Road Trip

I have not been very good with keeping up with this blog but I am hoping that I can get back into the swing of this because I have found it very therapeutic!! Its been a busy month and summer is in full swing. And you really can't have summer without a road trip. And you can't make it an easy road trip either. You must go for the 20 hour road trip. =) We were supposed to go to Colorado for the week but since all the areas that we were planning on going are on fire, we decided to head to Florida instead. I mean the 15 hours in the car would not have been long enough so we decided to go for the 20 instead!! Now I personally love road trips. I like the entire idea of a road trip. The Starbucks coffee with your bag of snacks. The music playing. The kids watching movies and eating little snacks. Ryan likes the books on tape with his mountain dew. Sounds so blissful and fun when you think about it in your head. Anytime we have driven to Florida, we like to do the overnight driving. Ryan loads up on caffenine and we all try and sleep the best we can until Ryan can't take it anymore and then I take over. Sleeping in a car is not the most comfortable thing in the world but I know I couldn't do the driving overnight part. And the kids just pass out and don't care where they are sleeping. So we get on the road....... Ryan and I are both a little nervous because neither one of us have been feeling great lately. Ryan has been dealing with some dizziness spells and I have been dealing with well anything you can think of is what it feels like =) But we are off anyway... I start off driving so Ryan and nap a litl bit before it gets to late for me to drive. Cameron is plugged in in the back and Hailey has her car bag out and ready to play. I picked her up some of those travel activities because she loves that stuff.She can't even wait five min and she is ready to start car bingo and the license plate game. I loved the license plate game as a kid and I found myself turning into a kid again and looking for all the states. I even noticed that even when she was done I would keep calling out ones that I saw. I love that feeling of just being a kid for a little bit. A few hours later and 200 miles, Ryan takes over and we try and get comfy for the night. He starts to worry about his dizziness and I am thinking how can I drive more without killing myself as well as everyone else in the car. But it ends up being great and Ryan gets in the groove. I sleep as much as I can.. I am the worlds worst sleeper already so you can imagine how well I sleep in a car.,. But we are making good time and whats important is that the kids slept through the night and that makes the trip so much more tolerable. Rather than hearing "are we there yet" five hundred times. But don't worry, once they sun is up we get to start hearing it. Nothing is worse then that last stretch... You start counting down every mile. You try and go just a little bit over the speed limit to just try and get there a little bit faster. Ok well I will be honest, I have a little bit of a heavy foot. Hailey always likes it when I drive because she knows we will get there just a little bit faster then if daddy drives=).. But I would say I am a safe driver, I like to think... We should arrive by lunch time.. At this point it feels like we have been in the car for days. We smell. We are crabby. We are stiff from being in the car. We are hungry but are tired of the car snacks now and the roadside food. Someone is thirsty. I have to pee. Where are we going to eat lunch. One kid likes this place and the other wants something else. We are already getting asked if we can go to the pool when we get there. I mean the kidss have had a full nights sleep so they are ready to go. I just want out of this freaking car!!! We arrive by lunch time and everyone is still in one piece. We unpack the car, eat our lunch and off we go to the pool. Vacation has offically started. As we walk down to the pool, Hailey is smiling and laughing. Cameron is blowing up the intertube. Ryan is carrying the pool. I stop and my eyes start to water a bit. This is what I always wanted when I thought about having a family. This vacation has made me really see how much I truly enjoy and love my family. I want to see smiles all the time. I want to be smiling as well. I want to remember this time as a family. Ryan throwing the kids in the pool. Building sand castles on the beach. Getting a great tan. Me even getting in the pool even though I hate the water but I can't resist not only because its hot but because I want to be in there with the kids. I want this trip to hopefully be a trip that we will forever remember... If you are on vacation or having vacation at home, treasure the time you have with your family. Take a deep breathe and enjoy them!! It will be worth it....