Alabama to Utah Roadtrip

Around the 2000 mile mark for my roadtrip from Alabama to Utah I came up with a pretty good analogy for what it's like to travel that far with little kids.  It's a lot like childbirth.  It's messy and uncomfortable, you end up screaming more than you planned, you are exhausted before it's over, you say and do things you never imagined, it's probably the very worst when it's almost over, and if you ever choose to do it again it won't be for a long time. 

But it's all worth it because the feelings of accomplishment and empowerment are amazing.    

Think about it, I successfully completed a 2100 mile drive from Alabama to Utah - with four kids under the age of five. That's a pretty impressive feat - especially since I was the only adult in my car the entire time.  

I want to celebrate my success with a blog post.  I'm going to warn you, this is a long post, but that's because it was a long drive.  I wanted to capture a little bit of the feeling of what it's like to drive across the county.  One of my favorite things about road trips is watching the land change as you drive.  So I made sure to take pictures of the landscape.  In a perfect world I would have stopped and composed the perfect shot along the side of the road and waited until the lighting was just right.  But there was absolutely no way that was going to happen. So instead you get pictures taken at 75 miles per hour through my bug covered windows.  I wont be winning any photography awards, but I'm okay with that.   

As with all my plans from the past several months this roadtrip had several different versions.  At first we thought that Brandon might be able to go on the whole trip with me.  Then it turned into him flying out to Utah after I was already there.  And now unfortunately his training schedule isn't letting him go at all.  

Fortunately I have some pretty great sisters who can help me out.  My sister Lindsey was also planning to drive to Utah so we decided to caravan from Houston together. And my sister Hillary will be my driving buddy on the way home from Utah. 

But first I had to get to Houston.  The kids and I have been on lots of roadtrips, but we've always had another adult along with us.  My biggest concern has always been how I would stop to go to the bathroom with all the kids in tow.  My second biggest concern was how to check into a hotel with four road weary children.

Since we were driving straight to Lindsey's house I didn't have to worry about a hotel.  The bathroom was still a concern though.  I decided that my best option was to use the bathroom at rest stops.  That way I wouldn't have to take my kids passed all the aisles of expensive snacks inside gas stations.   

On the morning of Friday July 10th Brandon and I packed up all the kids into the car.  We'd stayed up the night before figuring out how to get the seats into the perfect arrangement.  I wanted Charlotte and Veronica up front and Lydia and Derrick in back.  I figured that the twins would be able to hand each other things and help their siblings open water bottles.  It was a little tricky getting it set up so we could still reach Lydia's seat belt buckle.  What worked was to take the little arm rests off of her booster seat.  We also duct taped the buckle to the side of the booster so it wouldn't fall down and get lost under Derrick's car seat.  

We'd said a prayer before getting everyone in the car so all that was left was to say good bye and drive off.  That is until I realized that I didn't have my sunglasses in the car.  So Brandon and I ran back inside to find those.  And then we were off.  

Our car came with a built in DVD player.  That little beauty is the reason my kids can handle road trips so well.  They are perfectly happy to watch movies and snack all day long.  I also cheated and put Charlotte and Lydia into pull ups.  I just didn't want to deal with "mom I have to go to the bathroom" emergencies on this already long drive.  

The first part of the trip was from Fort Rucker to the I-65 that runs through Alabama.  We had to take some country highways and pass through cities.  Going through cities always slows things down. I had to go to the bathroom before we reached the interstate.  That was a problem because there weren't any rest stops.  So I had to face my fear right off the bat and take all four kids into a Loves Travel Stop.  

It actually went okay.  Two kids refused to wear shoes, and Lydia insisted on wearing her costume cape and Charlotte was wearing a tutu over her pants, and Derrick grabbed a can of Pringles as soon as we walked in the store, and there was a huge line at the bathroom.  But we made it there without me peeing my pants.  So it went okay.  After that though we only stopped for bathroom breaks at rest stops.  

The kids needed diaper changes and the bathroom was super crouded and so I just changed everyone in the car.  I filled up the gas tank again even though we weren't even at a half tank and then we were off.     

After we got on the Interstate the trip seemed to go a lot faster.  The interstate looked like how the rest of the south looks - a pine tree tunnel.  

There was an interesting bridge outside of Mobile.

The I-65 ended in Mobile and we got onto the I-10. Before long we were crossing into Mississippi.

The kids were getting antsy and so we stopped at the first rest stop on Mississippi.  The bathroom had a big puddle with rocks in it right outside the door.  Derrick and the other kids spent a lot of time playing with the rocks and the water.  Everyone who had to use the rest room walked passed us and either gave us smiles or quizzical looks.  I was like, "hey we've been in the car for 4 hours and we have at least 5 more left so my kids can do what ever they want right now."  I brought some food from the car and so we had a little lunch right by that puddle.

