Road Trip 2012

Almost a month ago, we packed up the Subaru and headed the 1,000 miles to Clearwater, Florida. Four days of driving and three days of actual "vacation" left us pretty dang exhausted. Overall, it was a pretty good trip. It's always nice seeing family, and we got to introduce Gavin to his Great-grandma on the weekend before she turned 100. All of the difficulties of travelling with two young children mean nothing when you compare it to that. The likelihood of them ever seeing each other again is pretty small, and it was amazing to have Jeffrey see her, as well, since he's older and more understanding. Since he's so hyper and crazy, he made her smile a lot. She kept thinking that he was Jony, which made me smile. Jeffrey is a LOT of work right now, but I know that he'll grow up to be an amazing man.

As for driving, it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. SO glad about that. The first day was a dream, and the weather was beautiful! We made great time until we stopped for dinner. A blowout from Gavin and a pee incident from Jeffrey kept us in Slidell quite a bit longer than we had planned, but we still made it to Biloxi to stay the night. The next day? Oh goodness, it was horrible! Both boys were over being in the car, so we were stopping way more often. Gavin was pissed, and Jeffrey was out of control. Do you know how uncomfortable it is to sit in between two huge car seats for an extended amount of time when you have to sit sideways?!? Luckily, since we moved Jeffrey forward facing (big boy!) for the trip, he wasn't able to kick us while we were sitting there. Jony's parents left that morning, as well, and beat us to our destination. That was quite a bummer. The way back was really smooth since they were so exhausted. Plus, we left a lot earlier, and I think that made a big difference. The biggest downfall of the car ride was how it messed with Jeffrey and his potty training. He did relatively well, but a few times of holding it too long caused him to be pretty uncomfortable. So, we're still recovering from that. Bummer.

While we were there, we went to the Florida Aquarium, which was really fun. Other than that, it was just a lot of family time. We went to a small little beach just to say that we did, but we were sad we didn't have time to go to Clearwater Beach, which is beautiful. Next time. Jeffrey was so overwhelmed with all the activity and new people the entire weekend that he was insane. Plus, he wouldn't let me do anything with him, so Jony got a major glimpse into my life. He wouldn't even let me unbuckle him from his car seat. That started before and has carried over after the trip. It's getting a little better, thankfully, because it makes me pretty sad to be rejected constantly from my son. Gavin, on the other hand, did great unless we were in the car. He wasn't very trusting of us every time we put him in the car seat, since he can't understand if we were going for a long time again. Poor thing.

Besides wishing we were in a minivan or something else with a third row and wanting our almost 3 year old to calm down, we have no regrets about the trip. The 100th birthday party was a success, and we're grateful that we were able to attend. That said, we've agreed that we're not going on any vacations until December of next year (and that's not definite). It feels nice to think of taking a year off, but it'll be great for savings since we want to buy a new house in the next 1-2 years.

Since it took me so long (getting on the computer with two hands with two kids? Impossible), here are some photos from the trip: