The
equation in the title is how I spent the last week of Thanksgiving
holiday. It’s been a whirlwind tour of
the greater southeast and sleep has been deeply sacrificed for the sake of
family and football but all was worth it.
I’ll sleep tomorrow. (aka: tomorrow never comes)
The kids
and I flew last Wednesday to Alabama to spend a few days and meet my new
nephew. He was a month old and I hadn't seen him yet! We had a direct flight into Huntsville
Alabama and Dad met us there. They have
a (super nice!) new car but it lacks the third row so when I pile in with my
crew, it’s at capacity with just the driver.
With 3 kids in tow, traveling light is a thing of the past. Let’s be
honest, I’ve never known much about traveling light to begin with! We spent the next few days taking over moms
house and destroying it. Me and my 3
kids, including 2 unruly boys and my crawling infant and throw in my sisters
newborn and her high maintenance diva (my niece Allie Gray!) and it was…FUN! Even the sleeping arrangements were a
logistical nightmare because while the boys have gotten great at sleeping
anywhere, infants and toddlers require their own sleeping space and newborns
wake up several times a night. Nine
people in a 3 bedroom house can get a little crowded! It was so fun to have all the cousins
together. They boys adore Allie Gray and
baby Wyatt was a cute little thing.
Lillian just hung around on someone’s hip with her tongue stuck
out! She is the happiest baby! We went to the nature trail, had a shower for
baby Wyatt and Tracie and I dropped the kids every chance we got and went
shopping. We are really great at
shopping together!
On Sunday we had lofty plans! We took the whole motley crew to Nashville
because we got tickets to see The Radio City Rockettes at the Grand Ole
Opry! We have been before but this
would be dad and the boys first time to
go! It took 3 cars to drive us there
(Miss Marie was with us also!) and it was also Christmas season at the largest
Mall in Nashville. It was pretty hectic
and it was raining to boot! Mom would be
sitting this one out and she was tasked with babysitter extraordinaire! She kept baby Wyatt (4 weeks), Lady Lillian
(9 months) and Allie Gray (2) while we went to the show. She “borrowed” a hotel room from a friend
that was staying at the Opryland Hotel and we got back to her just before she
went crazy! Not many Nana’s could have
handled that kind of chaos in a foreign place but she rocked it! We took the quick tour of the Opryland Hotel
and soon realized it’s impossible to move around with that many people in
tow! We shut it down and headed home for
a late arrival! It was really fun, and
yes, probably crazy!
On
Monday, we planned or Christmas Card photos to be taken in the afternoon. We started getting the kids ready and somehow
time got away from us and we left an hour later than we should have. The lighting is crucial to photos so we were
rushed to get to our perfect picture spot.
We loaded up the props, the kids and hit the high road. Mom may have used her speedy new vehicle to
pass a car or two along the way! We got
to the spot and parked seconds before a train comes through in the back yard of
our spot. It’s loud horn scares poor
Lillian to death! She cries and has to
be coddled. I then have to spend time threatening
the boys with their blow pop (the reward) to do as we ask in positioning. Only 5 photos have been snapped in succession
when Jackson proclaims “she smells funny!?”
Yep, you guessed it. Lillian has
a dirty diaper of the WORST kind. It’s
already escaped her diaper and soaked her ruffle leggings. We go to the car only to discover we failed
to bring a diaper in our rush out the door!
We have to get creative and use tissue to clean her up and used a Walmart bag as a makeshift diaper
apparatus to protect the car seat while we make a mad dash back home. Needless to say, we assumed this photo
session was a BUST and planned to try
again the next morning.
Fast forward to
the next morning and I drag all the kids back out and quickly realize that the
boys are not as willing to participate in photos round 2. Its also COLD so Lillian isn’t happy to begin
with. I make threats and blow horns and
carry on in an attempt to distract everyone and make her smile. Photographing 3 kids is NO JOKE! It’s a wonder the police weren’t called. We torture everyone for a short time
longer. Forcing the boys to smile and me
dropping Lillian in the middle of them only to have her loose it when her feet
touch down. We all leave cold and tired.
Tuesday
was our family Thanksgiving and the last time I will see them all this year. We did what most families do at holidays
(minus the Turkey and stuffing). We went
with BBQ this year and you won’t hear me complaining!
Wednesday
was our return trip to Houston. Lillian
was less than perfect on this flight.
She has a cold and I think it caused the pressure to build in her
ears. She cried starting about halfway through
the 1.5 hour flight. I was sitting in
the two seats right in front of the boys at the VERY back of the plane. I was struggling with her trying everything
in my power to satisfy her and the boys were acting up a little. They have a way of getting louder and louder
just to test the limits. At some point
they were aggravating each other and got too loud and I turned around and
firmly told them to “SHUT UP!” No, it
wasn’t my proudest parenting moment but sometimes, when your two boys are too
loud on an airplane you just do what you gotta do. I got to the point and it worked (for about 5
minutes). Soon after that, the nice lady
from in front of me came and sat beside me.
She asked if there was any way she could help me with Lillian. I was happy to give her a go at it and the
presence of a stranger did distract her for a few moments. As we continued to talk she expressed her
condolences about how it’s tough to travel alone with kids. I told her, no kidding! I’ve got those two back there too. She seemed surprised and laughed and said “Oh,
so who’s back there with them?” I
chuckled and said “nobody, that’s why I had to tell them to shut up a minute
ago!” She then told me she heard that
and she just assumed I was talking to the baby!! GREAAAT!
Now I’m the mom with loud kids on the plane AND I tell my baby to shut
up! I was ever so grateful to land deep
in the heart of Texas!
We were
picked up and had to immediately go home and repack. We were heading to New Iberia, LA that same
night! Going on week 2 of traveling with
kids, I had to repack the things the kids needed, drop off the dog at the
boarders and prep the house for another 4 days away. We knew it would be late but we hit the road
to Louisiana and arrived at the Ramada Inn just before midnight. Thanksgiving was by far the most peaceful and
restful day we had over the holiday. We
ate and sat and ate again. It was
perfect weather on the LA bayou where Jason’s parents just bought a house. The boys loved fishing and tossing things
into the bayou water. On Friday, Jason
and I headed to Alabama. We were gifted
with tickets to the Iron Bowl game by his Aunt and Uncle. We tried to think of reasons and excuses not
to go. It wasn’t our smartest adult
decision but neither of us could find it in us to turn those tickets down. So what if it meant a 10+ hour drive on
Sunday before heading back into work, THIS GAME is worth it. Saturday is game day and while we didn’t have
to leave early we had another couple of hours drive before we get to Tuscaloosa. The game was a nail bitter as usual. You can never ever tell who may or may not
win that game. It could (and HAS) come
down to the last second! Hahah. Yall, that joke will never EVER get old! It wasn’t the outcome I had wanted but Jason
was happy and I was just glad to see Auburn show up! At least we got home early. As in 2am early. We had less than 5 hours to sleep.
Sunday
started the reverse marathon. We left
Montgomery at 8am headed for Birmingham with a quick stop. We passed Tuscaloosa before most of the folks
that went to the game had slept off their hangover. We spent ALL day trudging through Mississippi
and just after sun down we got back to the kids. I had never left Lillian and I
had missed her BAD! She was just happy
to be as usual and stuck her tounge out the whole time. We made haste getting out of LA and hit the
long road back to Houston. We arrived home just before midnight and happily
declared no more travel this year! It
took me a week just to recover enough to write the blog!
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