Then it was back into the car to get gas and then drive across Mississippi.  

And soon we were into Louisiana.

The kids wanted to stop, but I wanted to make it across the Baton Rouge bridge before rush hour.  During our move to Alabama we had been stuck in a traffic jam on that bridge and I really wanted to avoid that.  So I put in another movie for the kids (I got really good at changing movies while driving) and we kept driving to Baton Rouge.  We did get into some heavy traffic before the bridge, but it wasn't as backed up as it had been on our way there.

That bridge is so scary, but at least we were moving faster so we didn't have to inch up the bridge.

Here's the view of the Mississippi River out of my car window.

And here is the top of the bridge.

As soon as we were over the bridge I saw a sign for an information center so I took that exit and we drove there.  We went to the bathroom first and then came back into the lobby to see a giant alagator.  At first I thought it was just a statue but the information lady assured me it had been alive up until a few years ago.

The lady was super nice and didn't mind that my kids were all barefoot.  But I still worried that we'd brake something so we left after only a few minutes.  We headed out to the car and had some more snacks.

Derrick was so good and got into his seat right away.

Lydia took this picture of me.

The information center wasn't busy at all and we'd parked in some shade so I decided that we should get out of the car and play around.  Derrick had brought a ball on the trip and so we got that out and the kids had fun kicking it around.

We stayed there for almost an hour and had a lot of fun with our little break from the car.

Everyone wanted to take a picture with their juice.

We don't normally buy juice so this was a pretty big deal.

I bought little juice boxes so less juice would be waited when the inevitable spilling happened.

Then it was back onto the road.  We got gas and then kept driving west. You can see all the cars stuck waiting to go over the bridge.

Louisiana has lots of wetlands and the interstate goes right over them.  We were on a bridge for miles and miles.

Here we are crossing a lake that had trees growing in the water.

The drive through Louisiana was long and hot.  The air conditioner just couldn't seem to keep up with the hot and humid day.  The sun was shinning on me and I just felt sweaty all over.  Finally we crossed into Texas.  Charlotte and Lydia were super excited to be back in Texas.

We stopped at the first rest stop over the boarder.  The girls had a lot of fun with the hand dryers.

The rest stop had a boardwalk that we could have walked on if we'd been there before 6:00, but it was closed by the time were were there.  So the kids just had fun with the ramp up to the bathroom.

There was a big Texas lone star next to the parking lot.  There had been some people climbing on it when we arrived so the kids wanted to do that.  There were also lots of rocks and that made Derrick very happy.

The girls had a lot of fun climbing up one side of the star and then sliding down the other.

I love this picture of Charlotte.

And this one of Lydia is pretty cute too.

We made another stop at the bathroom before we left.  When we got out we saw two raccoons.

And then once again it was time to get in the car and keep driving. The sun started setting while we drove.

It was dark by the time we made it to Houston.  I'm so glad I am somewhat familiar with that city.  I was able to navigate from the I-10 to the 610 to 290 without much difficulty.  Veronica wasn't happy and cried most of the way.  But all the kids were asleep by the time we arrived at my sister's house around 10:30.

Lindsey and her husband were on a date, but the babysitter knew we were coming.  She opened the door for me when I arrived which was good because I had my arms full.  Rocklond and Knoxx were already in bed and the babysitter had already been paid so she went home.  I brought all the kids in and got them into pajamas.  Charlotte went right back to sleep, but everyone else played around while I brought stuff into the house.

After about 45 minutes we all went to bed.  Veronica slept in a pack in play and I shared the bed with all the kids.  

The next day was nice and relaxing.  We did a little shopping (I got all nostalgic at the HEB), but mostly we just relaxed. Charlotte and Lydia fell asleep on the couch and it looked like Lydia was sleeping in a weird position. 

On Sunday we all went to church and then we came home and started packing.  I packed one suitcase with all the clothes we would need for the next three days.  The other one had all the rest.  Veronica got tired while I was packing so I put her to sleep on the bed.

In the evening we took all the kids for a walk down by the lake. Derrick though it was so funny every time Gretta jumped into the water.

Then we brought the kids back and put them to bed.  Veronica didn't want to sleep in the pack and play so she insisted on sleeping on the bed.

None of the other kids had naps that day so they went to be really easily.  I packed everything into the car, set my alarm for 3:30 and went to sleep on the livingroom couch.

