First of all, as a reminder - they're almost two ! (6/15 is their birthday) I say that to remind you (or warn you) of their current "stage" in life - some would argue not the #1 time to take a vacation : ) Not if you know me - some call it stubborn.....I call it "recklessly foolish"!
We decided to just go to Pittsburgh. It's "only" 2.5 hrs away, has a great zoo, lots of things to see and do, etc. Well, so far we're at 1am on the first night away with us and they're sleeping (for now) and Christi and I are both living (although she's curled up asleep and I'm like a kid on Christmas waiting for tomorrow's trip to the zoo!). The day sort of went like this....
We all got up normal time and ate breakfast and got ready. For the most part, everything was packed and ready to go out the door. We left the house about 10ish and assumed to be in Pittsburgh around 1:30 (with a lunch stop....12:30 if not). The road here was not as bad as I worried. We did have to bust out the portable DVD player (thanks J&L!), but this much was expected. They got antsy after about an hour and a half so we decided to take our opportunity to get lunch at 11:45. We ate at Chik-Fil-A (one of ours/their fav places) and got some curious stares/conversations from the lunch crowd. I admit, it had to look pretty funny with me going in and out of there 3 times with a different kid going into the bathroom to change diapers! We sat down for lunch with them - no excitement other than the constant moving of the table....then back on the road to PB.
We got to the hotel with few other incidents and they reacted "normally" to walking into a strange environment that we'd call "home" for the next few nights. The in-room safe was a big hit....constantly pushing buttons and getting "error code" for the wrong security password : ) Our place has a kitchen and living suite, separate bedroom and bath. We had to unplug the TV b/c of all the off/on button-pushing, I thought it was going to blow up! (it's a tube TV).
Our trip to Ikea didn't go nearly as smoothly. This was supposed to be a leisurely visit to a store Christi liked and then go to a decent restaurant (decent = not fast food).....oops! Our trip started with poor directions. It took us to a rougher area of PB and out the wrong way from downtown! I made a bunch of calls and asked for directions and we got further and further in the wrong direction. I'll spare the directions details.....it was supposed to be a 30 min drive - it was 1 hour, 45 mins.....not traffic-related. Now, in the meantime, the kids were sick of being in the car and behaving horribly. At one point, Christi got Logan and Ella asleep, but Paul was having a MELTDOWN fit nearly the entire way there! You could imagine that we were already frustrated with the directions-issue, but to add the cranky/loud kid in the back was threatening to cancel the entire trip.....seriously.
After taking that long to get there, it was already dinner time and we couldn't really skip/postpone b/c the kids were hungry. We decided to go somewhere familiar to make menu choices easy - the Olive Garden. I have to say that this was one of the best experiences for us as a family so far! The kids were wonderful - cooperative, eating, laughing, everything (pics to come). Additionally, OG was great - service and food was excellent!
This experience got us through the aisles of Ikea eventually and we made our way "home" with better directions (32 mins!). A re-arrangement of the living suite to fit 3 pack-n-plays, PJs and a quick snack and the kids were in "bed". Slight problem is that they are used to fussing/crying themselves to sleep for 10-15 mins at home. Well, it turns out hotel neighbors don't appreciate that method of bedtime! Long story short, I decided to just sleep with them on the couch until they fell asleep so they would be quiet. I just woke up about 30 mins ago and by that time Christi was asleep and I felt like writing : )
Let's hope the rest of the night goes alright.....I hear someone rustling around now.
Paul
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