On The Road Again

Andy and I met on a trip...in India...and we have been "trippin" ever since!

We sing that song...a lot... sometimes we mean it, sometimes, we don't! You know the part about, "just can't wait to get on the road again"... when you are looking at a 7 hour drive with two kids, ages 7 and 3, sometimes you really want to wait!

**o.k. Ella just sat in her chair and poured her milk in her lap... why?... "BECAUSE!" was her answer, now she is crying because she is wet and her "kii-kii" (blanket) is also soaked. Kids are the real, trip!

Anyway... we decided to hit the road 3 days after Christmas. The first day after Christmas, I spent on the couch. The second day was spent cleaning out toys and reorganizing our limited storage space and I am not finished with that project yet! The third day was all about the 10 loads of laundry and getting packed. We headed out at 5 a.m. on Saturday, ate granola bars on the road and only stopped for a couple of potty breaks. When we made our first stop in the morning, we quickly got the kids changed out of their pj's only to discover that I had not packed any panties for Ella. Luckily she was wearing a pull up and we stopped in Chandler to buy some (I even got a deal on a second pack in the next size up for 1/2 price!). We joined up with the Huffakers at their home around 2:00 their time.

After unloading our van we headed to a local eatery for Sam's soccer pizza party and awards. We spent that evening relaxing over some homemade hot cocoa and cookies. Most of our time was spent just hanging out. We walked to several of the local parks, we ate yummy food, we watched some movies, I played with my blog, we slept, and we played games. The kids got to play a lot of Wii and Game Boy, but they also played outside on the awesome play structure that Matt and Rebecca put up in their backyard!

New Year's Eve was spent eating homemade pizza, having a dance party and ringing in the New Year with noise makers, poppers and glow bracelets at about 9 p.m. I think that everyone was asleep by 10 p.m. and that was just fine with me! On New Year's Day we went out to Casa Grande which is a National Monument and checked out the grounds. We saw a film about the Hohokam people who are now gone from the area and walked around the remains of pit houses and a giant structure that was most likely used for worship or food storage. It was pretty windy, but we managed a picnic and the boys got to do the Jr. Ranger program.

We headed home the next day and had a fairly un-eventful drive. We stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way home and picked up Chinese take out for dinner. We unpacked and collapsed into bed. A fun and wonderful trip, a great visit with family, and more memories to cherish. It is nice to "Get on the road again", but it is always nice to come HOME, too.