I thought it would be hard to wake up that early, but Veronica actually woke up right around 3:20 so I just got up with her and then started getting ready.  I got dressed and finished packing the car.  Then I woke the kids up enough to put them into new pullups/diapers and then took them out to the car still in their pajamas.  They each got a little bit of food and water.  Lindsey got her kids and car ready and then we were off.  We had to get gas and then at 4:45 we started driving.

The kids all fell back asleep and it was nice to drive without listening to a movie.  When I'd first checked our route on Google maps the driving directions had suggested we go through Fort Hood. I did NOT want to do that.  For one thing I was pretty done with that place.  For another, I've driven that route and I knew it wasn't the fastest way to go.  Instead we got onto Highway 6 and took that to Waco.  The sun rose just outside of Waco.  Lydia woke up and asked if we were still in Texas.  And then she blew kisses in the air when I told her we were.

We made great time up there.  I knew it would be fast, but it only took 2 hours whereas a trip through Fort Hood would have taken 3 hours.  We stopped and had a side of the road breakfast near Lake Waco.  And then we kept going.

This part of the trip wasn't as fast.  We were still on Highway 6, but it went through lots of towns that we had to slow down as we went through.  Finally we made it to the I-20 and were able to quickly cover a lot of miles.  We stopped for lunch at a rest stop outside of Abilene.  I changed all my kids into their clothes for the day.  The rest stop wasn't as nice as the ones along the I-10, but the picnic area was great.

Veronica had a lot of fun with pudding.  (I'd purposely waited to change her clothes until she was done eating.)

And then we got gas and kept driving.  I was very familiar with this part of the drive.  This was the same route we always took to Utah and it had been the way from Utah most times.  This was at least my 6th time on this road.

The drive from Abilene to Lubbock went fast enough.  But from Lubbock to Clovis just dragged.  That's because we had to go through lots of little towns.  I hate slowing down for those towns.

We drove through Clovis and then stopped for gas at a gas station in a little town called Melrose.  This is the place where our jeep broke down when we moved to Texas.  Lindsey had made the 10 hour drive from Houston with Rocklond and Knoxx to come rescue us and take us to Fort Hood.  Then a week later Brandon, the kids and I drove back to fix the jeep.  As we drove up there on this trip I pointed places out to Charlotte and Lydia.  I was like, "that's the McDonalds where we ate with Lindsey, and that's the parking lot where we all slept after Daddy fixed the jeep."  They didn't remember any of that.  They did remember all the trains that went by the place where the jeep broke.
One of those trains made an appearance while we were at the gas station.  Derrick was so happy.  Two trains drove by while we were there.

It was hot so we didn't stay long.  Our goal for the day was Santa Rosa New Mexico.  We'd passed a sign in Clovis that said that Santa Rosa was only an hour away.  I'd warned Lindsey that the sign lied and that we were probably more like 90 minutes away.  But really it was probably a good two hours.  We finally arrived in Santa Rosa and went to our motel. I'd booked us the same room I'd stayed in with my in laws last year.  I was looking forward to the large room with three queen beds.  But when I checked into the motel they said there was a problem with that room.  They offered a room with two queen beds at a discount.  What I should have done was ask for two rooms at the same price as the first one, but I wasn't thinking clearly.  So I took the one room.  For future reference, it's not a good idea to take 6 little kids and 2 adults into a two bed motel room.

Lindsey didn't care though.  She was just happy to have somewhere to lay down.  We made some food in the microwave and they watched TV.  Three of my kids were still pretty hyper so I took them to see the blue hole.  We'd been here the year before, but none of them remembered it.  

The blue hole is a 80 foot deep spring.  I was worried Derrick would jump into it so I took the kids to the little run off stream and they played in that for a long time.

Lydia wanted me to take her picture on the little bridge.

She also found a little butterfly earing.

It started getting dark so we went back to the motel.  The kids settled down and everyone except Veronica went to sleep.  She stayed up while I took a shower and then she finally went to bed around 10:00.  Lindsey and her boys slept in one bed and me and my kids slept in the other.  Surprisingly we all fit. The three older kids slept at the top and Veronica and I shared the bottom.  Veronica woke up crying around 2:00 and didn't stop until I changed her diaper.  Then she fell asleep sprawled across the bottom of the bed.  I didn't want to wake her up so I moved over to the foot of Lindsey's bed.

We'd talked about waking up super early again, but decided against it.  Instead we got up around 5:30 and were on the road by 6:30.  I was happy to be in New Mexico.  It's a pretty state.

I wanted to try out a new route though New Mexico.  Usually we drive to Albuquerque on the I-40 and then go diagonally up to the four corners area.  But that diagonal route's road always seemed rather slow to me.  So this time we stayed on the 40 all the way to Gallup which is on New Mexico's western edge.  Then we traveled straight up the west side of the state.  That seemed to be a lot faster.
  
We stopped at a gas station in Gallup and the kids seemed to need a break from the car.  Lindsey was trying to find a park on her phone when a nice lady asked us if we needed help.  She told us about a park just a few blocks away and even offered to lead us there.  I'm glad we followed her there because we never would have found it.  The park turned out to be amazing.  The kids were so happy to have somewhere to run around.  They disappeared onto the play ground and played for a long time.

Lydia found a bunch of morning glory and picked lots of flowers.

We ate lunch at the park and then started driving again. I was a little worried that this road up the side of New Mexico would be a tiny two lane road, but instead it was a nice divided highway. The scenery was also very pretty.

Our route would take us right by the four corners area and Lindsey and I debated whether or not we should stop at the actual four corners monument.  We'd heard it was pretty lame, but we still wanted to see it.  Lindsey put it best when she said, "We'll always regret it if we don't go.  We still might regret it if we do go, but at least we'll have gone."

Lindsey called the number for the monument and the recording said it would cost $5 per car.  That seemed reasonable.  So we decided to go.

The drive out to the monument was pretty.  Once we got to the monument I saw a sign that said it really cost $5 per person - but luckily that was only for people over the age of 6 so it was still only $5 a car for Lindsey and I.

I was very unimpressed by the monument.  It's on the Navajo Reservation and so they manage it.  And, well, it's no national park.  The parking lot was dirt and then you could walk over to the monument area.  There were shops all around where people sold Indian Jewelry.

There was a line to take a picture on the four corners so the kids played around while Lindsey and I waited in line.  They kids were pretty content until some indian lady started yelling at them from her jewlery shop to stay out of the cactus.  Lindsey and I got worried about how our kids were behaving.  (Really we shouldn't have let the lady get to us.  We could see the cactus and the kids were far away from it)

So we go out of line and took a picture of the kids in front of the monument.  The kids were all pretty fed up with the whole thing and you can tell.

But we got a good picture of me.  

This is what the monument looks like.

Before we left I ran to the bathroom.  All they had were vault toilets - which was understandable considering we were in the middle of no where.  But what got me was the signs on the doors.  Each door had a little sign that said, "locks don't work. Please knock."  I told the lady standing next to me. "For 5 dollars a person you'd think they could put locks on the doors."  It was so dumb.

We left there and drove through more pretty scenery.  

We got on a road that took us into Utah.

The road got much more interesting once we were on Utah.  We were heading toward Blanding and a sign directed us to a road that took us up onto a plateau and then back down.  It wasn't the most direct way, but it was pretty cool.

Thoughout our trip the kids had been pretty good about handing eachother stuff and helping eachother out.  But somewhere around here Lydia fell asleep.  Derrick wanted and apple but Charlotte just couldn't reach far back enough to give it to him.  So I ended up throwing it at him while still driving. It hit him right on the face, and he cried about it for a while - but he did get his apple.

Outside Blanding I called Lindsey to see if she needed to stop.  She was fine and we decided to just push on to Moab before stopping.  So we kept driving.

Finally we made it to Moab and stopped at the McDonalds there.  I forgot to bring my camera in with me, but you can just imagine the smiling faces on my kids as they at fries and drank root bear.

We filled up on gas one last time and started the last 4 hour stretch home.  I told Lindsey that this part would go fast because the way was very familiar.  I don't know how it was for her, but it went fast for me.  Here's a picture of the San Rafael Swell from Green River.  Lydia had been asleep when we crossed into Utah so she was really surprised when she asked if we were in Utah yet and I said yes.

I was really nervous about driving highway 6 at Price.  Last year I'd driven it in the dark and I'd been really scared.  This year we made better time and so it was still light.  The road was a lot less scary in the daylight.

The sun set right as we made it to I-15 in Spanish Fork.  I was so happy to be back on an interstate.  I jumped into the HOV lane and took off.  My kids were all getting really antsy.  They'd lost interest in whatever movie they were watching and were starting to fight.  So I turned off the move and turned on the radio.  That really made them mad.  They screamed and cried as we rounded the point of the mountain.  They settled down a bit and I turned the movie back on for them.

Soon we were at the I-215 interchange and in hardly anytime we were pulling into the parking lot for our hotel on 3500 south.  Between the in-car drama and the dark I'd lost track of Lindsey, but I knew she knew the way.  It was 10:15 and I knew my parents would still be awake so I called them to see if they would help me get my kids into the hotel.  Lindsey showed up and we took turns going into the hotel to check in (we had separate rooms this time.)  We pulled around to the back and soon my parents arrived.  They had an extra person with them.  My sister Emily had been bumped up to an earlier flight into Salt Lake so she was with my parents.  Seeing my parents and Emily was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.

