Road Trips

I have to admit our long road trip was a whole lot better than I anticipated it being. My husband has been working LONG hours lately and I thought it was time I took a long road trip to visit our parents and let the kids have time with their grandparents. So Sunday night, two weeks ago, I packed up my 4 year-old and my twin 2 year-olds and embarked on a 2,200-mile road trip. We drove the first few hundred miles to Las Vegas easily and that night as I lay in bed I had to say a prayer of thanks that the trip had started out so well. My sister accompanied us on the next 700 miles with her 3 year-old and 2 month-old. She was a champ considering we did it all in one day. At about 9 o'clock on day two, a lone van drove slowly into the driveway of Grandma and Grandpa's house with 5 children who were done riding in the car and 2 adults who were BEYOND done. Thank heavens for 2 loving aunts and Grandma and Grandpa who did so much to make life easy. We went to Bear World (it was a huge hit with the kids), to the splash pad, on the carousel, to Green Canyon and played an ample amount of the Wii. It was tremendously relaxing and the my kids loved, loved, LOVED being there! After a short 4 days, we turned around and headed back down to Utah (only a 4 1/2 hour trip) to visit our other grandparents. We got treated to Seven Peaks--twice (thanks Uncle Reed and Aunt Katie!!!!), the beautiful Bridal Vail Falls, the treehouse play place at the University Mall, and lots of cousins and aunts. The 6 days spent there flew by too fast and as each day passed, I began dreading our trip back home more and more. Granted, the kids had been angels up to this point, but there is always a breaking point right? It would be my luck that their breaking point would be on a long stretch with 8 or 9 hours still left and I would just start bawling. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful mother in-law who, I'm sure, could see the color draining from my face as the hours ticked closer and closer to our departure. What person in their right mind would do that drive alone? So she drove all 13 hours with us just to turn around a day later and fly back home. I definitely would say that there were guardian angels looking out for me and my kids. I drove the whole time and never felt the least bit sleepy. My kids were absolute angels. I've had more crying and whining going to Costco than I had on that whole car trip. Will I do it again next year? Absolutely. Will it be as successful? One can only hope...