Plane or Road Trip?

Yesterday, we travelled from Texas to NJ. We left the house at around 9AM and didn't get into our hotel room until almost 7PM. What a long day! Our flight was non-stop, which was convenient from the standpoint of not having to get off the plane and roam around some strange airport looking for our connecting flight with four kids in tow. Three and a half hours, however, is too long to be on a plane with at 13 month old! At first I thought it would go well. We got on the plane and after 5-10 minutes (it felt endless) of wrestling with the little man, he went to sleep. He was asleep for a little more than an hour, and he seemed happy, at first. He ate the leftovers from my Chicken Caesar Wrap from lunch. He drank his milk. Then, he started getting upset when he had trouble pulling the window shade open and closed. He got upset that he couldn't roam around the plane cabin like he wanted to. DH thought he was tired again, so he tried to get him to sleep. After an hour and a half or so of wrestling, he stopped trying. Sigh--he needed more sleep.

At the end of the flight, DD and DS#2 were feeling sick and had the barf bags poised and ready next to their faces. Luckily, although I'm prone to motion sickness also, I felt okay, so I took the baby in my lap while DH tended to the middle two. Why is it that the only child who isn't prone to motion sickness is the one who doesn't like roller coasters? The middle two love rollercoasters, but unfortunately, they inherited this little problem of motion sickness from me. So anyway, that part of the trip wasn't very fun either.

We got off the plane, picked up our checked luggage, then headed to the car rental place. Since we have so many people in our family, we have to rent a mini-van whenever we go anywhere. That really drives up the price of travel for us. The first mini-van that they gave us had the "check oil" light on, so we had to get another one. All of this just made the trip that much longer. When we got on the freeway on our way to the hotel, which was about 50 or so miles away, there was bumper-to-bumper traffic. Ah, the joys of traveling in the Northeast.

Some time during the driving part of our trip, DS#3 ran out of milk and was very unhappy about it, so we exited where one of the signs indicated that there was a McDonald's--except that after a mile or so there was still no McDonald's, so we pulled into a KFC. Did you know that KFC doesn't have milk? *SIGH* So, we pulled into the Burger King next door. We give DS#3 the milk, he takes a few big swigs of his sippy cup, and then he throws the cup to the floor. ACK! Oh well, at least we're on our way again, after the boys take their potty break and DH gets himself an iced coffee drink.

After we checked into our hotel, we went to the place where my cousin and his bride were having their rehearsal dinner. My Mom's family is close enough that whenever they have a child getting married, the whole extended family is invited to the rehearsal dinner. There were probably at least 100 people there. It was really very heartwarming to walk into that big room and immediately be greeted by all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Of course, I was carrying DS#3, so they were probably drawn by his cuteness. ;-) The rest of the night, he was being entertained by my sisters or my Mom.

DD was playing with her cousins (my sisters' girls) dancing on the dance floor (even when there wasn't any music). They also loved dancing with their 18-month old second cousin. The older boys mostly played with my nephew. The kids all sat at one table and DH and I sat at a table with my sisters, brother-in-law, and my favorite aunt and uncle with my grown cousin. Everyone at the dinner remarked on how tall DS#1 was, even his 16-year-old second cousin, who was only a couple of inches taller. Everyone remarked on how good-looking DS#2 was, and how pretty DD was, and of course, how cute DS#3 was. We left when DS#3 started screaming more frequently from being so tired. It was a very long day, and still, DS#3 fought going to sleep. This day just made us wonder if traveling by car or by plane would have been easier. We'll have to see when we make the trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa this summer.

Tomorrow--details from the wedding...