*this is a boring post-for our family’s record books-feel free to skip it!
We took off on our 1st long road trip with 2 littles on Friday afternoon about noon. We originally planned to leave about 2, but we had back checking on the weather and rain/freezing rain was heading into Texas and Oklahoma a little sooner than we expected so we thought it best to try to get ahead of it.
We ended up starting out the drive and Elin took a nap while Thomas watched a movie. When Elin woke up she quickly told us she had to go potty and so started a 15 hour road trip with a little girl who refused to go potty in a diaper. She must have thought we were nuts because we were pulling out all the stops trying to convince her it was a good idea, no luck. So we made our first pit stop, got gas, and froze as it was cold and raining.
We then continued to drive along at this point it was close to 4 p.m., and Thomas still hadn’t napped. So we thought if we could make it to dinner about 5, he could eat and then end up going to sleep sometime after that. We ended up being able to drive until 5:45 before the littlest one wanted to go potty again and we stopped for dinner. After getting some wiggles out and grabbing dinner we were back in the car.
We were still battling rain but the roads at this point were not icy so that was great. We drove a little further and needed to stop for another potty break and then the best thing happened, both of the kiddos went to sleep! It was now 7:30 and we were just about to Joplin, Kansas. After doing some talking with our parents, our impromptu meteorologists, and consulting my radar app on my phone, we realized that the freezing rain was going to keep following us until Kansas City, our original stopping point for the night. We decided it would be best if we kept pushing on and stopped in Des Moines, Iowa.
In the middle of our drive as he was sleeping Thomas’ nose started to bleed, Elin woke up one more time to go potty, and we considered stopping until we saw cars coming up behind us covered in ice. We also got a text message from one of Mike’s co workers that was making the same drive but got out of town a bit later and they were driving through freezing rain about 2 hours behind us. That was all we needed to push on. We arrived at the hotel about 1 a.m. (I think) got everyone inside and we were all quickly asleep. It was a long 12 hours in the car, but it totally could have been worse!
Once we woke up we had breakfast and then got ready to get the kids into the pool. That is when the key situation happened. Somehow between breakfast and Mike running out to the car, the keys were misplaced, and we thought Elin may have flushed them in the toilet. After we both calmly frantically searched it wasn’t until I was on the phone with my parents and Mike was calling the dealership; that I thought to check by our breakfast area. Low and behold, they were in the coffee machine! Elin, seriously? So then we regrouped, cancelled the tow truck and got the kiddos in their swimming suits. While Mike took them swimming, I took Stella outside for some exercise. We then loaded up and were on the road for our last 3.5 hours in the car to Woodbury, MN.
We had one potty break and filled up on gas and then the kiddos, both exhausted from swimming, took naps until we pulled into Nana and Papa’s house. We had safely made it to Minnesota and the first 16 hour road trip wasn’t that bad, in fact I would say it was pretty easy, but it made me nervous our trip back to Texas would be more difficult. Anyway onto MN freezing cold, snow, and family adventures!
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