Road Trip with Kids

"Every now and then you have to travel with the kids to remind yourself why you shouldn't travel with the kids" - The boss(2008)

It's been a while since we traveled with all the kids. Over a year actually. And before that it had been 2 yeas since we traveled with all the kids. Not that we are huge travelers anyway, but from time to time we do actually like to go places other than the grocery store. This past weekend, we travelled to Tennessee to visit some friends and witness the baptism of our cousin, Teresa, and her new baby, Og(yes, his name is Og, no it isn't short for anything. Learning to spell his name should be very easy for him). It was a great visit, lots of fun on Saturday evening and a great church service on Sunday morning. The trip up there and back...meh, not so much. 

I will say that for OUR kids, they were actually pretty good. But here are a few things I learned on the 4 1/2 hour car drive up there and then again on the way back. First of all, you know that stereotype of kids on road trips? The one where the kids sit in the back and yell really stupid stuff such as "Simon won't look at me!" and "Simon won't stop looking at me!" ?? You know that one? Yeah, they actually DO that! And the dreaded "Are we there yet?" every 10 minutes? Yeah, they do that too! And they are always "firsty" and hungry. And they just need to unbuckle for just a second to get that toy that they hurled at their brother 15 minutes ago, right before they realized that...you know, if you throw it across the van, it's doesn't magically come back to your hand so you can play with it. I learned that there is really no need to pack your bags and gear in an orderly fashion on the way to your destination because it all still fits when, before you head back home, you just shove it in there and slam the back door and instruct everyone to NOT OPEN THE DOOR until you get home. I learned that it doesn't matter if you try to separate the dirty clothes from the clean ones in your bags. You'll just get confused and have to wash them all when you get home anyway. You will always leave something behind. If you are lucky, you left it at your friends house, where it will be safe as opposed to some MacDonalds somewhere between Huntsville and Centre, Al. And as long as it isn't something like blankies, a phone, a child, or a camera, it isn't worth trying to find. 

We survived the trips there and back with sanity and relationships still mostly intact. And we had a good time. Will we do it again anytime soon? Man, I hope not! 

My favorite part of our visit was the play that Ellen(our wonderful hostess) wrote for Aaron and Teresa. After she wrote it, Seth and Justin(Ellen's husband) "improved" it. Never a dull moment with those Sanders!

(This is Justin, wearing an apron and playing Teresa, lifting Aaron's beard(Aaron played by Seth, obviously) to give him a kiss.

For those of you who do not know Aaron, and missed the joke, this is Aaron holding baby Og and laughing at this part of the play(Teresa is at the bottom)