Want proof of God?
Here it is:
We completed a family trip (19-20 hours round trip) across Kansas, during the day, and had a great time. No big deal you say? Ah, ye of little faith, let me give you details then.
-Honda Accord-packed to the max
-One 2 year old boy with the energy of a power plant and a short attention span
-One overly dramatic 6 year old girl with ADHD and a habit of barfing in the car
-A missing DVD car charger
-One husband who is NOT famous for his relaxed driving attitude or patience with kids
-Me, who gets carsick and constantly needs to pee
-One back seat where the kids sit right next to each other
*It should be noted that these children don't get along for more than 10 minutes at a time and are prone to the standard whining, crying, screaming, throwing, kicking and tattling of normal siblings.
We usually make this trip at night so the kids sleep because of previous disasters where I though Ben might steer us into oncoming traffic just to end our misery. BUT, it was for Thanksgiving and we didn't want to be exhausted when we got there. So we gave it a try. I have to say that although it couldn't have gone better, it was still traveling with kids.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I hopped out of bed, ready to pack the car and go, excited to see our family and have a vacation. I planned to leave by 6:30 am-we left at 8:30 (no one even made it out of bed until after 7). To give Grace responsibility on this trip, we made her 'Backseat Captain '. She was in charge of making sure everyone back there was safe, kind, and obeyed. The power instantly went to her head though and we heard her screaming at her brother from the hallway "I command YOU!!! I AM the captain Tommy!!!" We then gave her a quick lesson on mutiny.
As we drove away from the house the kids were singing jingle bells! Oh it was just great!!!
By the time we hit the other side of town, the kids had changed all the words to 'poop'. Ah, Jingle Poop, real nice kids. Then Tommy feeling bold with not getting in trouble belted out a lovely original song entitled, 'Poop Guy'. Grace sang back up. It was early so I was picking my battles and let it go. Before we made it to the city limits (which I can't tell where they are anymore to be honest) Grace had asked if we were in Kansas 3 times.
Yikes. Could be a rough trip.
Now for the tornados. Grace is OBSESSED with tornados and enjoys worrying about when and if one will get her or her brother. This has made Tommy a bit concerned as well. So this was a big part of discussion before we got into KS, but by then I had convinced her we would be fine. I would need to do that again on the way back.
Tommy was enjoying all the tractors and trains along the way. Grace was coloring. I had packed the front of the car with snacks and little dollar toys to surprise them along the way. We read books, did art & sang songs. One of my genius ideas was silly putty. We drew little faces on our fingers and made crazy hair and hats out of silly putty. They also made tornados, lots of tornados. When I told Tommy not to get his Cheeze'its in the silly putty, he said: "Mom, my nado need to taste them." It did, and it was messy. I have to admit, I had fun too. It killed a couple of hours. Sadly I learned that if you drop it, then instantly forget that you dropped the silly putty in your car seat and later sleep on it, it is a big huge fat mess. Oh well.
A word on rest stops: If you tell a 6 year old one is coming up-she will instantly have an intense need to see it. She will then lose the urge to actually USE it after seeing it. Until the next one. And the next one. And the next one...
As we neared Kansas City (our destination) the toll line was insanely backed up. It was so bad that the News was there filming the traffic. Ben mentioned that wow, it is bad, there is the news. Grace instantly stuck her little face into the front seat yelling "WHERE IS THE MOOSE!!?? I don't see it! Where is it?!" Kansas City interstate IS a well known moose spotting sight, right?
Before arriving, I gave a quick reminder about manners, which included a talk on how we don't sing 'poop' songs of ANY kind in front of ANYONE other than Mom and Dad. (Not sure if they obeyed that or not) When we pulled in the drive way and threw open the doors all sorts of crap fell out. Things seem to multiply on a road trip. I am glad it was windy and probably blew everything away that I didn't get picked up! Some of my family waiting inside had never met Tommy & hadn't seen Grace since she was a baby, if ever! So I ran a comb through her hair while Ben pulled Tommy out of a pee soaked car seat. Great. "HI! Great to see you! This is Grace and little Tommy! Please don't touch my son, he is soaked in urine. Lovely home, may we borrow your bathtub?" We're HERE! ( I felt like cousin Eddie)
We had a great holiday with all of our family. (After cleaning up Tommy of course) A really perfect time for the kids and us alike. Kids stayed up way too late giggling with their cousins, played games with all their family, ran all over the place, saw a million cool things in the city and had a blast. We did the same as well. Grace loved being a part of the 'big girls' with her 14 & 10 yr old cousins and was ready to move there! None of us broke anything, barfed, ruined anything, opened others Christmas gifts, or was scaringly embarrassing. SUCESS! (although Grace wasn't at her best one night at Ben's Aunt and Uncles due to ultra exhaustion, but what could we expect?)
We left late Sunday morning after over sleeping. The kids were NOT thrilled to be leaving and that always makes it a little harder. They still did okay though.
On the trip back, we stopped and bought a dvd cord.
Only a miracle from God could have allowed such a smooth trip for our family. Remember, this is OUR family, not a normal family-And for that I am very thankful.
