Florida Vacation Part 1: 17 hours of h-e-double hockey sticks on wheels!!!

As I sit here with both kids napping, I thought I might start my vacation recaps as promised but there is a problem...Part 1 or 17 hours of h-e-double hockey sticks on wheels was so bad that I believe I have erased it from memory almost completely. It's kind of like pregnancy and labor...you forget all the bad parts, how much it sucked, how much it hurt so that you can do it again. So I will try to piece together what happened for you but keep in mind, it was way worse than it sounds...my memory was completely wiped so that I could prepare for the journey back, also quite horrible...but that I remember!

We packed the car the night before and headed to bed around midnight...stupid Olympics where all the good stuff doesn't come on until after 10:30 and I know you will say, "hello, DVR much???" but we were leaving and I just couldn't wait ten days to watch the gymnastics and swimming. The kiddos slept in until 7 and we headed off on our journey around 8:30 a.m. Before kiddos, it took us about 12 hours to drive down to the condo in Florida and that included lunch and gas stops so we were thinking that it would take about 14 hours since we would have to let the kiddos stretch their legs and burn off energy...Boy were we wrong!

Cami started to freak out about an hour into the trip and continued to do so for the rest of the time! She cried hysterically for about an hour, which forced us to pull over about 2 hours into the trip somewhere between Baltimore and Washington. Once out of the car seat, she was a doll but when you put her back in...well lets just say ear plugs probably wouldn't be able to drown her screams of fury! So we hooked up the DVD player to the back of her seat and she happily watched Baby Einstein. (Yes, we are those parents...the ones who let their 6 month old watch T.V. just so they can drive in peace and quiet!)

All of a sudden 10 minutes later, we hear crazy screaming coming from the back seat...Did a bird fly in through the window and attach my baby? No, Cami's DVD player has stopped working. Why, God, Why??? We stop at the nearest rest stop to evaluate and figure out that the plug thingy won't stay in the cigarette lighter so Ben rigs up some luggage and we are back in the Cami Cry-Free Zone. She falls asleep to Baby Einstein but do we dare turn it off...No way!

We stop for lunch at Friendly's...YUMMY! Both kiddos are happy and so is Mommy because I get a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae and it is so good. Please keep in mind that I have been on weight watchers for about 3 months so my body hasn't had this type of yummy food in awhile and after about hour, it is pissed! Many, many emergency stops at the bathroom later and we are finally making some time! And ladies out there if you can believe this, on my final trip to the bathroom who shows up but my Aunt Flo (weird to right that but I didn't know what else to call it) and she was not invited on this family vacation! What did I do to deserve such punishment? I will definitely be steering clear of Friendly's in the future.

Both kiddos are somewhat happy after lunch and the one million bathroom stops for me and diaper changes so we stop for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. We pull Brayden out of the car and he is soaking wet...CRAP! He peed through his diaper and his car seat is soaked. What are supposed to do??? We are in North Carolina and still have many hours ahead of us so we try to sop up the pee with a burp cloth and have Brayden ride the rest of the way on one of Ben's shirts. No complaints from Brayden as long as Thomas is on.

It's now 9 and neither kiddo wants to sleep but both are dreadfully tired...which we all know means very loud crying and whining. Yuck! They finally fall asleep but Brayden only sleeps for about an hour and then he is us up until we reach our final destination at 1:30 am! Yes, we left at 8:30 am and arrived the next day at 1:30 am...17 hours! Lots of crying and whining and peeing and pooping and everything else that could go wrong did! But we made it and I am so happy and so excited to go to sleep.

My brother and his girlfriend are down so Brayden was supposed to sleep in my parents room since our room is on the small side and Cami was already sleeping in the closest...don't worry, it was a walk-in! Brayden wanted to no part of sleeping in the pack 'n play and he didn't want to sleep in bed with Mum and Papa either...he wanted Daddy so into bed with us he came. After a 17 hour ride from the inner depths of hell, I get to sleep with my husband and toddler son in a double (yes, D-O-U-B-L-E) bed. Thank god Cami slept like an angel because I didn't since Brayden decided he wanted to snuggle up to Daddy and sleep in the pike position. I had feet in my ribs and kidneys all night long...I woke up and thought I was still pregnant with Cami! We got about 5 hours of sleep and then rolled out of bed to the beach to hang with the fam...more to come later!

Oh wait, I just remembered that it rained hard for about an hour or two of the trip so that cost us some time since we had to slow way down. So in total we had to deal with crying, whining, DVD problems, bottles, diaper changes, wet seats, lots of bathroom stops and weather...what a trip!