The circus elephant has lost its way.: Magic and Madness

From Thursday (7/18) to Monday (7/22), our family spent quite a lot of time in close proximity. There were moments, yes there were. For the most part, the bad moments centered around the fact that Em hates the car and simply does not travel well.

Having trouble with the motivation to pack:

(Who does Harper look like? My vote is that she looks like her dad.)

We drove Thursday night the first leg of our trip to St. Augusine, Florida. We were already tired, after packing all day and leaving the house at 10:30 at night. We stopped in Marianna, Florida at 2:30 a.m. Em had already gotten carsick on the way there, poor kid. Once in the hotel, no one (except Harper) went to bed before 4 a.m. Then we were up at 7! It was time for breakfast, showers, and packing for the next leg of the trip. We left at 11. Rob left half of his clothes at the hotel! Good start, Mans Family.

Em fussed and hollered for the first hour. We stopped and decided that we would move her carseat to the center of the back seat so she could get more air, which hopefully would help with her carsickness. It helped a lot! But unfortunately for Harper, she could reach far enough to poke her the face. We finally made it to our destination in the afternoon.

Saturday morning, Jeff and Rob got up early to take their dad fishing for his 60th birthday present. Lori and I took all FOUR of our kids to the beach, a 45 minute drive. We met Rob's mom there and had a great time, except I had forgotten to pack some essential parts to Harper's bottles. So Lori went to the store and got poor Harper a bottle so she could eat! We stayed on the beach for about 1.5 hours, until Harper and Em were just finished with the whole thing. Em was so cute on the beach! Rob's mom has all those pictures, but as soon as I have them I will update. Later that afternoon, we drove back 45 minutes to Lori and Jeff's house to get ready for the birthday dinner. The men were late getting back from fishing, so it was hectic to get all the kids and adults ready. But we made it out the door on time and drove 45 minutes to dinner. Em proceeded to act her age (1 year old) at the 2 hour dinner. We took her on lots of walks outside and basically traded off babies so we could eat a little bit of food. Then everyone drove 45 minutes back to Lori and Jeff's house. We went to bed exhausted.

Sunday morning, all the kids slept until about 8:30, except Harper slept until almost 10 a.m.! The kids went to the park with Rob and Lori while I packed up some of our stuff. Then we all got in the pool and had so much fun. Next it was time for showers and a 2 hour drive to Gainesville to see Rob's grandparents. Granny was thrilled to finally meet her tiny namesake. We had such a nice visit with them.

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we did the trip again, but in reverse. I have never been so happy to be back in a house that I'm allergic to.

Overall, it was a horrible and wonderful trip, full of magic and madness. I have spent countless hours trying to get out of this trip, but now I can say that I'm so glad that we did it. I wish we had had more time with each family member, and that might have made all the driving worth it. But I'm glad we went, and it was great to have everyone together to sing Happy Birthday to Dietz. It was wonderful to see Rob's grandparents with the babies, and to realize that life goes by so fast. In a summer that has been so overwhelming and stressful, I'm glad we had these moments to remind us what's important.

Em fell asleep eating pretzels after the beach.