Take THAT, open road.

I drove over 700 miles yesterday, by myself. Well, technically there were 5 of us. But I was the only grownup and I am still the tallest. (barely)

See? Tallest. 

My plan was to leave at 7 am, and unlike my counterpart, I am generally on time. In fact, I am almost always early, sitting in a parking lot, annoyed at myself for leaving obsessively early. But I woke up and waffled back and forth about skipping out on R2's school reentry and staying an extra day, or heading back. Finally, I said, "This is uh... This is ridiculous, ok I'll go, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go. What - I'LL GO."


Once we got on the road, I was great. I had my babies and my iPod and we were flying across the state. It was an amazingly smooth day, really. I have a strict policy of neglect on roadtrips, and so the kids entertain themselves and find stuff to eat and are relatively calm. I weighed several pottying options, and finally decided the only timely choice would be letting the 2 potty trained ones urinate on the great state of Texas. We stopped 3 times at gas stations and another 3 times on the roadside.  That concludes your Urinary Update. My point is, we didn't stop much. We ate drive thru food and I'd toss around a few snacks when we braked. 

Essential stop: Woody's

Pretty much, though, we trucked at 5 miles over the speed limit, and it rocked. Several times, as I was chillin with my boys Jon Foreman, Jonny Lang, and Rush Limbaugh, I just felt so happy, to be in a van with my kids and a whole day to drive. 


I would have made it in a Clark record of 12 hours, but 20 minutes from home, we got caught in a construction zone and added 30 minutes to our drive. While we were stuck there, in the hell between exits, parking cones and very, very bright lights, Tristan decided that he was finally done with the carseat, and bottles for that matter, and took up screeching as a hobby. One of my children needed to go to the bathroom, and grew increasingly frantic as we sat still behind half of Lenexa's citizens. Finally, the panic set in. "I.can't.HOLD.IT. I'm peeeeeeeeing!!!" And that was that.


So we made it home in 12 hours and 45 minutes, and were at home for about 2 hours when Brynn "put a marble" up her nose. Silly me, with my fanciful ideas about sleeping. I googled what to do with a marble up your nose, and the advice ranged from "Blow your nose", to "You will most surely die. " So I called my medical friends and then determined, somewhere around 11 pm, that it was not a marble at all, but a tiny, tiny bead, and there was no cause for concern. Brynn, reassured, fell asleep quickly. Toby and Tristan chose to make a later night of it and entertained me with jokes and stories, against my will. 


It was a good trip, but I'm glad to be home.