The Joys of a family vacation…

First we have the the morning routine… preparing three kids to leave the and the joys of gathering up all your scattered items in a hotel room.First you bathe all 3 kids… get the baby out, dry him.. get the others out, hand them towels and clothes, tell them to get dressed, chase down baby where he is hiding behind the curtians (and his little naked butt is so cutely displayed, giving away his hiding spot,) dress all three, do hair and such. Gather, pack, gather, pack, oh wait, someone needs something… dig it out… gather pack, haul a load out to the car, gather more, pack more, take three items away from the baby, put them back in the suit case, fold up the play pen, fold blankets, gather lovies, untangle the baby’s hands from his sister’s hair, take another load down to the car… etc. This went on for an hour, another 20 minutes and we are on the road.

Mountain roads at rocket speed are SO  much fun. First thing, the way my husband drives any twisty curvy road terrifies me (this is saying something, my father drives these roads fast… but I am sure my husband could beat a 747 down these roads.) and a twisty curvy road that has a drop off a deep ravine, or in to a lake on one side, terrifies me twice as much. 80% of the driving done over the last three days has been exactly this type of driving. I am working on perfecting the art of not looking at the road more than I have to while he drives. I can’t read on these roads, the speed and number of twists and turns would make even the most iron stomach carsick if they are not keeping an eye on the road, so I knit…. and when it is particularly terrifying, I just close my eyes and hold on tight.

We stopped at a petrified forest, and took the tour through, that was a blast, the kids really enjoyed it and they learned something too. Then back in the car… we had lunch about 1:15, by which time the kids are starving to death cause they have “missed lunchtime” then on a bit further to our scheduled hotel for the night. We tried to get the baby to take a nap, even went as far as me to take the older kids out shopping (last ditch resort… spend money) no go…

I came back, got everyone ready and we went out to dinner.. REALLY great microbrewery / resteraunt, outstanding food, even better beer. The had a pale wheat ale that was really good, and a pomegranate wheat that was outstanding, I wish the had had it in bottles I would have gotten a 6 pack to take home with me!

Now, back in the hotel room, the kids are bouncing off the walls, the baby may never be down for the night, and honestly? I don’t care…I have alcohol in my system. And another bottle of Samuel Adams sitting here waiting on bedtime.

our holiday

was spent at the inlaws house… sitting around doing nothing… while sister inlaw and her boyfriend went about their daily lives.. running errands, etc. at one point, leaving us alone with all their kids. let see… a 13 year old who thinks the world revolves around her, a really pretty sweet 9 year old and a 7 year old who is just spoiled rotten, and I do mean rotten!

Egg dying was done by the 13 year old, who wouldn’t let the other kids help…. then we hid 10 dozen plastic eggs. and the younger 5 went to find them. my 2 year old caught on quickly and had a blast, even if my 7 year old niece would steal the baby’s eggs.  All the kids did pretty well. We did cereal for breakfast… then the kids played and ran wild. we turned the dyed eggs into deviled eggs. and about 5 we had tri-tip for dinner, really great food. All three of my kids ate well, 7 year old niece didn’t touch hers, swore she wasn’t hungry, of course not, she had been steeling everyones candy all day long. (I had put my kids candy away long before this, plus, my children know to ask before they eat all the sugar in sight) we finially got out of there about 9:30 and in the hotel room with all three kids asleep by 10:30.

At least now all the in-law related parts of this trip are over, and now on to the vacation parts. My husband is planning on hitting parks and stuff on our way down the coast. He says down Hwy 1, Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco (all I hear every time he says that is SEAFOOD!!)  catching motels along the way. How many more hours in the car?