Road Trip

We went on a road trip the other day. OK, for most people, not that exciting, maybe even not that out of the ordinary. But for us - this was huge. We have a strange tendency to fly if we're going to go somewhere. However, on this occassion, we did not.
You see, one day, my dear, lovely husband bought some car bits and announced that he was taking his family on a road trip to pick up these bits. oh yippee, I can think of nothing I'd rather do than sit in a car with 2 small children for mile upon mile of curvy, hilly, car sick -inducing road. (Please note the sarcasm in that last statement). But, I ma learning that a husband should be head of the home. And, a husband needs to be treated with respect. So, I agreed.
We packed up the kids one fine Monday morning and hit the road. Mr. Google map told us that our first car bit was to be picked up 289 km from home - a mere 4 hours and 4 minutes away. We hit the road at 8:45 (right after Blues Clues).

Hit our first city just after coffee time, so a quick leg stretch, small walk for everyone by the lake side ("no going in the water, Kelsey!!"), and a coffee and hot chocolate for mommy and daddy and we were back on the road in 15 minutes. Thankfully Kelsey has an iron bladder and didn't need to go althought here was a minor tanty when seatbelts were put back on again!

Back on the road, this time following Google maps directive explicitly as we tried a new road. It was brilliant. No traffic to contend with. Lovely tree lined road, ok, the hills and curves were still driving me nuts, but at least we could go a steady pace. We arrived at our first stop just in time for lunch at McD's. OH joy! But hey, they had an indoor playground for under 3's. Brilliant. Spent almost an horu having lunch - but that's what you do when you drive with kids. Quick stop to pick up daddy's brand "new" leather seats for his project (new to daddy, more dried and carcked than desert sand). And, back on the road again.  By 4 we'd reached Auckland where we'd stay with friends of ours for the night.
3 years ago, Marco and I made a similar road trip to Auckland to see these same friends. That one was spure of the moment.( "Hey.. let's get out of here for the weekend" "OK" and 5 hours later, arrive at friends). This one took 8 hours to drive the same distance and we had accumuatled a LOT more stuff (and people). Since our last trip to see them, we'd had our 2 children, and they'd had 2 more as well - they're latest arrival appearing just 4 weeks prior to our trip. I was about to get my baby fix!! Unfortautnely, I left my camera in the car and couldn't be bothered to get it. So, no pics of our friends. With 7 kids of their own, my 2 "extras" had no problems fitting right in. Within seconds of arriving, my girls were whisked off to various bedrooms to play various games and be amused in various ways. Love it!! By 9pm.. all the kids were tucked in for the night and we could finally have a bit of adult time.
The next morning dawned a bit drizzly and rainy, but no biggie. Kids had a great morning and were suitably worn out by the time we hit the road at 11:30ish. We opted to take off right before Lunch because yours truly had a cravign for Wendy's. And Wendy's can only be found in 2 cities in this country - Auckland being one of them. I have to admit though, mostly becuase we were served by a non-english speaking person who got my order wrong and I was too much a wimp to say anything, we were all pretty dissapointed. Maybe, but only just maybe, my tastebuds have evolved in the last 3 years.

Hit the road and within seconds (ok, maybe minutes) the girls were both asleep. It was rather short lived, unfortuantely, because within 15 km we hit a small town and as soon as Marco started to slow down for an impending red light, Kelsey woke up - that child will not sleep under 30 km/h!! Unbelieveable!!
Thankfully, we had borrowed a portable DVD player from a friend for the trip, so we could zone Kelsey out with some horrible kids movie (which we promptly tried to ignore). It is REALLY hard to ignore Dora, however. Just so you know.

Only had to make one stop on the way home, that was our dinner/supper stop.. and we took our time a bit there and let the kids run around a bit. Again, we're so grateful that Kelsey has a strong bladder. Both up and down, she only went when we stopped. Perhaps, she doesn't know how much control a small child's bladder has over her parents, but so far, she's not exercising that power!. We hmade it home around 8:30. Kelsey was enthralled by the pink clouds during the last part of our trip. i guess its easy to take sunsets for granted, but for her they're very cool.

Highlights of the trip:

• the girls did WAY better than we ever imagined. Maybe we don't give them enough credit, but they did great!
• I got my baby fix in. Such a sweet lovely new baby. Huge thick dark hair. Very sweet. Kelsey also got to hold the baby and was loving on the baby. So nice to see. 
• Marco got his car bits and bobs. To be honest, I don't even know what they all were. Maybe I'm supposed to care, but its easier not to. 
• It was great to catch up with our friends. Its hard as parents with young kids to stop and go away and catch up with people, but its important to do so. I'm glad we did. 
• Marco is starting to finally know more of the words to kids songs. This may not seem like a highlight, but there has to be a positive side to listening to awful kids music for 10 hours. 

That's it. I can think of nothing more. Glad we went. Glad we're home. One more thing crossed off the list of things to do before we go away... 

Morgan Walking

                      I did it!!

Well.. march 2010 was a big month at our house. the 8th of the month drew bright and sunny and started out as most days do. As the day progressed, I put the girls down for their afternoon sleep and went outside to help Marco with some gardening. After I'd been out there "working" for a few minutes, I decided that it must be getting time for the girls to get up soon. So I went inside to wait. Lo and behold Kelsey woke first (2 hours later) and Morgy soon after. We all went outside and had an ice cream cone on the front lawn (while daddy continued gardening). Kelsey managed to get hers down with limited mess so she stayed out with daddy. I took Morgy in to get cleaned up and washed off. So there I was, in the house, "watching" Morgan (while playing on the computer) when she just stood up and took a step. Because i was at the computer already (being the active and involved mummy that I am), I grabbed the camera and started shooting.



Now 2 weeks has passed.. she's finally taking a few more steps at a time. In fact just yesterday (24th) she'll now walk across the room to get to one of us. Her favourite trick is to walk a super long way to me or Marco and then walk right past and pretend like, "what, so I walk.. I wasn't ocming to you anyway!" And then she turns around wiht a big dumb grin on her face. Or she walks all the way to you and then starts playing peekaboo. Its SO funny!!

Suddenly now Morgan can reach things she never could before. She's such a little toddler. And Kelsey's loving that her little sister "walks". If hse's not imitating Morgy's "walking", she's grabbing Morgan by the wrist and saying, "Come On Morgy, you can do it!" and then dragging her across the room!!

Anyway, I'm super pleased that she's finally walking. I never worry about my kids walking late. Secretly, I prefer it in a lot of ways. But, with a trip next month, I was dreading being on an airplane with a crawler - there is NOTHING more disgusting than crawling up and down an airplane aisles - especially long-haul!!