DADDY!!!

We were all SO excited to be driving down to see David on Friday! Thursday night, it took Jacob ESPECIALLY a VERY long time to fall asleep. I was busy packing and getting everything ready, and he kept calling out to me "is it the middle of the night yet, Mommy?" They knew we were leaving in the middle of the night, and he just could hardly stand it!!

I didn't get out the door as early as I had hoped. I had hoped to be on the road by 4 AM, but it ended up being 4:30 AM. Things take longer (as I've already said) when there's only 1 parent loading a car. And when that 1 parent is pregnant, good grief!! I couldn't pack the car the night before because I had to load the cooler with all David's freezer meals in it first, so it was all done that morning. PLUS, I had to make sure the house was left in spit spot order to be shown. So as I'm picking up kids out of their beds to put them in the car, I was making beds behind them.

The drive went really well. I like doing long trips like this. The kids sleep for the first bit, I'm able to get a few hours knocked out, we stop and eat, then only have a few hours left. We stopped at a McD's for breakfast - actually, we stopped to play on the indoor playground! I have decided that the best strategy is to stop somewhere with an indoor playground, go potty, and let the kids play for 30 minutes. I eat my breakfast, then load them all back up in the car and give them their food to eat. They'd much rather play than eat at a table, and it gets their energy out.

Anyways, the drive was great. The kids are really such great travellers. It's a 6 hour drive, our stop was about an hour (to get kids dressed from pjs to clothes, clean out the car to get toys and books where they are supposed to be, eat/play, then back situated in car with food in lap and movie turned on for big boys). The boys watched 1 video, and colored & looked at books most of the other time. Callie read books and doctored her babies for the trip. And talked and talked and talked to me. They were great.

We got to David's around 11:30 am - we were SO excited to see him, and so excited to still have the whole day ahead of us! We went and got some subs for lunch and took them to the Lake Murray Park. There's actually a huge dam there that you drive over, and it has a walking/running/bike trail over it too (can't wait to do that). But by the water, there's some fake "beach" front with sand and shallow water. We ate a picnic and the kids played. It was so nice to be able to sit with David and know that there were 2 of us again! Especially when one of the kids had to go potty - he could take Jacob and I didn't have to pack up all of us to go to the bathroom! So nice!

We headed over to our hotel that the kids and I were staying at to get checked in, and we ALL turned in for naps. It felt SO good to sleep for a bit!!! After we all woke up and got changed, we headed to a Japanese Hibachi place for dinner. It's one of David's favorites, and so we got to celebrate our reunion...plus David's birthday is next week and we're going to miss it! It was a GREAT day!!!

Callie woke up first, but David picked her up and layed back down with her and she fell back asleep. She was SO glad to have her daddy back!

These boys were SACKED out too!

Well hello, pretty girl!!!

Does Jacob look excited to be back with daddy or what? He was SO wound up most of the day - just could hardly contain his excitement!!! He loved watching the food be prepared, but only ate a few bites. Again, I think he just was SO excited!

Callie THOROUGHLY enjoyed the dinner. She ate every bite she was given. This is her enjoying the soup that you get to start out the meal. Josiah enjoyed it too - Jacob wouldn't even try it.

You can't really tell in the picture, but this is Callie actually EATING the salad with ginger dressing. Neither of the boys can STAND lettuce yet....she loved it!

The volcano - everyone's favorite...

And this is what Callie did when the volcano fire appeared...

Jacob enjoyed his chopsticks, but didn't use them a whole bunch!

Josiah did great - loved eating with his chopsticks (even I don't bother with that!), even loved the dipping sauces they gave him. He tried the zucchini (not his favorite) and broccoli, but very much enjoyed the fried rice and chicken. Even ate up some shrimp and steak that David shared with him!

We stopped at a McD's for ice cream cones on the way home. I don't know how the kids had rom in their bellies for it. David and I were stuffed!

Oops - no picture of Jacob and his ice cream?