Family Vacation : The Drive...

So...this morning at 2:30 am our alarm sounded and after going to bed only 4 hours before, we got up and finished getting ready to head out to our first ever family vacation.  It took a bit longer to get ready so instead of our planned 3am departure it was actually 4am...but no worries, we were on the road.  We were driving to Idaho, for a week in a cabin near the lake!  The kids were carried from their beds to the car, where we hoped they would stay asleep non-the wiser for a couple more hours.

The best laid plans, Daniel awoke, but stayed mainly dazed and confused until by the lull of the road he nodded off to sleep again, Holden on the other hand, was chatting it up.  Something the sleep deprived, coffee drinking parents had not prepared for...finally after an hour or so of talking, he fell asleep, but not before uttering the first of many, "Are we almost there?"  Tom thought we should count the number, I did not...it was MANY.

They were both awake sometime between 6 and 7 their normal wake up times...I was armed with several toys and books, including some new activity stuff for Holden which he loved!  Around 730 we stopped at a dreaded McDonalds, I cringe just thinking about it...but seriously in small town America, it was the only open building serving food in a town which you would miss if you blinked.  SO we did it.

Again, we were on the road, Daniel slept on and off most of the ride...screaming a bit every so often but really for a one year old who is just walking and moves constantly he did amazing!  The ride took us almost 13 hours with all of our stops...Holden was a rockstar as well...we had borrowed a DVD player and we didn't bring it out until we were somewhere in the lower east corner of Oregon, right before we crossed over the Idaho border...and then, well and then we didn't hear "Are we almost there" again! 

We stopped for a late lunch in Boise about 2 hours from our destination...it was a good call, Daniel screamed for a half and hour before we stopped, we needed to get out.  We found this place through the LocalEats App (love the iphone:-)) it is called Pizzalchik.  They were having something they called Pizzalstock, basically there was a minimum order, totally not much, and live music...so we had some pizza, beer, and some live music.  Daniel was clapping his hands and loving it, Holden liked it for a while, but eventually he put his hands over his ears and he was done!

As we headed out of the parking lot I was trying to navigate for Tom and Holden and I had a little conversation that went a little something like this,
Holden: Mom, turn on Horton...
Me: Just a minute Holden I am navigating for dad, let me get us on the road first, I can't do everything!
Holden:  BUT you have TWO hands mom!

About 2 hours later we rolled into McCall...it's a great town, Holden took his only other nap at the end of the trip, for probably the last half hour...after a minor tantrum over not being able to watch ANOTHER movie!  He was somewhat appeased with an I spy game that included cows, farm sprinklers, shacks, lakes, islands, and much more, until I realized there was no more "I spying" coming from him...he was in dreamland:-)

We found the cabin easily and have settled in, the boys are sleeping and soon we will be too!  What a great time we are going to have!  Thanks to Tom who drove the whole way!