Charlotte and Lydia jumped out of the car to hug their grand parents.  Then we went up stairs and found our rooms. The first thing I did was take out my contacts. I made one more trip down to the car to get something and then my parents left so I could put the kid to bed.  Once again Veronica was the last one to fall asleep.  And once again she woke up crying at 2:00.  But it didn't matter as much because we'd made it.

Our first 4th of July as a family

For a long time I thought that Brandon would be away at SERE school over the 4th of July weekend.  I was really bummed about that because I wanted to take the kids to the Freedom Fest here at Fort Rucker, but I didn't want to do it by myself.  Large crowds of people make me nervous even when I don't have four kids to keep track of.  And I had no idea how Derrick would react to the fireworks. 

I was considering finding a family to adopt us for the holiday or maybe even not going at all.  But then Brandon's SERE school date changed and so that meant we could all go to the Freedom Fest together.   

This turned out to be the first Fourth of July that we spent as a family of six.  Brandon was in Korea last year and we'd spent the 4th of July with my best friend Ashley and her family.  And the year before that we'd had a great 4th of July, but Veronica wasn't born yet. It's hard to believe that there ever was a time that she wasn't in our family.  Actually it's getting harder and harder to remember those three years where we didn't have any kids at all. 

Freedom Fest was held on Thursday, July 2.  Most of the soldiers got a 4 day weekend so the people in charge of the event wanted to hold it before people headed out of town.  The event started at 4:00 with rides and games and food, and I thought about going right at 4:00, but I worried it would be too hot.  Then Brandon got put on a parking lot attendant detail that lasted until 6:30 so that changed the plans a little. 

He went to park cars while I worked on cute outfits for the kids.  Charlotte had a lot of fun putting together outfits with me.  She also wanted me to braid her hair and put a gold ribbon in her hair.  And she took a lot of time to dress up Hundley.  Here are the girls all dressed up, I kind of feel like they are all wearing eachother's pants, but other than that the outfits turned out really cute and festive.

Brandon came home and we walked up to the festival fields together.  The fields are just a few streets from our neighborhood.  I was glad to know that we wouldn't be stuck waiting in our car in traffic after the firework show.

When we arrived at the fields we went to check out the static displays of aircraft.

My kids love posing with helicopters.

Here are Charlotte and Lydia checking out the cargo area of a blackhawk.

And here's Veronica trying testing out a seat.

The girls liked looking at the cockpit.  A Black hawks is the type of helicopters that Brandon wants to learn how to fly.  But he wont be assigned an aircraft until several months from now..

There were lots of rides for kids, but I wasn't sure if Charlotte and Lydia were tall enough,  There was also a bounce house area, but I felt like it was way too expensive.  (We've been to a lot of free bounce houses so paying any money for those seems like a rip off.)  We ended up decided to all go on a little train ride and call it good.

We ended up in different cars.  Here are Brandon and the girls.

And here are Derrick and Veronica and I.  

Derrick was really unsure about the whole thing at first.  He wanted to get out, but he calmed down really fast.  He liked it when we started moving.   Veronica just climbed in a sat down without a problem.

Charlotte and Lydia were really excited.

The kids all had fun waving at people as we drove by.  The rest of the night Derrick would point in the direction of the train and say "train."

It was starting to get dark so we decided to go find a spot to sit down.  There was a live band that was going to play until the fireworks started.  We picked a place that was far enough away from the sound system that Derrick wouldn't freak out from the noise.  There also weren't that many people around us.  I'd bought glowsticks at the dollar store the day before so we got those out for the kids to play with them.  

The kids had been really sad about not going on any more rides, but they forgot all about that once the glowsticks lit up.

I'd bought several different shaped glowsticks so those were fun to put together.

Everyone had lots of fun with those.

The band started playing and we had a lot of fun listening to them and relaxing on the picnic blanket. 

The girls had lots of fun making different shapes with the glowsticks.

Here's what it looks like with the flash.

Derrick had been sitting with me, but at some point he decided that he wanted to be in the wagon.  I guess he felt more comfortable listening to the music while he was in the wagon.  I put the wagon behind me and liked that I could lean up against it.

The weather was perfect.  We'd had a huge rainstorm at about noon.  That had cleared out the humidity.  There was a slight breeze blowing and everything felt great.  

The band was really good.  I think my favorite song was when they played "Sweet Home Alabama."  I never thought I'd actually live in Alabama while listening to that song.  I'm glad this place is my home right now.

