June 23, 2010

Over the River and Through the Woods

I'm writing from Wisconsin, where the kids and I are visiting my folks for a few days. We left by 8:30 a.m. yesterday, which was a miracle in and of itself, considering I wasn't in bed until 12:30 a.m.! God was so good. After a frustrating Monday, a day I had set aside specifically to get READY for the trip (but sadly somehow ended up completely different from the vision I had in mind), I felt God's hand all over our trip on Tuesday. The kids were incredibly good. We did make a stop as soon as I got onto I-70 for Kenna to go potty, but other than that, we only had 3 major stops, all very much planned.

A little over halfway through, we had a picnic lunch at a rest stop, and then we didn't stop until we got on the other side of Chicago, where I treated the kids to ice cream and myself to a latte so I could stay awake for the remainder of the drive. There was hardly any bickering or whining, which probably speaks more to the fact that I let them watch a couple of DVDs from the library than to the wonderful character of the kids, LOL. Seriously, though, they were wonderful, and I was so thankful for a good experience. About the only thing I would have changed if I could was to have Lucan nap more than 20 minutes all day! He was SO tired and over-stimulated by bedtime that we had quite a time getting him to go to sleep in a different bed/room.

But thankfully, once he got to sleep, he slept soundly until 6:30 this morning, which is more than I can say for myself, ha! I shared a bed with Charis, and I will not be doing that again anytime soon, LOL! She is a KICKER! Thank goodness I had the good sense to reserve a cabin at a nearby retreat center for us to sleep at the next 3 nights! Mom and Dad's house is kind of small for our brood. The only bad thing is that Lucan is now used to the crib, having slept there last night and taken two very good naps there today, so tonight may be interesting...but we actually have access to the adjoining room at camp, as no one is in that side, so I think I'll just put his pack-n-play there so he can cry and fuss if he needs to.

I was able to get my 70th P90X workout in this morning! Woohoo! The big kids are out fishing with my dad and my brother, and apparently they have all caught something! Mom was just on the phone with them. They have never been fishing before, so I know they are all going to explode with tales of ones that did and did not get away when they return this evening. Mom said Dad is having as much fun as the kids, as I'm sure he is! I convinced Kenna to stay here and let her watch a movie so that I could get a nap while Lucan was down. I knew she wouldn't stay put to fish, and she would have probably made the experience less than pleasant for the others who were there. She and Lucan are having fun here at Grandma's house anyway.

We'll be here two more days, and then Mom will drive with me back to Ohio. I'll be so glad to have another adult on the drive! It's been good to get away, even if I haven't had a whole lot of down time. I was kind of hoping to work on Lucan's digital baby book that I had intended to create for the grandmas for Mother's Day, but let's just say my free time is pretty limited! This is definitely a working vacation! But it is fun to get away and be with my family. I know the days of having to oversee little ones will not last forever, so I'm enjoying the moments I get to stroke a fussy baby's back or play a game of chess with a boy who would otherwise prefer to be out playing with his friends.

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