On the Road Again

Driving to Arizona takes a long time... I mean really long. And, when you factor in two kids, food breaks and potty breaks it takes even longer. Honestly, I had prepared myself for the worst. As we left for Arizona, I had mentally prepared myself for breakdowns and potential vomiting (Ava's go-to-get-me-out-of-the-car trick LAST Christmas). But, I prepared myself the best I could, armed with enough snacks to feed an army, enough books to fill a small library, toys, games, DVDs and the best attitude I could conjure up, I got into the car ready to take on whatever my kids had to throw at me. But, they had a plan of their own. Rather than whine, complain or throw-up, they were little angels! They read, they colored, they played together, they watched movies, they even slept. Ava asked only a few times if we were there yet. After 11 hours in the car, I bet I could have even gone a few more with them. That's how good they were.


The way home was just the same...

... until we got past Cedar City. Just three hours from home, Mother Nature decided our trip had been way too easy and decided to add some excitement in the form of snow. I'm not talking a few measly little snowflakes, no, this was can't-see-in-front-of you snow. We drove about 20 miles per hour for close to 30 minutes and 35 mph for another hour or so. That's when the crazies kicked in. Jax cried, Ava whined. No one wanted food, it was too dark to read, even a movie didn't help. Jax eventually fell asleep only to wake up an hour later to his sister crying. I tried for about 20 minutes to talk Ava into going to sleep. She wasn't interested. After about an hour-and-a-half we stopped at a gas station to take Ava potty and get the kids some dinner. After some cheese and fruit, they were like new people. Ava went to sleep, Jax talked to us the rest of the way home. It ended up taking us about 12 hours to get home. This time, I was not willing to go a few more hours. The only place I was willing to go was to sleep. And I did just that.