Dating Chad has always been a crazy combination of typical things - movies, dinner, bowling - and totally unique. I have spent A LOT of hours watching him work on his Buick. I have spent hours and hours and hours watching him shoot, load ammo, and pick up brass. My Senior Prom was a pistol shoot in California. (I still think he owes me a Prom dress - ha!) I have also had the extreme pleasure of traveling with Chad to all sorts of locations. From our rain drenched tenting honeymoon to super extravagant resorts in the Caribbean our travel experiences have been extremely varied as well. The moral of the story - Dating Chad Dietrich is ALWAYS an adventure.
This weekend we set off on an excursion that proves when you are parenting 5.5 kids, you will call ANYTHING a date!
We left our house at 6:20 am on Friday morning and headed to the airport.
Hilariously, after printing our plane tickets I discovered that I really would follow my husband anywhere with out asking a single question. You see, I thought we were flying to Cincinnati, OH - but in actuality, we were headed to Dayton, OH.
After sipping a cup of "high quality" coffee at the Bismarck Airport's only retailer, we boarded our first flight.
We touched down in Minneapolis and quickly boarded flight number 2.
We landed in Dayton about 2 hours later and immediately found our ride waiting for us.
Our chauffeur was actually a car salesman, who promptly drove us 33 miles to the dealership at which he works. Chad spent about 25 minutes finalizing some paperwork, and then we hit the road.
For real.
Chad LOVES to purchase vehicles and construction equipment. He is also really good at it! He is forever watching eBay and other online auction sites for just the right deal. He had been stalking every Ford Excursion in the country for the past couple of months and finally found the "perfect" one. So he bought it. And then, he learned that the dealership would not ship it to us sight unseen. SO - he bought us a couple of plane tickets and convinced me that it would be a fun date!
We DID enjoy a beautiful sunset together.
We DID enjoy a lot of quiet. Instead of sneaking in snatches of conversation on between the stories our kids are always sharing, we had long stretches of quiet along with both meaningful and frivolous conversations of our own.
I DID read an entire novel.
We DID bypass the Interstate for a bit in favor of Iowa farmland.
Miles and miles of corn and family farms along with fall foliage was a relaxing change from the heavy traffic of Indianapolis and Minneapolis.
We DID try a couple of local restaurants that were new to us.
We DID stop to sleep at a hotel for a couple of hours.
I DID get a long nap in the back seat of the monster sized SUV.
We DID get to see Ryan, Miranda, Addisyn, Ainsley, and Ahlera for a bit.
We DID get Krissy's car picked up from the dealer that was fixing it in Fargo.
It was good!
I will be honest and say that I felt like a black and blue, slightly pregnant, paperclip by the time we arrived home on Saturday night. That many miles in planes and a vehicle were a bit hard on my expanding body - but after a good night sleep, a long back massage, and a day or normal activity, I am feeling much better.
Life with Chad is filled with crazy excursions, and I surely enjoy the ride.
