Road Trip May '09...

We took the tribe on a "Road Trip" last week. We actually planned this for quite awhile. You see my niece Katie, the one I took everywhere as a baby, was graduating high school! We just had to be there. Michael worked EXTRA just to cover the expense of the trip. He is such a good doobie! We love him SO much!! Going to her graduation makes me think of mine, had to believe that it was almost 21 years ago that I had my own graduation. NO way!! I still feel like a "spring chicken"! LOL! For those of you that know me personally.. Katie is the niece that I babysat from birth until her 1st birthday and then they moved away to GA! She was my best bud & we have a special bond. She has such a beautiful heart & I love her so! Hard to believe she is all grown up and graduating high school! YIKES! This is going to be a LONG trip with 4 toddlers but we just have to be there when she gets that diploma! (= I packed up the 'burb & off we went, GA or bust! Even Grandma went with us on this adventure! We tried to keep them occupied as we drove. Sometimes it was easy other times it was HARD! They crave attention! There was only 1 of me to go around so I amused them however I could. There was even a time I sat in the BACK of the 'burb. This was quite the feat! People driving by probably wondered what some GROWN woman was doing climbing over seats & sitting in my kids laps. YES I was in their laps! hahah! ANYTHING to make my kids HAPPY! (= We even searched for FUN play areas for them to stretch their legs. This trip sparked an interest in me to write a book on cool kid places to visit! That's ANOTHER story! LOL! Overall the kiddos did great. Remember, I have high expectations. I wanted them to appreciate the view, sit in THEIR seats & never fuss. What was I thinking? They are 2 year olds!! One important detail you all need to know is that we took them on this adventure WITHOUT even a DVD player. What can I say, I am a product of my upbringing! We would just play games, read or play the I spy game. I can remember my dad giving the first kid to spot the Washington Monument a quarter! That was BIG money back then! hahah! I cannot wait till they are older so we can play the ABC game, check out license plates or even play car BINGO. {I found this game at Restoration Hardware} Another reason no DVD was that they are not really movie watchers anyway. I know, I know, a DVD player is a "Must have" when travelling with tot's. Not us! We were roughing it! I'm sure if you ask my hubby he will say NEVER again! LOL! There we were singing, "reading" books & eventually throwing balls around the 'burb. Brendan LOVED that! He had this nerf football & a tennis ball that he would throw up to the front of the 'burb. Then Daddy & Grandma would throw them back to him. He would laugh & laugh. Laughter is SO much better than crying anyday! We also had a few "new" car toys that we inherited from my cousin. One was this lacing toy. It was this THICK cardboard bunny that you lace w/ shoelaces. That lasted quite awhile & they each had unique ways to lace it that was until they ATE it! Yes, they ate the cardboard bunny! They will eat practically ANYTHING!! There are knawed on things all over this place! You'd think we were raising animals!! LOL! Our trip lasted about 11 hours if you included the few "pit" stops. Daddy made great time! Being that we arrived on Thursday night we took them to the Atlanta Aquarium on Friday. It is unlike most aquariums. One of the tanks sort of reminded me of the aquarium we visited BEFORE KIDS at Paradise Island in the Bahama's. They have all kinds of fish! We saw sawfish, whale sharks, Pompano of all things, sharks & even some otters. The tribe LOVED the otters! We happened upon their section just as they were being fed. So they came face to face with them! They even got a kiss from behind the glass! TOO cute! Needless to say they were conked out on the ride back to Uncle Rick's. We had Katies graduation on Saturday. Her school is one of the largest in Gwinnet County. They had 729 students graduating that day. Her principal gave a speech saying how incredible it was having so many students graduate & all the places they would be attending college. Practically all the Ivy league schools were covered. I wish I had a copy of that speech, it was AMAZING all the facts he recited! Graduating itself is such a HUGE accomplishment! HOPEFULLY, Katie will continue her education by attending some sort of college. She has mentioned that she wants to become an ultrasound tech. Wouldn't that be cool!? She could do ultrasounds on pregnant women maybe even some multiple mommies!! We hope that she applies soon so she can attend in the fall. There we were trying to spark interest in her, getting her to register. That is one thing that I regret, not finishing school. In fact most of the family did not finish college until MANY years later. Hopefully she will do better than all of us combined. (= On Sunday we went to Rick's church. I cannot tell you how long it had been since we'd been there. It was so nice to see all the people that prayed for us during our pregnancy & after their birth. We are part of their church family now. AMAZING! We were busy little beavers for the 5 days we were there. After the graduation we had a few BBQ's to celebrate her accomplishment. We even met up with some more "extended" family, Dorsey & Eleanor, in downtown Roswell for their Memorial Day festivities. It was SO nice to meet up with them. They kept us all entertained! Dorsey he is quite the character!! We are gonna need another vacation to help us recoup from this one! haha! I will say that the best part of our trip was that by the time we left Katie had enrolled in college. YAY! On our way home we even found an AWESOME playground at of all places a local Burger King in Dublin GA. It was HUGE! Like what you'd find at a local park. TOO TOO cool! I am SO stopping there again!! Since we left GA rather late our stop over in Savannah was not meant to be. Hubby SO wanted to go eat at Paula Deen's restaurant! He & Grandma watch her show EVERY weekend! No Paula Deen's for us! He was left with just a drive by!)= Maybe next time! When your one cranky child is FINALLY sleeping you DO NOT wake them! LOL! We kept on driving until we hit Amelia Island, FL. It's a very quaint seaside town! They even let you drive on the beach! TOO cool! Of course we let the tribe out of the 'burb to walk on the beach & put their toesies into the surf. They LOVED it until that first wave came. We had kiddo's running EVERYWHERE! haha! It was quite the sight! I took some pictures which I'll post when I get home! We stayed at the Days Inn there, you know the kind that has the swimming pool in the middle of the parking lot! LOL! It brought back SO many memories of my childhood. We used to stay at places like that ALL the time! Practically every trip we took was by car! My mom even commented on how she is reliving some of the moments she had with us but now as Grandma. They LOVE having her with us too! Now I am the Mommy & we're doing things with our kids that my parents did with us. TOO wild! Road trips can be so cool if you appreciate those moments. Other than Miss Avery catching croup this was one AMAZING...

Road Trip May '09...