Well folks, I'm here to say we survived the 19+ hour road trip with 3 small children. All things considered it went relatively well. We loaded down the mini with lots of snacks.
Which were enjoyed while watching a zillion Disney movies.
The girls did a lot of coloring.
Daddy was at the wheel,
And I, the first mate.
B and I got in a minor scuffle before we got out of Tampa over role definition. Apparently the first mate is responsible for making sure the kids are happy:
And navigation:
Not "knitting":
And taking scenic photos:
I HEART Low Country.
I wanted to explain to Brandon the differences between needlepoint and knitting, and get a little jab in about him not being at work anymore and needing to boss someone around. But knowing we'd be spending roughly an entire day in the car over the next 36 hours I decided to start taking my role seriously.
I like to choose one travel app and stick with it, but not Brandon, so the entire trip I was comparing drive times and routes between Apple's Maps App and Mapquest. Between mapping and kid-happying I didn't have much time for knitting.
We stopped for the night in Charlotte, NC. B and I used to live there before we had the kiddos. We were relieved at the temps, you see in FL it.never.cools.off.
In the morning we headed back to Dilworth, the old 'hood and took the kids for a walk in Latta Park.
See our little old house in the background?
If we still lived here we would be at this park every single day.
There's our first house, so many good memories there.
They've ripped out a ton of the landscaping.
And added on in the back.
We met up with our old friend Stevan, a.k.a. Cheecho. If it weren't for him, Brandon and I may never have met. He hired both of us to work on his team at GEAE 10 years ago, and the rest is history.
Here we are at Freedom Park.
K loved the ducks.
Stevan is an AMAZING photographer. He's traveled to Istanbul, India, Rio, Zimbabwe, Macedonia and other exotic places on photography trips.
The girls collected feathers.
We had lunch in shifts at Brueggers, T-man was not a happy camper, and then got back at the road.
We made it all the way through the Blue Ridge Mountains (I think that's what they are called?),
It probably didn't help that Daddy was driving the mini like a Maserati, because shortly after Khera got carsick. She was so great about it, she even asked for a bag to yak in. What a little sweetheart. We stopped, let her pick out some chewing gum, freshened up and we got back on the road.
The kids were happy.
We were doing well.
Until we needed to add one more stop to our trip...
Tommy pooed in his diaper and thought it would be a great idea to reach down in there, pull some out and rub it on his body, car seat and car door. NICE. After a baby-wipe fest in the countryside, we made it to GJ's about an hour later.
We weren't too scarred, and are willing to do it again--I guess we are going to have to.
We've got to get the van back to FL!
