The trip down actually wasn't all that bad. We thought we would try an old Lake family trick-- driving through the night, so that the boys would (fingers crossed) sleep for most of the trip.
Well, wouldn't ya know that they day we were supposed to leave, and I was busy frantically packing and cleaning for the entire family, that BOTH of my boys decided that they were going to be lil stinkers and forego nap time all together. This made getting out of the door REALLY REALLY difficult... Once we were on the road though, Charlie fell asleep immediately. It took Jack about a half an hour before he finally crashed. Those of you who know Jack will know that it is a small miracle to get that kid to fall asleep in a car seat, so we were pretty elated.
Jack woke up just short of Louisville, and was absolutely desperate to get out of his car seat. Mind you, we were only two hours into a 13 hour car trip. It was then that I got a pit in my stomach thinking, "what. have. we. done?". I decided that we ought to locate a McDonald's (gag) with an indoor play place (thank you smart phones) so Jack could get out some of his energy and so that we could stuff some dinner down his gullet.
That kid played and played and played.... We stayed for a little over an hour, and I'll tell you that kid must have burned an a ton of energy because he worked up a huge appetite, he ate his entire happy meal. That's a pretty big deal for a two year old.
When we got back in the car, I hung out with the boys in the back seat for a little over an hour until they both fell asleep. Then I crawled up front and crashed. I was so incredibly exhausted from all of the running around I did earlier that morning and from entertaining our kids that I just could not keep my eyes opened.
I mean, you would have to be absolutely and completely worn out to fall and stay asleep in that position. How did I sleep with my mouth that way? Terrifying.
Anyway, I tried my darndest to stay awake during the drive, but I must have fallen asleep half a dozen times or more. Poor Gordy, he was such a good sport driving the entire way.
Things were going so well, the boys were asleep and relatively happy (minus the fact that Jack just could not get comfortable in his car seat) when all of the sudden we hit bumper to bumper standstill traffic just south of Atlanta. We stayed that way for an entire hour. Not exactly what you want to happen when you've already been in the car for nine hours and it's 2A.M. AND you have two sleeping kids in the back seat.
Any of you with kids will know that as soon as a car in motion stops, a switch flips on in a kid's brain and all of the sudden they are awake.
Mind you, I am a mother that NEVER, EVER takes her kids out of their car seats. It's pretty much a cardinal sin in my book. But, it was at this point that I took pity on my children and they both came out of their car seats. I actually completely took Jack's car seat out and laid it on the floor, buckled him into the center seat belt, and tried to arrange him so that he could sleep more peacefully. Charlie came up front with me and we played a little. It was also a golden opportunity for me to nurse him since we weren't moving.
Once traffic started moving, we were furious to find the cause of our delay was that 4/5 lanes were closed so that they could paint the lines on the road. Really guys?!
Anyway, the rest of the drive went off without a hitch. Gord loaded up on Red Bulls to stay awake and I fell asleep another half a dozen times. Whoopsie.
Jack woke up again when were were about 15 minutes away from my parent's house. It was just perfect because it gave him plenty of time to get excited. I could not believe that the boys slept for pretty much the entire trip. I was near tears with relief.
We pulled into my parents house just after 7 AM. We promptly handed our children over to my parents and went upstairs to sleep. Man did it feel good.
Driving though the night was very difficult, we were soon to find out that it is so much easier than a long road trip during the day...
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