We’re back. After more than 30 hours of travel our family is happy to be home. We had the opportunity to spend our vacation in a house close to the beach in Narragansett, Rhode Island. It was lovely and the children enjoyed playing in the water and sand, and even a whole afternoon devoted to kite flying. 
We were able to tour a couple of the mansions in Newport, Rhode Island which made our rather large home seem like a shack in contrast. 
Our whole house could have been uprooted and placed in one of the entry areas and there would have still been enough room to enter and hang your coat. Of course they all sported lovely views of the sea.
We traveled up to Boston and were able to tour the U.S.S. Constitution and museum. 
The museum was fascinating and had a multitude of fun hand- on things for the kids to try.
We enjoyed our trip to Boston, a city that has a marvelous history. I do have a suggestion for you folks up there, perhaps you could consider raising the ceilings a bit in your parking garages. We enjoyed our trip, but would have much preferred seeing Paul Revere’s home as opposed to setting off blaring alarms and lights at your city’s parking facilities. 
Now I realize that our 12 passenger van is taller than your average vehicle, but I’m thinking that there are a lot of other people who would also appreciate that improvement.
On Sunday we visited a church in a neighboring town. Christ Our Hope is a church plant in Peacedale, RI and we enjoyed a wonderful worship service and fellowship afterward. I don’t know if any of you live up in that area, but if so this church is worth a look.
I always enjoy road trips with the children and yesterday we spent 16 hours traveling. We read, knitted and crocheted, colored, listened to CD’s, sang songs, told stories, snacked and played games. We are thankful for the fun family time, traveling mercies, the opportunity to visit Rhode Island and for being back home again.
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Hi, I'm Kimberly. 
I’m glad you had a good time in RI. I grew up in Narragansett and now live in Peacedale. I enjoyed seeing your photos of Narragansett Town Beach, a place where I have spent many hours during the Spring, Summer, and Fall.
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I do not mind the giveaways
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I missed you, welcome back!!!
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This makes me miss the east coast. I lived in Providence RI for a while and loved it there. You need to make that picture of everyone holding hands in the ocean into one of your page headers— so cute!
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Raising Olives Reply:
September 19th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Thanks everyone it is great to be back!!
Jenn,
The page header idea is cute. I may have to work on that later today.
Kristin,
I want to do a post about road trips because we have learned a lot as our family has grown. One thing is that our children are not accustomed to TV or computer games and we read aloud a lot, so they are used to these kinds of quiet activities. We do have a DVD player that we took, but the children only watched one DVD on the way up and one on the way back. It’s a bit hard for everyone to see in our big van.
Chantelle,
Maybe I should do a couple posts about traveling. We have a packing system that works well and again have learned a lot about organization. When you consider that we need 22 outfits for a two day trip and that is without anything extra, you realize that we have to have a system. We can’t have everyone bringing things that they won’t need.
Valerie,
We order the swim suits from swimmodest.com. I picked up one of the swim suits at Land’s End online clearance. I will probably be looking at Land’s End again next year, they have nice separates so you can pick a modest bottom and pair it with a modest top and their quality is superb. I’m hoping they will be less expensive than the Swim Modest suits.
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Your pictures are great! It looks like you had a wonderful time… Perhaps sometime you can share how you make road trips enjoyable! I love road trips too – but ideas for entertainment is always appreciated!!
Thanks for sharing!
Kristin
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What a wonderful trip! We have never visited the east coast. It looks beautiful, and I know that the history is amazing! Glad you are home safely!
Roan
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Sounds like a great trip! My husband (fiance at the time) and I once got to spend part of one day in Boston as a stopover on a group mission trip. We had to hurry to see much, but it was a fun experience anyway.
Wonderful blessing to have so much road time go so well!
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What a fantastic opportunity! I’m glad you all made it back safely!
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I love your blog. My favorite posts are about how you handle day to day living with such a large family, laundry, etc. I would love to know how you handle travel, how you pack, what you pack…….on a trip like this, what you take when you camp, what you do about meals when you are away from home, what the back of your van looks like when it is loaded down, do you stop and do laundry on the road, the list goes on and on.
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Looks like a lot of fun!!!! I love the picture of the kids and your hubby going into the water!
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We are getting ready to go on a 6,000+ mile road trip … without my dear husband. I’ll be leaving on Saturday with my 7 youngest kids. We’ll be traveling through 12 states (visiting friends and family in 7 of those states) … and we won’t be home for a month.
We, too, enjoy our time on the road. We read, play games, listen to books on tape, listen to Adventures in Odyssey, and really just ENJOY each other. I’m looking forward to this time with my younger kids, after a few crazy months with 14 of us all living at home.
mama of 13
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What a wonderful trip! Thank you for sharing!
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Love all the photos…I’m glad you all has such a great time together. Vacationing is always fun but getting home is always a joy for me! Kim
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Great pictures!!!! It looks like you all had a great vacation. I’m glad you made it home safely((hugs))
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Welcome back! You got some great photos and I’m sure some even greater memories!
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What a wonderful trip!!! Looks like it was a blast!
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Where do you get those adorable modest swimsuits for your girls???
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Looks like you had a great time. Welcome home!
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Hi Kimberly, A little late on posting about your trip but wanted to say that your “shack” is a “shack” full of love. I wonder if you could find 1/2 the love in those mansions?
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