Road Trip

R and I love Florida.  LOVE.  Like want to move there but our families would kill us love.  Like want to retire there on a catamaran someday and make our kids visit US love.  :)  So when we found out that we could drive there in a mere twelve hours, we were on it.  Yes, really.  12 hours.  Now let me clarify, our condo was on the northern Gulf side, in fact just over the Alabama line.  We even went to church and several restaurants on the Alabama side (near Gulf Shores) but let's be honest, it sounds way better to say you're vacationing on the beach in Florida rather than Alabama.  HA!  I got really excited about packing and planning for the trip (blame my OCD--Organizational Call of Duty.)  :)  And every once in a while, R had to remind what it really meant.  "It's like driving to my parents' and back and then to your parents' and back.  All at once."  Ohhhh yeah. . .

Nevertheless I started searching Pinterest and the Internet for road trip activities.  Grandma A gave the girls' great birthday gifts: bags full of stuff to do!  Movies, books, Lalaloopsy dolls, handheld games, crayons,  magazines.  A few months beforehand I started saving magazines they were getting in the mail (as well as my new issues!) I added a bunch of new apps to the iPad, and no playing until the trip.  We hit the library for new books, movies, and a book on CD.  I also bought travel versions of Guess Who and I Spy, some window markers, and pipe cleaners (I read that they're great for molding in the car.)  And then I hoped we would survive.

Homemade worksheets were a big hit (and I had a blast using up
stickers!)  Keke worked on upper/lower case letters,
 beginning sounds, patterns, etc.  

I tend to be a bit of a idealist.  I pictured this great American road trip with happy, laughing children.  I forget that Sassy gets car sick and Keke inevitably always spills and that while the girls love each other, they also fight more and more the older they get.  But I'm happy to announce that my great American road trip HAPPENED.  The girls were rock stars.

I'm still not sure exactly what we did on the way down and back.  It ended up taking us about 14 hours by the time we stopped for gas, potty breaks, and meals.  In 28 hours, Keke watched one and a half movies and Sassy watched half of one.  We didn't even touch the book on CD, the travel games, the pipe cleaners, window markers, or some other stuff in their birthday bags.  They looked at library books, played on the iPad (only 25 minutes at a time), colored, and I have no clue what else. . .   And they were just GOOD.  They kept themselves quiet and busy and we rarely heard a peep.  And what did I do?!  I have no clue either.  I took five books and read ONE all week.  How was I in a car for 28 hours and didn't read more?  I guess R and I talked and we watched the new scenery (another plus to road trips!)

And of course, we looked for license plates.  I found the
50 state stickers in a magazine and I made the "Plates We See"
on the computer.  We even saw a plate from Canda (Canada!)

I won't say that getting there was half the fun (because Florida is hard to beat) but getting there (and back) was truly a great time.  The time flew, we all still loved each other at the end of the day, and we found that 14 hours really isn't that far.  So, girls, remember that when Daddy and I buy that catamaran and head south.