Road Trip, part 2

Tuesday morning we were up bright an early again.  And we spent the day on the road.  That about sums it up.  It seemed to take forever to get anywhere.    

I do have to say that for this trip and the one home, the girls did an amazing job.  Hubby and I had talked to them about maintaining good attitudes throughout the trip even though they wouldn't necessarily feel like it.  We told them we expected them to behave with love and respect for each other and that we wouldn't tolerate any ugliness or hatefulness just because they were sick of being in the car, and they did not disappoint.  That was probably helped by the money that Mom brought to bribe them with.  Basically they started off with a roll of coins and every time they were hateful or asked when we were going to get there they lost a coin back to Grammy.  I don't think any of them lost more than 3.  Well, except #4, she should have lost all of them probably, but she does get away with a little more since she's only 3. 

Speaking of Mom, I also need to say that the trip would not have gone nearly as smoothly as it did if she had not been with us.  Number one, she sat in the back the entire trip which saved me from sitting back there and getting car sick.  I felt bad, but in the way that you feel guilty but also secretly happy.  Yeah, I can say that cause she already knows it.  She also dealt with the girls so that I didn't have to as much.  Mainly because she was the closest adult, but also because that is the type of Grammy she is.  It made Hubby and my's life much easier.  I don't know if she enjoyed herself as much as she thought she was going to, but we really enjoyed having her along!

 That is #4 stuffing her head, arms, and legs into her pillowcase.  We might have let her stay like that for a while thinking we were playing hide and seek.  Don't judge, it was the only time she quit talking that entire day!
 
So we got in to Flagstaff, AZ Tuesday night and we were completely wiped out.  The late nights and day long travels had finally caught up to us.  The nice thing was, because of the different time zones, we actually got in at 4 instead of 6 that night.  So I got the brilliant plan that since we were all so tired we would eat right away and go to bed at 6:30, which would be the girls' normal bed time in our time zone.  Great plan, right?  We're all exhausted and should fall asleep immediately.  Except for the sun that was shining in around the window curtain making our room look like it was lit up with a 60 watt lamp!  OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I can vividly remember #4 whining because she couldn't go to sleep while the sun was still up.  Sharing a hotel room with children is so much fun!  She did finally conk out and we were all able to catch up on a little bit of sleep.

We had plans of making it to Tulare, CA in time for church Wednesday night.  That is where Hubby and I lived for the first 2.5 years of marriage and we wanted to see our family and friends at church.  But that plan was formed before traveling in the car for 3 and a half days.  We were so tired and too drained to try to make it in enough time to shower and change for services.  So we took our time getting on the road Wednesday morning and didn't get in to Tulare until around 7.  Turns out, even if we had left when we originally planned to we wouldn't have been there in enough time to go to church anyway thanks to the speed limit dropping to 55 and 65 once we hit CA.  I know they do that so you can enjoy all the pretty scenery. In case you didn't catch that sarcasm, picture those scenes in  movies when someone is out in the desert and it shows a shot of them looking in to the distance and there is nothing but wavy lines showing how hot it is?  Yep, that's what we were looking at.  We did get to see a few windmills though so that made it worth it!

This is the crazy that happens when you're in a car for three days

We did stop at one fun place for a potty break.  It was just a random fruit stand place that Hubby remembered being there when we lived there.  It has turned in to quite the attraction now.  No one else was there when we stopped because it was at 4 pm on a Wednesday, but they have a huge building full of produce you can buy, a play area, and a little petting zoo.  The zoo wasn't open, but we were able to look at all the animals.  We got to see peacocks, several of whom opened their tail feathers for us to see.  I always forget how vivid the colors on their feathers are.  Beautiful!  Also, did you know that a peacock's cry sounds like they are yelling "Help!"  Yeah, I didn't either until I heard them doing it.  It would freak me out to hear it if I thought it was a person. 

We also got to stop at a Del Taco for dinner.  Forget In-N-Out Burger, we love Del Taco.  Mainly their chicken tacos.  I think we ordered 18 that night.  It wasn't the last time we ate there on this trip either!

We finally got to Hubby's brother's house and got to see D, M, and their two kids.  Hubby's parents and other brother and his family also came by after church to see us briefly.  Which was nice since we couldn't have moved after we sat down if the house had been on fire.  We stayed up late again.  I know, you would think we would learn our lesson, but these are friends and family we don't get to see very often so we have to cram years of visiting into just a few days.  So we'll sleep when we're dead!  Which is actually what I slept like when I finally did go to sleep!