Every summer my home town throws a party known as the Smoky Hill River Festival. It's always the 2nd weekend in June.
My Board meetings are always the 2nd Monday of the month. Most of the time, my Board meeting falls on the Monday after the Festival, which means I can't make the long trip home. Well, okay, I suppose I could. But I don't like to miss Board meetings if I can avoid it. If you only met with your boss 12 times a year, I'm sure you'd feel the same way.
This year, though, my Board meeting fell on the Monday before the River Festival, so we decided we'd make the trip to Kansas for a long weekend of music and sun and fun in the park with my mom. It was Annabel's birthday weekend, too - our original reason to party!
So Jon reserved a minivan and a room at the kennel for Jake, and we started plotting our trip.
I think we're starting to get good at this road trip thing. We've been making long-ish trips with Otto since he was a baby. He's now a seasoned road warrior, and we figured tossing Annabel into the mix wouldn't be much different. We knew, for example, that there was no way on God's green earth that we were going to make a 14-hour drive without a lot of stops, plus an overnight stop, each way. We figured we could make Effingham, IL (about 6 hours) the first night if we left around supper time. Once the kids fell asleep we would have a few hours of quiet drive time before stopping. And on the way home we wanted to go through Des Moines and see family. Trip planning? Done!
We wanted to do something for Bel's birthday on Saturday, and I Googled the big Salina grocery store to find it had been bought out by Kroger. This was good! This meant I knew I could get good cupcakes, and other yummy things, like I do here at home. I ordered a small batch of invitations from Tiny Prints (am loving them, they also did her announcements), and set my mom the task of getting plates, napkins, etc. Party planning? Done!
We planned to leave on Wednesday, late afternoon, after I finished a meeting at work. So Wednesday Jon ran errands (minivan, etc.) while I worked at home and ran last-minute loads of laundry. We packed pretty light, safe in the knowledge that we could wash stuff at mom's (yay). I remembered to pack a separate duffle with our gear for the overnight stay in Effingham.
And then we started packing the toys... the DVD player... the books and crayons and Matchbox cars and action figures. Each child had his/her own toy bag full of good things, a blankie, and a pillow. We loaded the cooler with ice, YoBaby, juice boxes, Coke and sparkly water. We remembered Otto's box of Fruity Cheerios (it's a new addiction). We remembered books and computers for ourselves, too. We moved car seats, packed everything and everyone in, and headed out.
Several hours later, I was dozing in the way-back of the minivan (within reach of both kids) while Jon drove. Through the big windows I saw lightening flare... and then the storm started. Wind, sideways sheets of rain, semis throwing buckets of water on the windshield -- for some reason Jon didn't think that was much fun, but he got us safely to our hotel. At 2am. Or was it 3? It was somewhere between 1 and 4, I know that much.
Of course both children woke up as we carried them in. I looked up from unpacking to find Otto jumping on the bed and Annabel grinning for all she was worth while holding onto his pajama pants and standing next to him. I've never seen him jump on a bed before or since, so whatever wild hair possessed him at 3am... I don't know. Bel certainly enjoyed it. Despite this we all eventually went to sleep, and made it out of bed the next morning in time to get our free breakfast (Annabel had toast, scrambled egg, and banana; Otto had Fruity Cheerios). We were back on the road by 10.
We buzzed through St. Louis, and I made it past Columbia before we had to take another big break. Everyone was on their best behavior. As the day went on our breaks came more frequently, but we got to my mom's house in pretty good time.
Friday we headed to the park, where Otto discovered the Lego tables. He's such a smart cookie - he didn't dive right into the middle of things. He stood off to the side for a few minutes and watched everyone, then picked the group of boys that had collected the best pile of Lego pieces, walked over, and said "hi!" After that we couldn't tear him away. So we set up camp under a shady tree near his post and took turns wandering off to look at crafts and grab lunch while he played. Hours later, we finally made him go to the kids tent to watch a clown show. He laughed so hard that people were laughing at him rather than the clown. We headed home in time for dinner, only slightly sunburned (I remembered to pack a fresh tube of sunscreen, too!).
Saturday morning I bounced out of bed and headed to Dillons to assemble everything for the party. Evidently I was a super-early bird, which is a strange feeling for me. Nothing was quite ready - the baguettes hadn't yet gone in the oven, the deli salads were just being made, etc. But I persevered! and headed home with everything we needed to make chicken kabobs and bruschetta. By noon we were at the park, the grill was hot, and friends were helping assemble the kabobs. Mmm... after lunch, Annabel got to have her birthday cupcake. Actually, she got two cupcakes. But the vanilla came in a distant second to the chocolate cupcake, which she devoured in a steady, rather thoughtful manner. We went home, slightly sticky, to change clothes and rest.
That evening we camped out for a couple of hours by Stage 2. The weather was gorgeous all weekend, so it was no hardship to sit under a shady tree and listen to great music. Annabel danced. We blew bubbles and played with the beach ball. We headed over to the main stage to listen to the Fabulous Thunderbirds for a bit, but didn't stay late. And all weekend we ran into friends old and new, some of them people I hadn't seen since high school. It was lovely.
Sunday was recovery time -- we stayed home most of the day, relaxing.
And Monday we were back in the van. After breakfast, Otto asked his grandma for some tape to close his precious box of Fruity Cheerios. We packed everything up, and by dinnertime we were at Meredith and Bob's house in Des Moines. Otto asked to go to the basement the minute we hopped out of the van, which confused me until I realized he remembered that Leo's toys are downstairs. He has a good memory, that kid. Makes me worry about what he'll remember from this time of his life when he's an adult! Leo was great about sharing, and everyone had a good time until we made them get back in the van (ahhh! torture!!!) and head to the hotel.
Tuesday morning we got to have breakfast with Grandpa Steve at the Drake Diner, one of my favorite hangouts while I was at school. The kids were pretty rambunctious, and hours later I looked at myself in a mirror and realized I'd gotten blue crayon down the back of my pants (Annabel spilled the crayons all over the booth seat). We got on the road and slowly, painfully, started the last leg of our trip home. We stopped and stopped again, twice because poor Bel had thrown up. Otto was fractious. The drive dragged on and on. It was dark, and late, when I felt the van swerve hard and heard bad words coming from Jon in the front. I was in the way back again with the kids, so I really felt the van sway. I thought at first he'd fallen asleep, but no -- he'd just avoided hitting a deer.
Twenty minutes later he swore and swerved again, this time taking out a raccoon. We decided after that to give the Toyota Sienna high marks for handling and ground clearance.
A bit later we were home, thank God, unloading sleeping children and bag after bag of gear. Jon returned the van, caught a cab home, and we fell into bed.
We're still recovering. I need to finish unpacking and put the luggage away. Jon and I could use about a week's worth of uninterrupted sleep. But it was a great trip! Getting to spend a week with the kids was wonderful. Otto's vocabulary is pretty impressive -- he learned the word "arguing" while on the trip, and picked funny little fights with my mom just so he could tell her they were arguing. Bel's getting good at walking, and Monday morning she called Jon "Adah" for Daddy. Her little birthday party was just right, and gave us special time to see some of our dearest family friends. If we could've done anything better, it would've been nice to have a little more time for the trip home. It would've been great to spend a day in Des Moines.
Maybe next time!
