Jon and I did a practice pack of the van the week before we left to make sure everything would fit. We bought a collapsible roof rack just in case. We had everything organized short of an excel spread sheet itemizing it. We decided that I would sit in the third row with Ella so that I could keep her entertained. We were confident that we were fully prepared.
47 minutes later the van was chaos. I had to dig threw three different bags to find the ipad cord, the right snacks and all of a sudden we were invaded by crumbs and I was up to my ears with stuff. I couldn't feel my legs for the duration of the drive they fell asleep so quickly.
22 hours later, after a long night in a hotel (the first time all five of us have slept in one room! Um. Ya. ) some vomiting, a baby covered in diarrhea and no spare sleeper that wasn't totally buried. Ben played his tablet for 12 hours straight, Jake watched garbage truck videos on you tube for hours and Ella played with her toes. They were awesome.
It is interesting to relive my exact summer holidays through the eyes of my children. They absolutely loved every little minute of it. It was wonderful to experience my favorite memories through them and show them off to some of my favorite people.
When asked what their favorite memories were Ben said, despite everything we did, that it was eating breakfast at Grammie June's house and Jacob loved playing with the dump trucks in the gravel and having a fire on the beach -where the ever safety conscious Ben sat 20 feet away with a bucket of water....just in case (Never mind the billion gallons of water in the ocean behind us).
It was great to be able to spend so much uninterrupted time together and have my parents and grandmothers all together.
