Goin' to the 'Golf!'

Landon:  How far is this drive gonna be again?  And you do realize we're taking....HIM?

Just to state the obvious:  packing for a family vacation is hellacious....and the other obvious:  I am a procrastinator.  Combine the two and you get one full day of non stop packing, and me walking around the house on a mission to get something and then forgetting what I was getting, packing 17 different bags all at the same time.  towels for the beach, toys for the beach, movies for the car,  toys for the boys for the condo, toys for the boys in the car, toys for the boys in restaurants, diapers, diaper cream, wipes, baby medicine cabinet, snacks, sunscreen, after sun lotion, the list goes on.  

Friday when we got it all together, we put the kids in their jammies and set off a little after four in the afternoon.  Scott and Kelly had to honk to get our attention that we had failed to put our garage door down on the way out of the driveway.  That's where we were mentally by the time of departure.  The boys were jazzed though!  Landon couldn't wait to get to the 'Golf!'

My plan to skip the nap has worked!  (insert evil mommy laugh here)

...and this one was also tired.  Notice he has a DIFFERENT set of pajamas on than in the previous picture.  This kid is impossible to keep clean folks.  He seriously was asleep though before we even merged onto I-55.

This one was more into the movie than napping...also fine by us....until...

Landon began with the questioning...

Landon:  "What town are we in?"  Chad:  Landon, we're in Divernon.  Get comfy.

Landon: "What town are we in now?"  Chad:  Staunton.  Got a ways to go buddy.

Landon:  "Are we almost there?"  6 times before Mt. Vernon.  Then he got what we think was a cramp in his chest...you know the ones where you can't take a deep breath without it hurting and he nearly had us pulling over looking for a medical center.  After that he didn't ask anymore what town we were in for several hours.  We stopped and grabbed some McDonald's in West Frankfort, we switched drivers for a few hours, then we got comfy for the long haul.  When we crossed the Alabama state line, Landon started in about all of his traveling pains.  "My legs hurt."  "My mouth hurts."  "My knees!"  Until he finally fell asleep for the last 45 minutes of driving for the night.  But even in his sleep he kept moaning.  I DO realize that 10 hours of driving for a five year old is quite a lot...don't know why I was so surprised by the dramatic fashion we survived it in.  

We drove until just south of Birmingham and stayed in a hotel in Pelham.  The boys were of course WIDE awake when we put them in their bed at the Sleep Inn, but they settled in pretty quickly...of course I had to sleep with them, but frankly I didn't care.  I had some traveling pains in my own knees and was wiped out!

The next morning we hit the breakfast buffet where Grant was in heaven with his man sized waffle.  And then we were on the road again  just like Willie Nelson.    We like to be comfy when we ride so the Sambas sat on the dashboard.  

Another necessity of long drives is snacks...Grant is a morning eater.  It's not unusual for the kid to eat 2 pieces of french toast (or 2 pancakes) for breakfast and then 30 minutes later polish off a cereal bar or a box of raisins and then 30 minutes later be back in the kitchen sayin 'I'm hongry'  ;)  After he ate his man sized waffle he ate a small bag of baked Doritos...hey he's on vacation too.  Sure go for the Doritos kid.  And now here's a wet wipe.  

 The last hour things got a little dicey in our car.  We had all had enough.  I had to resort to some tickling and playing to keep a smile on Granters face.  Landon just wore the permanent pout. ..

Until....we finally made it!  We're here boys!!!  Grant was mildly excited...

 Landon....eh.  Well I wouldn't say excited.  Maybe just annoyed but tolerant.