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If you hadn't noticed, I've been gone for a few days. Well, more like a week. We took a vacation of sorts and visited my family in Ohio. We haven't made this drive in several years. It involves driving for two days through many states. We were on the road for 12 hours one day and 8 hours the next. (We broke it up that way so we could spend the night with relatives rather than stay in a hotel).
I dreaded traveling with four 5-year-olds. I envisioned constantly being asked "Are we there yet?" Instead, they traveled surprisingly well. They asked that question repeatedly, but understood the concept of "No, we have to watch two more movies before we're there." (If you don't have a portable DVD player, get one. It was a wonderful thing to have on this trip!)
Here are somethings I learned on this vacation:
- The Tooth Fairy will find you even if you're not home. Roo lost her first tooth on the 4th of July. I knew the tooth would likely come out on our vacation, so I took her gold coin with us. She, her sisters and her two cousins were delighted to wake up the next morning and find the gold $1 coin.
- Clouds are made in Indianapolis. We drove by some type of steam-emitting factory in Indianapolis and the girls insisted it was a "cloud factory." Who knew Indiana was home to Mother Nature?
- Water parks are fun at any age. We spent an afternoon at a swimming pool with a water slide. None of my girls nor their younger cousin were tall enough to go on the water slide by themselves. Fortunately we had enough adults to take them down. It was fun, but I was pretty bruised at the end of our water adventure.
- Old habits are hard to break. As a child and teenager, family vacations meant popping on my ear phones, turning on my Walkman and sleeping in the car. I can become severely motion sick, so sleeping was the best way to get through a long trip. Now that I'm an adult I sit in the front and motion sickness isn't a problem. Unfortunately, if I'm in the car for more than an hour, I have the irresistible urge to sleep. I'm not sure how Hubby felt about that, although I tried to stay awake for most of the drive.
- It pays to have a creative sister. My sister has my mom's superb sewing skills. She made pillowcase dresses for the girls and their younger cousin for the 4th of July. The dresses turned out amazing! (Can you tell which one of my daughters wants to be on Toddlers and Tiaras?)
I had a heck of time adding this picture to the post, so I'm not going to worry that it's not all nice and centered like I wanted!
All in all, we had a blast. We are exhausted! We returned on Saturday and since then I have been frantically doing laundry! I'll have more to post about our vacation in the days to come.
On a side note, I wanted to let you know about a deal being offered by Purex and Parents magazine. The two have teamed up to offer a full year subscription to Parents for just $4! All you need to do is visit
https://www.purex.com/parents-promo and enter promo code PX0167 at check out. (You'll have to cut and paste the link because Blogger and I are not getting along this morning).
When we took our mini-vacation last week, I was concerned about potty breaks. Twelve hours of driving and four four-year-olds who are all potty trained... it could have been a disaster. I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
On our drive to our destination, we drove overnight. We didn't take our first potty break until roughly five hours into the trip. Believe it or not, we only made one more potty stop during the remaining seven hours. I think it's mainly because breakfast consisted of a Pop Tart in the car and a few sips of juice. The drive home was done during the day. I highly recommend keeping an atlas in your car. It was nice to be able to look at the atlas and know where the next rest area was. All the rest areas we stopped at were surprisingly clean, too.
Two years ago, we drove two days to visit my family in Ohio. Before the trip we splurged on a two-screen portable DVD player, so we could put one screen in the middle row and one in the third row of our Suburban. This thing has quickly paid for itself. It was great to have on our recent trip. We watched The Sound of Music, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Princess and the Frog, Mary Poppins and various Nick Jr. shows. Sure, my girls were restless during much of the 12 hour drive home, but having shows on to keep them entertained definitely helped.
I'm glad this trip was such a success... it makes me willing to embark on another journey in the future.
Last week a wonderful thing happened. After not going on any trips for two years, we took a mini vacation. It was a whirlwind, to say the least, but it was well worth it.
We visited with family and friends in the Quad Cities (Moline, IL area). Yes, laugh it up. Hubby and I met in the Quad Cities and we now have quadruplets. Keep laughing... the area used to be called the Quint Cities, but apparently East Moline doesn't hold rank any more.
We made the decision to make the 12 hour drive there overnight. It worked out, to an extent. We avoided construction and truckers. We only had to make two stops... one for gas and potty, the other just for potty. Hubby was exhausted when we reached our destination. I was exhausted, too. I managed to sleep in the car... in 10 minute intervals. Every time I would fall asleep I would be awakened by "MOOOOOOM.... are we there, yet?!" Let's just say Wednesday night I fell into a coma very early in the evening and slept for a looooong time.
We only spent two full days in the Quad Cities, but it was nice to visit with family and friends who we don't see very often. We went to the local zoo where we rode the train, rode the carousel, rode the ponies and fed the lorikeets. Our zoo has a lorikeet feeding area, too, but apparently our birds are spoiled. The birds in the Quad Cities acted like they had never been fed, hence the pictures of Hubby covered in lorikeets.
We also had the chance to visit the local children's museum and the John Deere Pavilions, where there are tons of tractors, combines, etc. to climb on. (Moline is the home of John Deere). Oh, and Hubby's friend who is a firefighter gave us a fantastic tour of one of the fire stations, even letting the girls climb on the trucks.
Now it's back to reality...
The last time Hubby and I took a vacation was nearly 9 years ago. It was our honeymoon to Maui. There is nothing better than a week filled with snorkeling and mai tais. Since then, we have certainly gone on trips, but they have all involved family events (weddings, etc) and nothing nearly as relaxing as an actual vacation. I think we're due a little relaxation.
We are currently saving up for a trip to Disney. It's going to be a big family affair (hopefully), so it's probably going to take two more years before we can actually coordinate everyone's schedules and finances.
Still, I'm desperate for a little R and R. My ultimate goal, of course, would be a vacation sans quadruplets. Don't get me wrong, I love my daughters and love spending time with them. But it would be nice to have a few days of relaxation that didn't involve entertaining four preschoolers.
Since I'm desperate to get away, though, I've looked at family vacations. This time of year there's just nothing in our area that seems reasonable for people who don't ski. I can ski, but it's not high on my list of relaxing activities. I even looked into a hotel chain with an indoor water park, but the closest one is 10 hours away. Bummer.
At the very least, I'm hoping in a few weeks we can take a day trip somewhere (yes, all 6 of us) and just have an enjoyable time.
