Traveling With Small Children

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am that we are going out of town for a while. I honestly cannot wait until I am surrounded by the laid back familiarity of St. Mary's and all of our loved ones that we only see a couple times each year. Going down there to the coast always feels like food for my soul.

Even as much as I am looking forward to vacation I am really dreading the 6 hour drive with the kids and entertaining them once we get there. (Please let Riley limit her meltdowns to a maximum of one per day.) The good news is that all of the family members that live down there truly adore the kids...they are the ONLY kids on Jamey's side of the family. They seem to have reserves of patience and energy when it comes to Ri and Sam so for that I am so grateful!!!! There are also so many of them that we can take turns entertaining grumpy or bored kids and they are more than happy to spend as much time as possible with the kids as during the limited amount of time they can. (Since my kids tend to bet "better" for other people than for me I am hoping this vacation works out beautifully.) Jamey and I say that the day we had Riley and later Sam we were instantly moved to the chopped liver category. We are probably only invited because me are the means of transportation to get the kids there. :-) People think I am kidding when I describe how Jamey's family feels about our kids but it is very true....the people are a little obsessive when it comes to them. I love that my children are cherished and wish every child in the world could be as lucky as mine.

So everyone cross your fingers and hope that I successfully get everyone packed for the trip, that the car ride is as painless as possible and that we have two happy children during the majority of the trip...I know it is unrealistic to hope that they both will be perfect for the entire trip but I will be thrilled if they are content for the majority of the time.

I am going to start my packing today and I really dread it. My packing lists are 3 miles long!!!! I want to trade places with Jamey. I will pack only my things and he can pack his suitcase and a suitcase for each of the kids plus entertainment items for the kids....yeah right... a girl can dream can't she???

I am going to take my new camera...I am trying to think of a name for her...and I will do a vacation post when I get back.