Sunday morning the weekend after I had girls weekend I got a call from my mom. She had been over visiting Sara and they had gotten a crazy idea. Mom had a few vacation days she needed to burn before the end of the year, Sara was still on maternity leave, and since I was out of work too, they thought we should all take a trip to Missouri. With Thanksgiving coming up and then Sara headed back to work they thought we needed to go that week. So a couple of days later Haley and I headed to Atlanta to meet up with the others.
We met at Stephanie's so we could combine all ourcrap stuff into the minivan. It took us 2 1/2 hours of moving seats, moving 3 carseats, unpacking and repacking: 2 pack n plays, 2 strollers, a potty, a booster seat, a bouncy chair, a breast pump, formula, bottles, sippy cups, diapers, wipes, blankets, pillows, sheets, hats, gloves, clothes, toys, maps, cameras, an untold number of snacks, a 7 week old, an 11 month old, a 2 1/1 yr old, the three of us, and a partridge and a pear tree. We had some pizza for dinner and Steph was wonderful as she helped entertain the kids while we were packing. We left mom's car at Steph's and at 9:30 pm Wed night we pulled out of the driveway and listened to Haley wail. I offered one last time to go east on I-20 instead of going west, but we decided to forge ahead and after about 12 minutes of screaming Haley gave up and we had 2 out of 3 kids sleeping.
The drive out there went amazingly well. We were so pleased, excited, surprised, grateful for such a good trip. We drove all night and only stopped twice, albeit each stop was at least 90 minutes long. We definitely got some strange looks at our first stop. We pulled into a truck stop with a restaurant at about 1:45 am with each of us carrying in a waking child. We got gas, changed a bunch of diapers, had some snacks, Sara nursed Daniel, Anna ran around and wanted to "get something" which is a trait she inherited from her Daddy, and Haley stood up in the booth and flirted with a couple of old men, which is a trait she inherited from her ... oh never mind. Then it was back on the road and we drove some more and stopped around 6:00 am somewhere in Missouri (I think). We were in some podunk town and could only find one place that was open. So again we filed in, each carrying a baby and one of the old men that meet for coffee at this place each morning said "oh look, a baby parade" we changed diapers on a blanket on the floor in the middle of the bathroom and then sat down for breakfast. This was a very uh rustic place and had some deer head trophies on the wall. Haley was staring at them (her Daddy would've been so proud) and then Anna saw them and said "Mooses...pow pow pow pow" and shot at them with her finger. It was so funny!
We finally got to Barb and Wayne's (my mom's sister) around 11:30 am Thursday morning. We unpacked all our stuff and promptly overtook every nook and cranny in their house. We took it easy the rest of the day and let the kids run around and play. Friday was another easy day, just relaxing at the house. Although, we did walk down to the lake with the girls, but it was right before lunch time so Haley was a little cranky. Mary Kay (mom's other sister) came down Friday night, so we had a few drinks and some girl talk.
This trip was the first time we got to see Anna and Haley really play together. Before, Haley would just follow Anna around and want to play with whatever she had and Anna was always worried about Haley stealing her toys. By about lunchtime Friday though Anna realized that it was fun to play with Haley, but she did stake claim to a couple of things that she didn't want to share with Haley. Like this yellow chair, Anna decided was hers and she said Haley could have the blue chair, so anytime Haley got close to the yellow chair Anna would run over and sit in it so that Haley couldn't push it around the room. But overall, they did play really well together, and Daniel was pretty good too.
Saturday, the "sisters" went to a funeral and left Sara and I alone with the kids. We had another good day of playing and we really had our act together. When the "adults" got home all 3 kids were sleeping, the house was semi picked up, and we were sitting on the couch having a drink and watching the Clemson game. Sunday afternoon we loaded up the cars and took the kids to Silver Dollar City to see the lights and the Christmas Parade. We packed up Monday morning and after rearranging bucket seats and carseats we got on the road around 2:00 that afternoon.
The ride home also went really well. The first stop was pretty entertaining. Mom was getting Haley out of the car and realized that she'd had a mess that leaked through her diaper and soaked her clothes and the carseat. So Mom carried her into the bathroom, while I got Anna's shoes on and then moved the diaper bags out of the way so that Sara could hand Daniel out and then climb out of the backseat. Sara started feeding Daniel and Mom had Haley and Anna in the bathroom - which was absolutely freezing - I mean it was seriously like 55 degrees in there. I had to go back to the car to get the blanket to put on the floor since there was no changing table. Mom had Haley undressed and was trying to hold the poopy naked baby close enough to keep warm, but not too close, because she was poopy. Then I was kneeling on the floor changing Haley's diaper and clothes and Mom was leaning over playing peek-a-boo to try to keep her from getting loose and crawling away. And Anna, with her teeth chattering, was standing behind Mom, playing Pat-a-cake on her butt.
After I got Haley under control, Mom went into the stall to use the bathroom. Anna, who was potty training at the time, peeked under the stall door and said, "Do I hear pee pee in the potty? and when Mom said yes, Anna went to give her a hug and said "I'm so proud of you!" After we ate, Mom went to get gas while Sara and I changed diapers and fed Daniel, again. She parked on the closer side of the restaurant and eventually we all loaded back into the van and were getting ready to leave. Sara asked Anna if she had her blanket and she did not. We looked in, under, and around all the bags and blankets that we could see and panic was starting to set in. This was THE blanket that Anna took everywhere, slept with, wrapped herself up in, and could not function without. Finally, I ran over to the other side of McDonalds where the van was first parked and found the blanket in the middle of the parking lot. We were so completely, utterly relieved and we managed to make it home (to Columbia) by 7:00 Tuesday morning without any major meltdowns and only a couple more dirty diapers.
