Best 13 hours!

The drive back from Florida to Virginia could not have gone better.  Honestly, it was the best 13 hours ever spent in a car.  One of the best decisions we made was to leave earlier in the day, rather than drive thru the night.  Jen was pretty certain her boys would do well in the car and hoping they spend most of the time asleep wouldn't be necessary.  Boy, was she right!   And because we didn't have to spend most of Thursday keeping the kids entertained before starting the drive in the evening, Jen and I were refreshed and full of energy to stay awake.

Without Sam in the car, the drive was peaceful.  Quiet.  Relaxing.  Really!  Her 3 boys were amazing and not one peep was heard out of them.   We stopped a total of 2 times for a quick gas, bathroom, drive-thru for dinner combo.   Evan (the 2 year old) didn't even get out of his car seat once -- not once!

One of the coolest things was that Jen drove the whole, entire way.  She is amazing. I actually started and finished a 362 page book in the time it took us to drive home.  We left at 10:45am and arrived at Jen's house at 11:20pm.  We timed the trip to miss the traffic in Orlando, Jacksonville, Richmond and the D.C. Metro area.  Other than 2 construction zones along the way, the drive was smooth sailing and uneventful.  No alligators crossing I-95 this time!

It was very nice to end our 11 day trip extravaganza on a high note.  Without hesitation, I can say, I'd travel anywhere with Jen. 


HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR TRIP:

Lies told on the drive down to Florida:

• Trying to convince Sam she needs to keep her overnight pull-up on  (this was all in hopes that she would fall asleep at some point).

Me:  Sam, everyone is wearing a pull-up right now.  Even Ian.
Sam:  He is?
Ian:  No, I'M NOT!
Me:  Yes, Ian, you are!!  Right?  Right?
Ian:  Oh yeah, I am.
Sam:  Ok then.

• Evan wanting to get out of his car seat.

Jen:  Yes, Evan, you can get out in a few minutes.  (We had 8 hours left to go!)


While in Florida:

• The toilet in the bathroom attached to the bedroom I stayed in was making a very high pitched noise.  Before our visit, Ben fixed the problem.  Now the thing is, you have to flush before you go and then flush again afterwards if want the bowl to clear out.  It's the strangest thing ever.  Flush before you go!  But somehow it does the trick and then you can easily flush afterwards.  If you forget to flush before you go, then you are standing there flushing repeatedly until the toilet actually flushes.  Lori was so excited that Ben fixed the noise, that this is something she is overlooking as needing to get further fixed.  Plus, it is a bathroom they never use.  So incredibly weird though.  I never seen anything like it.

• Sam is on Ex-lax at night and sometimes miralax during the day (if the ex-lax hasn't done its thing).  One night we found Evan getting into Sam's supply of Ex-lax.  The next day we found Evan drinking Sam's juice that had miralax in it.  I got a good laugh out of it; I am not sure Jen did.

• Jen and I cooked or prepared at least one meal each day in Lori and Ben's kitchen.  One evening when Ben and Lori were out of the house, we were making the kids dinner and using their stove.  Boy, did we get a shock when we left the kitchen momentarily and walked back in to find flames shooting out from the burner.  OMG!  For a moment we thought we were going to burn the house down.  It was a very scary moment and we decided to stop using that burner the rest of our stay.  Apparently this has never happened to Ben (who cooks all the time).  I have a feeling that a new stove is needed.

• While Sam was in the midst of some of her more crazier temper-tantrums, Nathan would look at us and ask, "What's wrong with Sam?".  Yep, my thoughts exactly.  I wish I knew.

• Evan (2 year old) loved Ben!  Whenever Ben was home, Evan would follow him around the house.  It was like his shadow.  So incredibly cute.  Good thing Ben loves kids!

On the drive back to VA:

• When I was down in Orlando in June to help my mom with her surgery, Lori had bought me a delicious gluten-free cake for my birthday.  It was awesome and I was so excited to tell Ben and Lori to store the rest of it in their freezer for when I came back in August.  It wasn't until the night before that Ben reminded me I had the cake in the freezer.  I couldn't believe I had been their 10 days and wasn't eating it.  I had a big slice that night and said I was bringing the rest back with me on the drive home the next day.   Right before we left, I took the cake out of their fridge, packed some paper plates and plastic forks to take with me.  Around 3:00pm, I reached down to grab the cake and get a piece to eat.  OH MY!  What a surprise.  I hadn't grabbed the leftover cake...I took Ben's roasted chicken he had made 2 days before.  It was a whole chicken!  Soooo not what I was expecting.  Ha!

• Somewhere in South Carolina, Jen and I hear this alarm sounding.  It sounded like the Emergency Broadcast sound you hear on the tv.  We couldn't figure out where this sound was coming from.  Turned out it was an alarm coming from her cell phone.  She received an alert message saying that there was a tornado watch in the area and we should take shelter now!    We just kept driving.  Obviously, no tornado was seen.

All in it was a fun trip and a great way to spend a couple of weeks.