Our First Road Trip. Eek!

We just returned from our first official family road trip. Well, on Monday we returned. Is it already Friday? It's been a long week of getting settled and caught up with life. The big news is that we survived!

Anxiety was building in the days leading up to our day of departure. Trying to be prepared for every possible scenario in the car for long hours with two babies, with whom we aren't yet able to reason with... well, it's exhausting just thinking about. Clearly not an upside to my OCD tendencies.

Fortunately everything went far better than I could have hoped for. The boys did great! I like to think that my preparations helped with that, but I think the boys would have done just as great even without the three bags full of a dozen different types of snacks, especially since they seemed to prefer their ever-trusted goldfish over some of the newer, flashier snacks they've never had. I really was surprised that they weren't all over the fruit roll-ups.

It took us exactly 12 hours to make it to our first destination, leaving at 4am with a stop halfway to play at a park and then a stop for lunch at an IHOP. (Note to self: always order pancakes at a place that is known for their pancakes. The omelet I got was mediocre at best.) Our timing wasn't bad, considering that stretch would normally take roughly 10 hours.

But, after 12 hours of traveling, Ben and Hugh were sure happy to be freed from their car seats, and even more happy to become acquainted with family they hadn't yet met. We were welcomed with open arms and two bedrooms to settle in for a few days. We relaxed, we played in the most amazing backyard, we ate really good food, I had a running/tennis partner for a couple of days, we watched movies, we chatted and got caught up, wondering the whole time why so much time had passed between visits and vowing to not let that happen again.

After a few days we headed further north to see more family anxious to pinch our babies' cheeks and steal some cuddling time. The weather was cool, but we still managed to get in some play time at the park and running around in Nana's backyard. The bubble machine was a hit and Marc satisfied taste buds for food that he seems to crave every time we visit his old stomping grounds.

Another few days later, we headed even further north (not quite to Canada) for a day and a night with Marc's brother and his wife, with a dinner date with Aunt Carol. Dinner was followed by an impromtu bath (for Ben and Hugh) in her very big (which equals very fun) bath tub. It was the first bathing experience on the trip that didn't immediately result in frantic screaming. For some reason, my boys are very wary of unfamiliar bathtubs.

We headed down to central Oregon for the final few days of our trip. The oldest nephew between both of our families recently got married and we were happy to make it to their reception. Although, after getting lost and not having a good map to guide us and then not getting the best directions from a lady in line in front of me at Safeway, we were starting to wonder if we'd ever make it. I was a little suspicious of her navigating skills when, after looking at the map for a good minute, she said, "let's see... I'm just trying to figure out which way is north."

While there were long hours spent in the car, the time spent with family went way too fast. We didn't have nearly as much time to reconnect with everyone as we would have liked, but hopefully the next visit will make up for it. The boys had a great time! Rather than being the center of attention of two, there was a whole audience on any given day surrounding them with love and applause and kisses to last them a lifetime (or at least until the next visit).

I have yet to go through the photos from our trip, so they'll be coming soon!