the campsite.
Friday was a big day! We headed to the Henry Doorly Zoo and spent most of the day there. Austin was so happy with me for bringing two strollers on this trip and he was so excited to get them in and out of the van for me. 😬 Our kids were real troopers all day and never complained about the heat. Our friends were the real MVPs though! They pushed strollers and held kids off and on all day with us. We are so blessed by the people in our lives!
Friday was also fry-day at the campsite. We’ve made it a tradition to bring our fryer camping and fry a whole mess of things for at least one meal on Fridays. this trip it was mozzarella sticks, taquitos, chicken strips, and potato wedges. After dinner, a storm rolled in so we cleaned up and had a quiet evening in the camper with the kids.
Our campsite was located in Gretna, Nebraska and we just happened to be there during their Gretna Days celebration. Saturday we started the morning off with a parade and then headed to a craft show. The boys were all so patient while Hailey, Ellie, and I shopped! After the craft show, we headed to a tractor pull. My boys loved every minute of it and could have watched it all day long. When we got back to the campsite, we did some mini golf and swimming before calling it a night.
Sunday morning, we packed up camp and headed home. By the grace of God, we made it home without any issues and only needed to stop once! We can’t wait for next year’s Freterman Family Vacation!
And Francis Makes Four 