One of the nice things about living less than 50 miles from the Eastern Time Zone is that it gets dark really early.  The firework show started at 9:00.

Poor Derrick.  He started crying as soon as he heard the first boom.  At first we tried holding him, but he wanted to be in the wagon.  He buried his eyes into his fists and stayed like that the whole half hour show.  I'm pretty certain he fell asleep that way for a little bit.

The show was one of the best I've seen.  It ended with a big finale that unfortunately was slightly obscured by the smoke.

Then we packed up our stuff into the wagon and walked home.  Freedom Fest had been the perfect way to begin the 4th of July weekend.

Except that Freedom Fest had been all that we had planned for the weekend.  We'd thought that Brandon would go to SERE on July 5th, but that got pushed back again.  So that meant we had a four day weekend without any plans.  That turned out to be not so fun.  (I'm not complaining here, but it's kind of hard to appreciate a long weekend when your husband only works about three hours a day anyway.)

We did do some fun stuff though.  On Friday Brandon and I were going to go see the new Terminator Movie, but instead we decided to just explore down town Ozark a little bit.  We dropped the kids off at the babysitters and then picked up hamburgers at Burgerking.  We ate them at this little vacant store area that is next to the courthouse square.

It's really quirky, but also pretty cute.

Then we walked around the little mainstreet area.  We stopped for a little while at this reflecting garden next to a church.

It was really pretty and relaxing.

And then we went and got Ice cream at Milky Moos.  (The local equivalant of Aggie Ice cream)

After we picked the kids up from the babysitter we put Derrick and Veronica to bed.  Then Brandon and the girls got ready for their back yard camping trip.  They set up the little tent and then roasted marshmallows over the little camp stove.

They slept out there all night.  I could hear the girls giggling for a while as Brandon told them silly things.

Saturday was the actual 4th of July.  We briefly considered taking the kids to the firework show in Dothan, but two late nights we'd already had with the kids were taking their toll.  We decided it would be better for everyone if we just put them to bed on time.  It ended up raining in the evening so I'm glad we didn't go.  But the whole day just felt blah.

Sunday was pretty normal.  On Monday we decided that we had to get out of the house so we took the kids for a little walk on some trails on Fort Rucker.  I forgot the camera, but that doesn't mean we didn't have fun. Derrick actually walked the whole way and had lots of fun running too.  He kept pointing things like water, trees, and rocks out to me.

The weekend was great, but I think we were all secretly happy when we went back to our usual routine on Tuesday.

Speaking of usual routine.  Derrick is going through that stage when he wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks, "I have to find mom NOW."  He's always climbing in bed with me at night.  Brandon puts him back and then Derrick comes back in our room a few hours later.  One evening I found him asleep in front of my bedroom door when I finished my work out routine.  He always brings his pillow and his blanket with him.

Charlotte and Lydia end up sharing a bed just about every night.  I'll put them to bed in their own beds, but when I check on them a few hours later I always find that Lydia is up in Charlotte's bed.

Lydia has started to wear one of Brandon's old hats everywhere.  She loves to dress like a princess and wear an Army patrol cap.  

We discovered that Veronica can climb stools and reach the cabinets.  

 So far this hasn't been too bad of a problem.  She entertained herself stacking and unstacking cans for about 30 minutes while Brandon made dinner the other night.

Things are about to get really crazy for us in the next few days.  My brother is getting married in Utah next week and so the kids and I are driving to Utah.  I'm caravanning most of the way with my sister Lindsey.  I think I should be nervous about the trip, but I'm oddly relaxed.  So either I'm in denial or I'm just really used to road trips.  Actually it's probably just because a roadtrip is a lot easier than moving.  

I'll let you know how the trip goes in my next post.

A typical day from a time that really has no typical days

I've been planning on doing a typical day post ever since our lives went sort of back to normal at the end of May.  But I've had some trouble deciding what day would be a "typical day".  Our days aren't very predictable right now.  The biggest reason is that Brandon has a very easy work schedule.  The last time he was around this much was when he was unemployed back in the fall of 2011.  It's pretty awesome and really makes up for all the times he's had to be away from our family for extended periods of time, but it does present some scheduling problems.  I'm not complaining here, but it's turns out that it's kind of hard to establish a routine with the kids when Daddy only spends a few hours a day at work.   

Maybe if this was how things were going to be for the foreseeable future I would put some effort into creating some sort of daily schedule.  However,  for the past three weeks we've thought that Brandon would be going to SERE school "next week."  So we've been enjoying this limited time together as a family that turned out to be not so limited.  

