To Grandma's House We Went.....

Is it just me or is traveling with young children a physical sport?

Last week we went to visit my in-laws who live about 2 hours away. We visited with them for about 5 hours. It took me about 5 hours to prepare and travel for that 5 hour visit. Our kids come with a lot of stuff. For the older one, pajamas, a change of clothes, a few toys, a favorite book and a leaf. Yes, a leaf. She has a thing about bringing everyone she's going to see a leaf. It was beautiful in October but now people are getting brown crunchy leaves from the floor of my garage. Not so pretty. The younger one needs pajamas, a change of clothes, a place to sleep, diapers, wipes, an extra blanket, toys, and a strolle. So, we pack. We drive two hours. We visit.

We leave an hour after we wanted to leave. Everyone cries because they are tired (myself included). We get in the car and drive 10 minutes. My older daughter needs a potty break. We park as far away from the women's bathroom as we can (you know, because it's dark, raining and 1 hour past bedtime). I drag her across the travel center to the bathroom, clean the whole stall, get her on the potty but, ha ha mommy, she doesn't really have to go potty. Twenty minutes later we get back in the car where the baby is wide awake. We drive another hour to find the ramp to the next highway closed. We have to go 10 minutes in the wrong direction to turn around and get on the interstate going the right way. We roll in to the garage and both children are refreshed from their nap and think it's time to play...

I'm glad my girls love their grandparents and enjoy the trip. And I'm also glad I have a few weeks to rest up before we do it again :)