I wish I had pictures of what we looked like on the drive, but we were each holding a kid, a bag, and a blanket whenever we stopped, so no one had any free hands to hold a camera. It was definitely a crazy idea to drive half way across the country, with three kids under the age of 3, but it was really fun too. It was great to spend some quality time with Mom and Sara and watching Haley and Anna learn to play together was really fun too.
We met at Stephanie's so we could combine all our
The drive out there went amazingly well. We were so pleased, excited, surprised, grateful for such a good trip. We drove all night and only stopped twice, albeit each stop was at least 90 minutes long. We definitely got some strange looks at our first stop. We pulled into a truck stop with a restaurant at about 1:45 am with each of us carrying in a waking child. We got gas, changed a bunch of diapers, had some snacks, Sara nursed Daniel, Anna ran around and wanted to "get something" which is a trait she inherited from her Daddy, and Haley stood up in the booth and flirted with a couple of old men, which is a trait she inherited from her ... oh never mind. Then it was back on the road and we drove some more and stopped around 6:00 am somewhere in Missouri (I think). We were in some podunk town and could only find one place that was open. So again we filed in, each carrying a baby and one of the old men that meet for coffee at this place each morning said "oh look, a baby parade" we changed diapers on a blanket on the floor in the middle of the bathroom and then sat down for breakfast. This was a very uh rustic place and had some deer head trophies on the wall. Haley was staring at them (her Daddy would've been so proud) and then Anna saw them and said "Mooses...pow pow pow pow" and shot at them with her finger. It was so funny!
We finally got to Barb and Wayne's (my mom's sister) around 11:30 am Thursday morning. We unpacked all our stuff and promptly overtook every nook and cranny in their house. We took it easy the rest of the day and let the kids run around and play. Friday was another easy day, just relaxing at the house. Although, we did walk down to the lake with the girls, but it was right before lunch time so Haley was a little cranky. Mary Kay (mom's other sister) came down Friday night, so we had a few drinks and some girl talk.
This trip was the first time we got to see Anna and Haley really play together. Before, Haley would just follow Anna around and want to play with whatever she had and Anna was always worried about Haley stealing her toys. By about lunchtime Friday though Anna realized that it was fun to play with Haley, but she did stake claim to a couple of things that she didn't want to share with Haley. Like this yellow chair, Anna decided was hers and she said Haley could have the blue chair, so anytime Haley got close to the yellow chair Anna would run over and sit in it so that Haley couldn't push it around the room. But overall, they did play really well together, and Daniel was pretty good too.
Saturday, the "sisters" went to a funeral and left Sara and I alone with the kids. We had another good day of playing and we really had our act together. When the "adults" got home all 3 kids were sleeping, the house was 
The ride home also went really well. The first stop was pretty entertaining. Mom was getting Haley out of the car and realized that she'd had a mess that leaked through her diaper and soaked her clothes and the carseat. So Mom carried her into the bathroom, while I got Anna's shoes on and then moved the diaper bags out of the way so that Sara could hand Daniel out and then climb out of the backseat. Sara started feeding Daniel and Mom had Haley and Anna in the bathroom - which was absolutely freezing - I mean it was seriously like 55 degrees in there. I had to go back to the car to get the blanket to put on the floor since there was no changing table. Mom had Haley undressed and was trying to hold the poopy naked baby close enough to keep warm, but not too close, because she was poopy. Then I was kneeling on the floor changing Haley's diaper and clothes and Mom was leaning over playing peek-a-boo to try to keep her from getting loose and crawling away. And Anna, with her teeth chattering, was standing behind Mom, playing Pat-a-cake on her butt. After I got Haley under control, Mom went into the stall to use the bathroom. Anna, who was potty training at the time, peeked under the stall door and said, "Do I hear pee pee in the potty? and when Mom said yes, Anna went to give her a hug and said "I'm so proud of you!" After we ate, Mom went to get gas while Sara and I changed diapers and fed Daniel, again. She parked on the closer side of the restaurant and eventually we all loaded back into the van and were getting ready to leave. Sara asked Anna if she had her blanket and she did not. We looked in, under, and around all the bags and blankets that we could see and panic was starting to set in. This was THE blanket that Anna took everywhere, slept with, wrapped herself up in, and could not function without. Finally, I ran over to the other side of McDonalds where the van was first parked and found the blanket in the middle of the parking lot. We were so completely, utterly relieved and we managed to make it home (to Columbia) by 7:00 Tuesday morning without any major meltdowns and only a couple more dirty diapers.
I wish I had pictures of what we looked like on the drive, but we were each holding a kid, a bag, and a blanket whenever we stopped, so no one had any free hands to hold a camera. It was definitely a crazy idea to drive half way across the country, with three kids under the age of 3, but it was really fun too. It was great to spend some quality time with Mom and Sara and watching Haley and Anna learn to play together was really fun too.
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Susiebell