Road Trip

First, I apologize, but I have no pictures for this post.  Honestly, I am not entirely sure where our camera is.  However, I want to write down a few memories from the last week. 

The first memory actually occurred this morning and is the catalyst for this post.  I was eating breakfast in our hotel room (a quite nice and spacious suite) when I overheard Dominic comment that he loved having a baby on this road trip.  This is a testament to how well John is doing for hours on end in his car seat.  It is also a testament to how patient my other three are when John does have an occasional screaming session from his car seat.  I am quite aware that his first 12 hours are no indication for how well he will do with the remaining 30+ hours in the car, but so far he has done extremely well.  Granted, it helps that Eric and I (and the kids) have no need to 'make good time' on this trip.  Thus, when we needed to stop less than 2 hours after one stop, we just did.  And John rewarded us with a solid 3 hours until the next stop. 

As far as the way these rest stops work, we have that down to a science as well.  Eric hands me John and then is in charge of the other three until John has finished eating.  At which point, I hand John over for his diaper change and we are back on the road.  Most stops are about 30 - 45 minutes which anyone with children will recognize as outstandingly efficient.  The one essential thing is that EVERYONE uses the restroom.  It does not matter if we stopped merely 30 minutes prior...you use the bathroom because we are not stopping if John is peacefully slumbering!

Along the road, we stopped at a Basilica for Mass and then spent the night in a small town that had an awesome park.  Will and Molly spent the majority of their time pretending they were in a Mario Brother's video game.  Will was Mario (Natch!), Molly was Princess Peach, and Eric or I played Bowser.  Meanwhile, Dom played basketball.  We also made a very pleasant stop at Eric's aunt's house where Dom again played basketball while the other two took turns on her tire swing that looked like a horse.

Now we are just enjoying being a family.  We have some sightseeing outings planned, but, honestly, I'm so tired by the end of the day the thought of leaving our hotel (which incidentally has a basketball court...Dom loves it!), just seems crazy.  But, who knows?  We just might succeed tonight!  Especially since Molly is currently napping.  Maybe I will get one in, too...