However, that family time is coming to an end, and not because of SERE school (yet), but because I'm taking the kids on a trip to Utah.  My brother is getting married in a few weeks and his July wedding coincidences perfectly with my annual plan to trade the South's humidity for Utah's dry heat.   I ended up picking Wednesday July 1st as the day for my typical day post because it's was pretty much the last day before thing get crazy with the Fourth of July/Packing for the road trip.  So here is everything that happened in a 24 hour period on that day. 

2:30 am  Derrick wakes me up and tries to get into bed with me.  I lift in him and fall back asleep. 

5:40 Brandon gets up and gets dressed in his ACU uniform. Lately he's been attempting to pass a swim test while wearing his combat uniform and boots.  If he can pass the test today he'll go to SERE on Sunday.  If not we aren't quite sure what will happen.
I consider getting up but I don't want to wake up Derrick.  (He'd been up at 5:50 the day before and I'd just let him watch train movies in bed with me on my laptop while I tried to sleep.  I don't really want a repeat of that today.)

6:30 Lydia comes in my room and climbs in bed with us.  Derrick wakes up, but he doesn't say anything about trains. Both kids are just fine snuggling with me.

6:50 We all hear Veronica yell something from her crib.  Derrick knows that this means I'll get out of bed and he immediately starts asking for "train."  I go into living room and turn on a train movie on youtube (we have the TV hooked up to one of our old laptops.)  I'm surprised to find Charlotte is asleep on the couch.  I get Veronica up.  Every morning she insists on bringing her blanket and ALL her stuffed animals with her into the living room. She can have anywhere from 2 to 8 stuffed animals in bed with her, so some mornings she is quite the site as she tries to hold them all in her little arms.
The kids all zone out in front of the TV and I zone out in front of the computer for a minute while my brain tries to wake up.  I like to check Facebook and then check my travel blogs stats.  I haven't put a new post up in about a week, but several of the older posts have pretty consistent traffic so things are looking good there.  I hope I can find time to get a post finished this week, but I'm not sure.

7:05 The garbage truck comes up the street.  This is still a pretty exciting event at our house and everyone (except Charlotte who is somehow still asleep on the couch) runs outside to watch it.

After it leaves Lydia asks to watch Curious George Swings into Spring on Netflix.

7:10 Derrick wants a sandwich.  He asks for it by bringing me a jelly jar and saying, "bread."

7:15 Normally we all eat breakfast at the same time, but nobody else seems very hungry yet, and Charlotte is still asleep.  So I just start water boiling for my oatmeal.  I decide to get dressed while the water boils.
I want to wear shorts, but my legs need to be shaved.  I think about shaving my legs in the bathroom sink.  I even grab my razor out of the shower, but then Veronica wanders in and I know better than to try to shave my legs with her around. My legs can wait.

7:20 That's just as well because the water's boiling and it's time to add oatmeal. The oatmeal quickly cooks and then I add almonds and raisins.
I sit down to eat in the dinning room.  Veronica has followed me in there.  She runs back into the kitchen, grabs a spoon out of the silverware drawer, and then comes to sit on my lap, and eat my oatmeal.  Normally I'd be annoyed to share my food, but today I'm impressed by her initative. So I let her get a bite or two before I put her in her own chair and make her a bowl of cereal.

7:37 I'm done eating, and now Lydia wants food.  But she doesn't want any cereal that isn't corn flakes - which we don't have. I'm sensing a real stand off in regards to breakfast so I offer to make her some cute little sandwiches that she saw in a magazine.  She thinks that's a great idea so we get to work.

 The end result was pretty cute and satisfied Lydia (Though she did decide that one sandwich was enough for her.)  Lydia got the idea from a Family Fun magazine that she found while waiting in the office at Derrick's speech therapy appointment the day before.  She wants a subscription to the magazine so we can do more cute things like this.  

7:50 I decide to go do my makeup.  I'm hoping to get another chance at shaving my legs, but Veronica and Derrick find me and start grabbing things off the counter and opening drawers. I put bobby pins in my pocket so I can do my hair in the other bathroom. I skip brushing my teeth because one of them has managed to misplace my tooth brush.

7:55 Veronica and Derrick both need diaper changes.  (One is poopy and the other is just saggy) so I change their diapers and then change their clothes.

8:00 While I change Derrick I realize that Brandon is in the laundry room.  He's putting his wet ACUs into the washer. He's wearing dry ACUs that he changed into after his swim test.  He didn't pass his test again today so that means he's probably not going to SERE school on Sunday.
  
8:05 Derrick wants to watch "Tut'le" which, even though it sounds like Turtle actually means he wants to watch Thomas the Train.  So I turn on one of those inane shows on Netflix.

