So my parents live on a pretty cool little farm with chickens and cows and farm toys- tractors electric car, dogs, etc. And I have been telling my friend Katie that she and her son needed to come down with us sometime. Well, since I'm moving soon and we are best friends we decided we really did need to do w road trip together before I leave. So we scheduled it for a few weeks layer, then I realized Sunday that the only time I could go was Monday. So I sprung it on her, fully expecting her to pass. Instead she surprised me and said let's do it. So we hopped into the car (not really, there's no hopping with 3 kids) Monday morning and headed down. I literally told my parents the night before, and both had to work, so our expectations as well as actual plans were slim. We decided to just take our time and enjoy the hiccups that were certain to come with traveling with two toddlers and an infant.
Our highlights for the ride down there were 1. The moment we realized the van DVD player was going, each toddler had an iPad in their lap and Henry's personal DVD player was playing all at the same time. Oh, modern technology... (I'm a little embarrassed, but had to share) 2. We discovered Blakely gets intensely carsick (this is a recurring problem) and she CANNOT handle the iPad in the car. She threw up, but I saw it coming just in time to have Katie hold a bag up for her. We were a ways away from a stop, so unfortunately I was forced to litter said bag. We pulled over on the side of the road and I really felt like keeping it in the car wasn't worth the risk of her or another kid throwing up due to the stink. (Sorry environmentalists!) I now know to ALWAYS keep lots of bags in the car because although this was the only throw up of the trip, she came very close a couple of other times. And 3. We finally made it to town with no less than 5 stops. (Starbucks, pee break, snack break, barf break, and lunch)
We arrived to 80 degree weather, put on our shorts and had a blast. The kids couldn't have been happier. They ran around the pasture, fed and held chickens, collected eggs, fed cows, played baseball, played on a jungle gym, jumped on the trampoline, and got so dirty that there was a ring of dirt around the tub after their bath. Henry was asleep by 7:30, Blakely around 9:30. There were 2 earthquakes that night that were totally bizarre! Apparently not an uncommon thing around there.
The kids all slept in- mine 7:30, and Hudson 9:30. (As jealous as I am, I am still thankful for 7:30!) it was cold and windy, which was a huge disappointment after sweating the day before. Sure made us glad we got there in time to enjoy it though!
All three kids were SUUUUUUUPER whiney, so we loaded them up for errands since it was too cold to okay outside for too long. We stopped at Braums for lunch when I learned Katie had never been. The kids were being crazy and driving us nuts, Henry threw up on the only pair of pants I brought, so we went to old navy to get him some more! After that we stopped by my moms school to say hi. The kids fell asleep on the way home. We played that afternoon. I cooked supper, and after baths we loaded up and left town right at 8pm. It went by so fast, and yet as we were leaving it seemed like there was no way we had only been there a day.
The ride home, of course, didn't go as planned and I think there was only about 1 hour out of the 5 that all three kids were actually asleep. The kids sleeping the whole way and Katie and I getting the whole drive to visit up front turned into me chauffeuring everyone and Katie taking care of each kids endless requests. We did however manage to not stop until Topeka because we never wanted to wake up whatever kid was sleeping as we passed the stops. We only stopped in Topeka for gas- the light had been on wayyyy too long, and we were in a scary area at 1am. Needless to say, we both had to pee like the dickens when we got home. Katie shuffled her kiddo and stuff into her car, and I shuffled both my kids into bed, and amazingly, everyone went right to sleep. Blakely even slept till 8:30 the next day, which she has NEVER in her life done.
It was sooooo much fun, and well worth the tired and whiney kids I got afterwards.
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