Finally home

Finally home, and wow what a trip. We put about 3000 miles on the car over the last week and a half. We left here Thursday morning, not as early as we would have liked, but we were off and running. It was a pretty dreary day, which is good and bad. Good because it makes the trip go faster, since we can't really stop to let Matthew play at parks. Bad because we can't stop and let Matthew play and he gets antsy in the car. Matthew and Scarlett were both really good in the car all day - we stopped for a few short breaks to change diapers, get food (although all food was eaten on the road), pee...that sort of thing, but around 5:30pm we decided we should really let Matthew run around a little, so due to the weather we decided to find a shopping mall and hope it had a play area. Unfortunately the one mall we found (we were in the middle of nowhere West Virginia) did not have a play area. Good thing Matthew didn't seem to mind! We found an area where they did have a few (3 I think?) of the "quarter rides" that you put money in and they do something for a few short minutes. Matthew ran from one to the other and climbed up, down, and around them so we didn't bother putting quarters in. He had a good time just climbing. We sat in the food court and ate supper, I nursed Scarlett (poor girl had to take bottles all day except for first thing in the morning) and we got on the road again. We finally stopped at a hotel about 2 hours from "home". We packed smart and had put the essentials for one night in a separate suitcase, so we only needed to unload a few things. I think we were all asleep by 1:30.

The next morning we got up a little later than normal and took our time leaving the hotel. We had to find a Hardee's for breakfast - this is one of David's "musts" on any trip down south - the nearest Hardee's is about an hour drive from us and they don't even have chicken biscuits! We got "home" around lunch time so we had the house to ourselves for a few hours before my mom got home from school. That was kind of nice - we were basically lazy. I was supposed to get my hair cut, but the guy had to cancel due to another client's death - he had to go to the funeral home to fix her up. Not to be disrespectful but David said you'd think he would be more concerned about keeping his repeat business happy! That's my smart ass husband for you!

My mom got a birthday cake for Matthew and Belle, since Thanksgiving is about halfway between their birthdays. It had 2 candles on each end, but when they lit the candles Belle quickly blew out the ones on her end and then stood up to reach Matthew's and blow them out too. We tried relighting them but Matthew didn't care and Belle did it again. She's such a cutie. Matthew did like licking the icing off the candles - he quickly figured out that it was good to redip them into the cake too and spent several minutes getting more icing on the candles then licking it off. I guess Matthew has changed since Belle saw him because she points to him in pictures and says his name, but all she would say when she saw him was "that boy". She knew Scarlett immediately though, running in the house towards her and saying "hey ca-ca".

We left Sunday to drive some more - to FL this time, to see David's mom. The children were good on this drive too. We were kind of back and forth in Florida, visiting David's mom and his dad - it ended up being a lot of time on the road and I think both kids got tired of their carseats! Hell I was tired of it too! Matthew also got a little sick while we were there - he had a terrible cough and fever for a few days. I gave him Tylenol for the fever and some cough medicine (I don't care what "THEY" say, even if cough medicine doesn't cure you, it sure as heck can relieve the symptoms!) and that seemed to help a lot. The fever only lasted a couple of days, the cough lingered but is much better now.

Friday night I was really dreading the ride home. I knew it would be at least another 2 full days of driving and possibly more, if Sunday traffic was as bad as I've seen it in the past. Fortunately I was just wrong in my pessimistic attitude and we were home by 6:30 last night. I am very thankful to have children who are good in the car. We've also found several great parks along the way, and yesterday the weather was good (cold but clear) so we were able to let Matthew play for a while. Anytime we find a nice park we save it in the GPS favorites so we can be sure to find it again.

We were also able to sneak in a date night while in Florida. I was kind of reluctant to leave both children home with David's mom, just because her house is not at all child-proofed and for us to have time to have a real date, we would be gone long enough that Scarlett would have to be fed. Here it is sometimes difficult for me to watch Matthew while I nurse her, and our house is pretty child-proofed - I can at least gate off the area that I know is safe. Add to that Scarlett still not liking the bottle and I figure it's too much to ask of one person. So we waited until Matthew was in bed then went to a movie. We saw No Country for Old Men. It was a good movie but I didn't care for the ending. It was nice to have a night out though - I think that's 2 in 2 months!