Hitting the Road - Missouri Trip Day #1

We left May 29th for a week long trip to visit family in Missouri, near Kansas City. This will be the third time driving with the kids down there. When they were 14 months old, we flew down.

I stocked up on lots of audio books, regular books, paper and crayons, sticker books, and a maze book for Alexa. The kids slept for about an hour out of the 9 hours it took to drive down. Some people wonder how we could go that long without bringing a DVD player for the kids, but those things really take time away from just being together as a family. I think people would be amazed at how well kids do without having to watch something or play some type of video game while driving. So many precious moments can be lost that way.

We listened to the short audio book Catwings, and Harry's Horrible Secret (which I'd never recommend. The book was mostly about two seven year olds who were in love. Uh, no thanks). The really loved another  book, which was really a song, called There's a Dragon on the Doorstep, and must have listened to that silly song about forty times in a row, following along with the words in the book. Alexa loves workbooks, so I bought her one called the Big Kindergarten workbook. Jared had his many Batman books, and he also loved tying together his Batman and Spiderman. We all made up silly songs, and had a good time talking together.

We stopped in a McDonald's to eat lunch. In the bathroom, Alexa did the longest poop I'd ever seen. I don't even know how she got that out of her small body. So, we went get out of the bathroom, she runs across the restaurant yelling, "Daddy, I did a poop this big!" and proceeds to measure it out for everyone.

Steve's cousin's wife had made a wonderful meal for us when we arrived, and our kids were so excited to see their cousins, especially E.  She is exactly one month older than the twins. We also saw C for the first time. He's six months old and a big, cuddly, smiling little boy. E's two year old sister, I'll call little E, is sooooo adorable. She wanted everyone to pick her up, and gave the most wonderful smiles.

We really look forward to taking this trip every year. It's really the only time we can see Steve's grandmother, aunt and cousins. Hopefully, we can continue this tradition throughout the years.