2012 Vacation Day Four: The open road

Monday July 2nd started out right at midnight for Brandon.  He and I had laid down for a quick nap at 10:00 PM.  At 12:00 he got up and started packing the jeep.  He started out by laying out our brand-new car top carrier on the living room floor.  Then he figured how to fit 2 pack-n-plays, 4 sleeping bags, many small blankets, 2 camp chairs, tons of back up diapers and wipes, and an air mattress into the 15 square feet of space.  Once that was figured out he took it all out, fastened the carrier onto the top of the jeep, and put everything back.  Then it was time to figure out how to get everything else to fit in the jeep.

At 2:00 am I woke up and "helped" Brandon finish playing Tetris with our stuff.  Actually he was so in the zone he really didn't need my help.  I brought things out to him and mostly stayed out of the way.  Around 2:45 we got the kids up, gave the girls bottles, and put everyone in the car.  After a quick prayer for safety we started driving.  We were on the road by 3:00  

We left early because we were going to be travelling on I-80 and we wanted to get as much of boring Wyoming out of the way before the kids woke up.  Lydia fell right back to sleep, but Charlotte stayed a wake for a while.  We made it all the way to the Little America before the sun came up and the kids really woke up.  We stopped at the Little America because one of the many signs said there was s play ground there.  The girls got out and played on the play ground for a little bit while I nursed Derrick.

We changed the kids diapers and got them all dressed.  The girls love to help throw away their diapers.  Brandon gave each of them their diaper and walked with them over to the garbage.  It was so cute.  The diapers were so big they had to use both their hands to hold them.  And they were so serious about doing their job.  As soon as both diapers were thrown away the sprinklers came on and started getting the girls wet.  I just sat in the car and laughed as Brandon picked them up and ran them back to safety.  

We also had breakfast.  We always have bagels and cream cheese on the first day of our road trips so that is what we had.  The girls didn't really like the bagels, but they loved the orange juice we brought.  

There was a beautiful sunrise as we finished getting everything squared away.  Then it was time to be on the road again.

Brandon was getting tired so I took over as driver.  This was actually the first time I've driven on one of our road trips since our first one to Yellowstone.  On that occasion Brandon got us lost in 5 minutes and I was hitting every pot hole.  We decided to always play to our strengths and keep me as navigator and Brandon as pilot-in-command.  But this was an exception because we were in Wyoming and there really was no way we could get lost.  We went through the tunnels in Green River, and that was about the last interesting thing that happened for a few hours.  

The girls road in the car really well.  I think they could sense we were heading some where fun.

They were content to play with their toys, stare out the window, and eat the treats I kept passing back to them.

As far as I know Derrick slept most of the time.  But he might have been playing with his sisters.

Wyoming is a boring boring state when you are on I-80.  There is nothing.  Further compounding the problem was that the radio stations are also boring.  If I had a station there I would play crazy dance music to keep people awake.  But all I could find on the radio was a bunch of slow jazz and talk.  It was so hard to stay awake.  After an hour of driving Brandon took over again and I slept.

Eventually we made it to Rawlings and found a park so the girls could run around.  Charlotte wanted her doll with her and Lydia wanted a book (not pictured) with her.  There was a big train that the girls could play on. They had fun throwing rocks at it.  There were also some fun slides.  We stayed at the park for about an hour.  We finally left when Charlotte fell off a small rock wall she'd climbed up.

It was close to nap time so we gave the girls bottles.  Charlotte fell asleep right away.

Lydia stayed up and ate Twizzlers.  You can see that the girls had stolen our hats.

Here's an example of how boring Wyoming is:  This mountain was the most interesting scenery to show up after hours of driving.  It's also an example of how smoky the air was from the High Park fire in Colorado.

The girls were still hanging in there, but they needed more toys to keep them entertained.

The last 45 minutes to Fort Collins were the hardest.  Derrick was crying and the girls were whimpering.  We would have stopped to let them run around, but we weren't sure we could get them back in the car again.  We just pushed on.

I was driving as we entered Fort Collins.  This was a mistake because suddenly Brandon needed to give me directions.  After back tracking once we finally found my sister Emily's apartment.  The kids were so happy to get out of the car.  It was about 1:00 and we had been on the road for 10 hours.

After eating lunch and talking for a little bit, Emily and David took all the kids outside to play while Brandon and I took naps.

David is working on his Masters degree at Colorado State.  They live in on campus housing.  Their little courtyard has it's own playground.  It has sand in it and the girls loved playing in the sand.

They had a good time getting to know their cousin Asher again.

This is really the first time all three of them have been able to play together.

Back in the apartment Brandon, Derrick, and I continued to take naps.  We were very grateful that Emily and David would let us catch up on our sleep.

After Brandon and I woke up we went and checked into our hotel.  Emily and David would have let us stay in their living room, but we knew we would be too road weary to want to worry about setting up and air mattress and the pack-n-plays.  So I'd made reservations at the Comfort Inn.  They provided us with a King size bed and two roll in cribs. The room was so big I couldn't get a picture of both cribs at the same time.  

We went back to Emily's and had some amazing BBQ pizza.  I can't believe how much I ate.

Then Emily and David took us to old town Fort Collins and showed us around.

It was a really cute city.

Emily says that they have free concerts in this area on Friday nights.

Last year Emily got a picture here with our other sisters so we took a picture here together.

Emily also wanted to go in the store so we left the guys with 4 of the 5 kids and went inside.

Then we went to a little splash park.  Charlotte was so excited to play in the water.

She ran around with Asher and tried to touch all the water she could.  She screamed, jumped, shrieked, and had the best time of her life.  Lydia on the other hand was fast asleep in the stroller.

Derrick was awake and enjoyed watching his sister play in the water.

Charlotte just kept going and going and going. She'd squeal every time the water came out of the ground.

Even Bridger had fun in the water.

I think this park made the whole car ride worth it for Charlotte.  (By the way, her shirt says: I'm on vacation)

Lydia woke up, but she didn't want anything to do with the water.  She just stayed with her Daddy.

It started getting dark and a little cold so we put the kids in the car and we all went to the hotel to swim in the pool there.  Based on the girls earlier behavior I expected Charlotte to enjoy the pool while Lydia wouldn't want to get in.  But instead they completely switched attitudes.  Charlotte was scared of the deep water and didn't enjoy being in it at all. Lydia on the other hand couldn't get enough of it.  

Both girls did enjoy when we would stand in the middle and say "one, two, three" and then lift them out of the water.  But soon Charlotte got scared of that too (which is why Brandon was out of the pool and took this picture.)

Asher and Bridger both loved the water.  Emily said it was the perfect temperature for them.

Lydia started standing on the edge and would jump into my arms.  She did this again and again.  Charlotte just sat on the edge and kicked her legs in the water.  Brandon entertained Charlotte by showing her how he could swim.  He was a few feet away from her when she decided to copy Lydia and  jump into the water.  The only problem was there was no one to catch her.  She went right into the water and sank.  Luckily, Brandon got to her quickly and she was just fine, but she was done with the whole swimming thing.

And what did Derrick do?  Well, he sat in his chair and watched us the whole time.  I had him in a swim diaper just in case we felt it would be safe to have 5 kids in the water with only 4 adults, but we never felt that safe.  He was just fine watching us.

We went back to our room and gave the girls a quick bath in the tub.  Then we put them in bed.  They fell asleep immediately.  

 I was worried that they would have a hard time sleeping in the same room as us, but that wasn't a problem at all.  Derrick fell asleep pretty fast too (he slept on a blanket on the floor) and so Brandon and I were able to get to sleep without any drama from the kids.  Thank goodness too because we were tired after such a busy day!