Road Trip

For Spring Break we spent 2 weeks in Alabama with Ken as he went to the Air Force for a business trip. It was awesome and we had so much fun! The kids took off an additional week of school. I was a little nervous about them missing so much school. But they were able to do all of their make-up work from a whole week of school in about 6-8 hours. That was kind of shocking.

The trip was fabulous! The kids did a super job driving for long periods. It's always fun to go on long trips and have lots of time to talk and be together. It seems like more random things come up in conversation and you discover new things about the people you are driving with.

Another favorite of ours is to sing Old McDonald's in the car on road trips. This tradition started when Nathan was 2 and Darin was 3 1/2 years old. Ken was crazy and taking a class at BYU-Idaho in while we lived in Spanish Fork, UT. I would pick him up at work every Wednesday at 1pm, we would drive to Idaho Falls, he would be in class from 5:30-10:00 p.m. while me and the boys found a movie or some place to eat dinner and play around. Then we would pick up Daddy from school and get back home to Utah at 2 or 3 a.m. We did this for 8 weeks straight all to replace an "F" Ken got in a basic English class (he got an F because he just stopped attending instead of dropping his first semester) all so he could get accepted to BYU. It was nuts, but we have a ton of fun memories from this time.

We started singing Old McDonald's whenever they got frustrated in the car because we really couldn't stop and take a break since he had to be on-time. Our twist is that Mom and the kids get to pick the animals and then Daddy has to make the sounds at the part:

"With a _______ _______ here and a ______ ________ there. Here a ________ There a _________ everywhere a _______ ______."

Of course I'm such a nice wife that I get the kids to pick animals like a gorilla, fish, kangaroo, or my all time favorite Jack-a-Lope! They totally laugh and giggle over Ken's noises and his facial expressions as he acts out the animals!!!

Another major portion of our trip was listening to the scriptures on tape. It was major because it was on our minds alot, but we only could do it for about 45 minutes at a time before 1 out of the 4 (the boys, Ken, Me) of us would fall asleep. So we would have to stop and then a few hours later we would do some more again. The boys were actually more strict about it then Ken and I were feeling. They felt like at least one of them had to be following along and the adult not driving had to too. Our Stake President challenged us at the beginning of the year to read the scriptures everyday and finish the Book of Mormon by June 30th. We have been doing so-so, but were behind 112 pages. We made up about 75 pages while driving. But things have been crazy since we got home that we are getting a more behind again.

Anyway, Here is the Play-by-Play of our drives:
The first day we left at 4 pm and drove straight until 10:30pm. Rose and Ginger slept for the first 4 hours. They were getting sick the day we left and I was worried about how they would do, but apparantly being strapped in their car seats upright actually helped them sleep better. They were barely coughing. Unlike at night when they tossed and turned and you could tell they felt miserable.

Driving was pretty fun the first day. It was cold and stormy outside, so we felt warm and snuggled inside the car. Our car was packed pretty full-no looking out the rear view mirror. The boys mainly sat in the 3rd row of the Suburban playing on the DS except for when they were mesmerized with Dora and the Backyardigans. Ginger and Rose loved watching their DVD and would be fine sitting in the car for 3 hours watching the same video of different Nick Jr. Cartoons.

We drove from small town to small town in Louisianna looking for a McDonald's with a Playplace. We asked one man and he told us he thought they were outlawed a few years ago. That was pretty bad news given we had 4 kids who had been in a car for 6 hours and it was pouring rain outside. But finally after our 14th town we found a PlayPlace. We have never been more happy to see a McDonald's!

It took us 10 hours to drive from Austin to New Orleans.

We were planning on staying and playing around New Orleans for a day but decided against it. There was too much of a party atmosphere the weekend we were there (right before St. Patrick's Day). We were surprised to see just how much destruction the hurricane had caused. There were large portions that were completely condemmed, you could see lots of places where building were just torn down. Even in nice suburban neighborhoods you could see a drastic difference between homes that had been repaired and ones that had mold growing all over them.

We had breakfast at a Waffle House. Me and the boys really wanted to eat there because Ken has been eating breakfast at a Waffle House most mornings when he has been traveling the past couple of months. Waffle Houses dot the freeways about every other exit all along the south. They are everywhere. Ken loves waffles, and you can get a large one for around $2.50 It was an interesting dining experience. Let's just say that we only went there once. I don't think I have ever eaten in a place that dirty. Even eating a 24 oz. steak for $10 with my mom at a Truck Stop in Reno was 10 times cleaner. The boys loved it and they both ate as much as the 1 breakfast meal Ken, I, and the girls split. However, Darin was bummed to realize all the extra stuff they ordered ended up costing the entire $40 he was in charge of for the day.

From New Orleans, LA to Montgomery, AL it took about 5.5 hours.

There was a drastic difference in driving the 2nd day. It was bright and sunny. The roads are pretty nice and lined with Tall Pines. I think Alabama really is the Beautiful State.

We stayed in Montgomery for the week and on the weekend we drove to Pensacola, Fl. It is about 3 hours from Montgomery. Or 12 hours total from Austin.

There wasn't really anything exciting about this short drive. Except a 30 minute phonecall that Ken recieved from his boss to check-in. I don't know why I panicked, but I stressed about how we have 4 kids in the car. They are pretty good, and Ken says I shouldn't care since it was after work hours. I guess it is out of habit of shushing the kids away when he has phone calls at home with people from work.

After a fun weekend playing around in Pensacola we went back to Montgomery for our 2nd week there. After the 2nd week in Montgomery we started our trip home. After Ken left work on Friday we drove to Mobile, AL. It is a 3 hour drivem from Montgomery. We were so anxious to get home that if we could have driven all the way home straight we probably would have. But we also promised the boys that we would take them to the Battleship in Mobile. And it was stormy and there tornado warnings in Mississippi and Lousianna.

Saturday morning we went to the Battleship Memorial Park. It was awesome (I'll post more later). Ken and I shared a Haagen Daz milkshake. Of course we had to have Haagan Daz since we love to do that when we travel. Except there aren't any nice ice cream shops around where we went. So Ken bought some from the hotel gift shop. We didn't end up eating it that night in Mobile, so he packed it in ice. He thought it stayed frozen while we were at the park but when we pulled off the seal it was just a really cold, thick choclate milk. So I grabbed a straw and we had the richest chocolate milkshake I have ever tasted!


We were super anxious to get home on Saturday. We didn't even want to stop for gas because the girls would want to get out of their seats. It's a good thing my car holds 30 gallons of gas. We ended up driving 6.5 hours straight. Most of the time the girls were awake but happy, they took a few small naps.

We finally stopped in Beaumont, TX for dinner. It was 9:30 p.m. afterall. It took us 30 minutes to clean up the girls and get them changed. While they had no problem sitting in the car for 6 1/2 hours straight their diapers certainly did. We had dinner at a Fuddrucker's. We chose it because there was an outdoor playground. We never actually had the kids play on it because it was cold. Plus the restaurant was nearly empty and they didn't seem to mind our kids running through a portion of it (there were curtains like at a church building we could pull to close it off anyways too). So they played a few of the games there, ran around, and danced to the music. It was a pretty fun dinner.
Finally at 3 am we arrived! Home sweet Home!