The Journey

I enjoy a good running diary.

Not to be confused with a diary of running, as I don’t participate in those :)  The whole running thing puts a damper on that.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to chronicle/keep a running diary of our drive to Aaron’s parents’ house.  

I considered calling it “Tour de Bathrooms” or something equally silly, becuase, let’s face it, that’s what a roadtrip with kids can become.

Except, the girls did awesome!  They went to the bathroom once on our 4 hour and 13 minute drive.

So, I guess this is more of a chronicle of the ups and downs of our trip!  Enjoy :)

Friday started out interestingly enough, with the minivan getting literally stuck in the road construction when Gracie and I were taking Leah to school.  I’d read on the city website that I should have been able to get through a certain way, but I couldn’t due to large machinery digging large holes.  

I went a different way and got stuck in the mud/bottomed out in the mud/road.  

Awesome.  

Some really nice construction guys came to help me. I genuinely never got the impression that they swearing at me under their breath or anything.

We were looking at the situation and trying to figure out the best way to get me unstuck.

Did I mention that I was wearing my pajamas (and winter coat)?

Because I was :)

They ended up pulling me out with a backhoe/escavator/bulldozer/digger thing.

Leah was late for school, which she is usually not okay with, but she handled it remarkably well!  

I figured the day could only get better from there, and it did!

We were able to be all packed by the time we needed to pick up Leah and Maggie from school.

So, we piled them all in

and hit the road at 3:23.

The girls did a great job looking out the window and talking about their school days.

For 10 minutes.

Then, they wanted to watch something.

We don’t have a DVD player built in the minivan, but we do let the girls watch a DVD on my laptop.  The battery doesn’t last forever (a couple of hours or so), so we have to use it strategically.  

They were going to have to wait 27 agonizing minutes until 4:00, at which point we would be joined by Veggie Tales and Max and Ruby.

Maggie proceeded to ask, “How many more minutes?”  about every 90 seconds.

“23 more minutes,” I counted down.

“Is that long or short,” Maggie would ask.

“LONG!” Leah emphatically informed her.

Yeah, so there was that.

Until, at 3:48, I realized that we could listen to music.

Duh!

We had recently taken The Sound of Music Live! soundtrack off of hiatus, so the girls were happily distracted by singing their parts to the songs.

They even wanted to finish listening to High on a Hill was a Lonely Goat instead of watching a DVD at exactly 4:00.

They waited until 4:02.

They’re really maturing...right before my very eyes :)

We rode happily until 5:20, when Aaron and I decided we should stop for a bathroom break and to get supper out.

Were they ever excited to visit Burger King!

Don't worry, I kept Gracie from playing in the ashtray/garbage can

We were super efficient due to their being 3 stalls.

They even had the blower hand dryer, which Gracie really enjoyed :)

Yeah, that's me in the mirror

Who needs the playland when you can swing on a bar?

We headed back to the minivan and I got out the JImmy John’s I’d bought before we left!

I’ve found that the girls do better eating Jimmy John’s in the car than they do eating chicken nuggets from McDonalds.  There isn’t any dipping sauce to spill or happy meal toy to fight over.

On a side note, I feel like McDonalds employees should be trained to give out the same toy in each happy meal in a single order.  Maybe that’s just me, though.

Anyway, Leah was so happy with her meal (which I’d rounded out with apples, pringles, a little brownie, and a juice box)

that she expressed her appreciation by rewarding me with the sticker from her Jimmy John’s wrapper!

And we were on the road!

A 9 minute stop!  That has to be some kind of record.

But, then, the computer battery ran out. At...

Things got interesting.

Leah found some sticky glue residue and started decoarating her face.

She told me I could put these on here :)

We looked out the window at ridges.

Maggie started crying because she dropped her doll.

We looked out the window at streams that had over flowed with water.

Gracie started laughing because she made Maggie cry by poking her with her foot (Help me, Jesus!).

They were starting to turn on us!

But, then, about 20 minutes from our destination, we stopped here.

My favorite Caribou ever!

I mean, look at the inside of this place!

I ran in (by myself) for drink/mommy fuel to make it the rest of the way.

Aaron drove on as the girls may or may not have been starting to emotionally fall apart.

Ahhhhhh, yes, we made it!

In 4 hours and 13 minutes.

Yay!