We're in Pennsylvania!

So, we decided that going to Washington for 2 weeks just wasn’t enough traveling for us. My parents flew back to Kansas last Monday with the plan to recover for a few days and then get in the car and drive out to Pennsylvania to visit Kaylee and her family. Once I knew they were going, I just couldn’t NOT come along. So, I packed all the clothes I just finished washing from our Washington trip and me and the kids (Royal had to stay home b/c someone in this family needs to earn money and he’s starting school next week…might as well be him!) tagged along with mom and dad for their cross county trip. We piled all our bags and a bunch of food into the back of the Pilot and we left early Thursday morning. And when I say early, I mean freaking early. We decided to leave right after Willow got her middle of the night meal, which is usually around 3 or 4. So, Willow woke up at 3:30 and I was heading downstairs to wake up dad, so he could get up and make some coffee, and I found him already awake in the kitchen making himself some coffee and acting all goofy. Guess he was just too excited to get going! He’s obviously forgot I am NOT a morning person in the slightest way, or he wouldn’t of been cracking all those jokes. Royal got up right after me though to help load the car (and Royal is the biggest morning person EVER), so he was more than happy to joke around with dad. I fed Willow, got dressed, hauled my bags out to the “staging area”, woke Jayden up, said goodbye to Royal, and we headed for the car. As we opened the garage door to pull out, we were greeted with what looked like a freaking blizzard. What a way to start the trip. We had no idea it was snowing, no one bothered to look out the windows while we were loading bags. :)

Here’s a little timeline of our first day
4:43am : We pull out of the garage in the pouring snow and 12 degree weather. Dad was driving, Mom was in the passenger seat, I was in the middle in the back with Willow on my left and Jayden on my right. Directly behind me on a blanket on top of some bags and pillows were my parents 2 dogs, Lily and Zoe. Willow fell asleep, Jayden fell asleep, Mom fell asleep, Zoe fell asleep. Lily pretty much started hyperventilating…right in my ear.
5:00am : I feel like I’m going to kill Lily and all her panting in my ear.
6:56am : 137 miles into the trip, Lily finally stops panting. Hallelujah, that dog wasn’t gonna make it much farther.
7:41am : Dad keeps getting real excited about how cold it keeps getting outside and watching the temp drop as the sun comes up. It is now 1 degree outside and Dad keeps mentioning how he hopes it gets to zero and it would be even better to see if my car would register a negative.
8:07am : Never fear, it is now -1 degrees outside.
8:30am : We’d traveled 240 miles (of the 1300 we needed to) and we hit our first of many rest stops. Willow needed to be changed and to eat. The dogs get out and do their business. We all get strapped back in the car and pull out of the rest area and Willow poops.
9:00am : We stop at another rest area to change Willow - we wanted to make sure she had time to get it all out. Dad gets out to walk the dogs. Well, Dad came back to the car before Willow had all her clothes back on, so poor dad and the dogs had to wait outside in the 4 degree weather. We get Willow dressed and put back in her seat, and Dad jumps in the car. Guess he was a little cold, he had no hat on and by the time he got back in the car, his glasses had ice on them. I then remembered I had a hat in my bag by my feet….oops. Maybe next time dad??? I let him wear it in the car for a bit to warm up.

10:15am : My mom’s starbucks addiction kicks in and we look one up on the GPS and stop so Jayden can get a “mocha” (hot chocolate) and mom and dad can get some coffee. I stay in the car with Willow and the dogs. Willow poops again. For the love of pete…..it is not easy to change diapers in cram packed full car.
11:30am : We stopped for lunch and so I could feed Willow. We packed a bunch of food so we wouldn’t have to buy food during the day, however we didn’t think about how cold it was going to be. So mom gets out in 7 degree weather, gets the sandwich stuff out of the back, brings it back up to the front and manages to make sandwiches on the dashboard of the car so no one had to stand outside.
12:01pm : We’re finally on the road again, we’ve only managed to crank out 375 miles. Missouri was the state of stops for us.
12:55pm : We cross the Mississippi River and head on into Illinois
2:20pm : We stop at a rest area that has a play structure. We bundle Jayden up and he plays outside for about 10 minutes before he’s too cold and needs to come in a warm up. I finally get out of the car for the first time to use the bathroom. I was not sure my knees were going to work or my legs support me anymore. I did a little jog around the playground, did some jumping jacks and did some skipping to get my blood moving and then climbed back in the car.

Here’s some Jaydenisms for you. At one point in the trip, Jayden was talking on the phone to Kaylee and Kaylee asks, ‘Are you driving to my house?’. Jayden says, ‘No……….Papa is’. So, literal… Sometimes when he was talking with Brendan on the phone, Brendan would ask, ‘Jayden, where are you?’ and Jayden would reply, ‘Here.’ Like…duh Sadly, during the first day, each time we stopped the car, Jayden would start clapping and saying, ‘It’s Kay-Kay’s house. We’re here!!’ By the end of the 1st day, he stopped clapping…I don’t think he thought we would ever get here.

3:04pm : We finally get on the road again.
5:28pm : We stop at a McDonald’s for dinner. Hoping it had a play area for Jayden. No such luck, darn it all. If you are going to eat McDonald’s food, you might as well have somewhere to play, the food just isn’t enough to get me to stop there for dinner. However, with a hungry Willow and a starving Jayden we stayed and watched Jayden down 6 McNuggets, a bunch of fries, 2 packets of ranch, and 2 fruit parfaits that were suppose to be my parents. Guess he was hungry.
6:35pm : We get back on the road. Willow is not happy to still be in her seat. This is usually the time of night she wakes up for awhile.
7:03pm : A fussy Willow finally falls asleep. Jayden is watching a movie and we’re hoping that we can make it a couple more hours down the road.
7:28pm : An angry Willow wakes up and we decide to call it a night.
We find a hotel, unload our bags, let Willow kick it on the bed and stretch her legs…a much much happier Willow….and we start getting ready for bed. Getting to go to sleep was hard. Willow went right to sleep around 10:30 and I shut out the light. Jayden took until close to midnight to get to go to sleep, it was not petty. I won’t go into lots of detail (unless someone wants to hear about the bad bedtime antics of a 2 year old) but it ended with a really big meltdown and crying so hard he ended up throwing up. Oy vei. I hate puke.

We let Jayden sleep in as long as he would the next morning to make up for the super late bedtime. Then we packed, got our breakfast, and were in the car by around 9am. When dad started the car to warm it up, the thermometer said it was -8 degrees outside, not fun to load the bags and kids in the car with. I think we got to a high of 11 degrees that day. We traveled again all day and the kids did great until about 6:30, when Willow was getting tired of being in the car. We stopped for dinner, let her stretch her legs, then we piled in the car around 7:30 for the last hour and a half drive to Kaylee’s. We got there around 9pm and boy was everybody glad to get out of the car!!! I don’t think we’re going to try and do the drive in 2 days again on our way back to Kansas. At this point everyone’s rear ends are so sore and legs are all cramped up that I’m not sure we’ll ever get in the car again! We’re moving in Kaylee!!!