Summer Vacation Part I

This summer's vacation was a trip to Indiana to see friends and family. Since we have to bring so much stuff with us on vacation we decided to drive, plus it gave us the flexibility to see a lot of people and places. Many thought we were crazy. As the time drew near, I started to think we were crazy as well. We drove 11 hours last year to Michigan through the night, however, this trip was different given that it was 16 hours, and the kids were older and more willing to state their opinions which isn't always pleasant.

Based on advice from friends who often do road trips with their 3 children, we decided that we would leave right after lunch, drive till dinner, have a sit down dinner to let the kids use some of their energy, and then drive until 1 or 2 in the morning when we would get a hotel and sleep a bit before doing the rest of the drive the following morning.

We picked up the kids from daycare the day we left at 12:45, and day care naptime is 1 - 3, so they were beat, and we knew they would sleep at least for the first couple of hours. We were right, they slept in the car for just about the first 2 hours. They had a snack and then attempted to play with toys...accept Alex's idea of playing with toys was to pick up a toy, throw it on the floor and say "BOOM". He thought it was hysterical until all the toys were gone! I ended up sitting in the back with them to entertain them. We stopped in Allentown, PA for dinner. It was kids night at the Perkins, so they ate free (WOOHOO!), there was a guy dressed up as Diego (from Dora the Explorer) who Alex was terribly afraid of (I think he thought Diego was going to take his food) and the kids got cookies with their meals that Ben and I enjoyed later on in the evening! Here's Olivia covered with macaroni and cheese.

Now onto Evansville, or the hotel where we would stop for the night. We both felt pretty good driving...I drove until midnight, and Ben listened to a book on CD while driving and the next thing we knew it was 5 a.m, and we were in Louisville, Kentucky only 2 hours from Ben's parents. So we figured, what the heck, why stop now! We got to Ben's parents a little after 7, they took the kids and we went off to sleep!

We stayed with Ben's parents for the first 4 1/2 days of our vacation and the highlights included:
-Alex and Olivia got to meet their great grandmas, and great grandpa for the first time

-Playing with their grandma and grandpa


-Playing with Grandma and Grandpa's Blackberrys

-Alex celebrating Jelly Sunday (instead of Ash Wednesday)

-Alex and Olivia learning to climb the stairs and running around grandma and grandpa's house
-Lots of eating!!! (It seemed like the kids were always hungry!)
-We got to see Ben's uncle for the first time in a long time (he is in the Navy) and meet his new wife.
-Having the kids meet their extended family for the first time.
-Olivia loved playing with Mammy (Their dogs....Maggie and Sammy!)
-Ben and I spending sometime with his high school friends
-Olivia developing an ear infection (although we didn't figure it out until about a week later)
Everyone had a blast at Grandma and Grandpa Jarboes!!