8:10 Talk with Brandon about his plans for the day and get online to talk to another ward member to see if she needs Brandon to pick her son up for scouts that night.

8:20 Now What?  Yesterday had been a very busy day for me.  Derrick had speech therapy in the morning and then I'd spent a lot of the day cleaning up the kitchen and doing laundry.  I'm not in the mood to do that much work today.
Since Brandon is home I decide to finish getting ready.  Apparently I even forgot mascara earlier.  I think about trying to shave my legs again, but the kids are banging on my door and I just give up on the clean shaven legs idea.

8:30 When I come back out of my room Derrick says, "me me door."  "Me me" is how he says, "sit with me" and for some reason he thinks the couch is called a door (we're working on that).  I sit with him and read Micheal J Fox's second book of memoirs.  Brandon reads with Veronica.

8:35 Brandon goes to work.  I keep reading. Charlotte has woken up by this point.

9:05 The movie is over and everyone seems on the verge of a big fight. I tell the girls to get dressed so we can go to the park.  I have to go out to the car twice to find shoes for two of the kids. Lydia puts a jacket on and she wont take it off no matter how hot I tell her it is outside.  Charlotte wants a jacket too, but she listens to reason.

9:15 We finally leave for the park.  We have a park behind our house, but I don't like to go there right now.  That park has a swing set and the kids usually all want to swing while I push them.  I wouldn't mind, but when it's hot outside I don't like to push my seated kids while standing in the hot sun.  So instead we walk up to a park that is about a block away.  Derrick and Veronica ride in the wagon while Charlotte and Lydia walk.  

9:20 We pass Brandon who is driving home after checking in at work. (I told you his schedule was easy right now.)

9:25 Brandon joins us at the park.  We stand in the shade and talk while the kids run around and play.

9:50 Derrick and Veronica are ready to go home.  Brandon stays with twins.  It's moments like these that make me so happy he is around so much.  If he wasn't around I'd have to either stay at the park with two grumpy kids or risk making the other two kids grumpy by telling them that it's time to go home.

9:55 Derrick wants more train movies.

10:05 Brandon and the twins are back
10:10 Brandon had gone grocery shopping at the commissary after work yesterday, but there were some things he forgot and/or the commissary didn't have.  So I decide to run up to the Dollar store and the Walmart in Ozark.
First I stop at the Housing office to pick up a new air filter for our AC.  Then I drive the 5 miles up to Ozark.  I buy glowsticks at the dollar store up there.  Then I go to Walmart to buy some stuff.  Finally I fill up the jeeps' gas tank and head home.

11:50 I get home and the kids help me bring in the groceries.

12:00 Normally I eat right at 11:00 so I'm super hungry.  I'm even starting to get shaky from low blood sugar which is something I try really hard to avoid.  So I hurry and make a wrap and also eat some almonds and raisins mixed with yogurt.

12:15 I remember that it's Wednesday which is the day our back yard gets mowed.  I hurry to pull all the toys up onto the patio so the lawn people will mow my back yard.

Even after I'm done eating I'm still not feeling very well so I relax on the couch with Derrick and read while the kids play.

12:40 Brandon leaves for work.  I expect him back fairly soon.

12:50 Veronica is crying a lot so it's time for her to go to bed

1:15 Derrick starts rummaging through the fridge and decides on hot dogs.  He helps me push all the buttons on the microwave.

1:20 The lawn people show up and take care of my back yard.  This is one the many things that makes me so glad we live on post here.

1:30 The girls want to watch Enchanted.  They've been playing with each other all morning so I don't feel bad letting them watch a movie.  Since the movie isn't about trains Derrick watches it for about 5 minutes and then starts playing with his Lightning McQueen car which he calls, "Ning."
 
1:45 Start working on an image for my next travel blog post.  It's actually a chart that lists the difference's between Dead Horse Point State Park and the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park. I'd already gathered and typed in all the info and so "all" I have to do today is arrange the text.
As I work on it Derrick keeps bringing Lightning to me.  He likes to take Lightning's back wheel off, but he never can figure out how to put it back on.  So that's my job.  Every time he brings it to me I tell him to say, "Help" and he repeats "Helf."  And then I fix the wheel.  We do this over and over and over.

2:45  I'm done with the image and Brandon comes home.  I'm actually surprised he was gone so long.  He'd been talking to someone about how schedule for the next few weeks.  That person actually brought up the possiblility that Brandon could still go to SERE on Sunday even though he hadn't passed his swim test.  So we are hopeful about that.  (It turned out to be nothing.)  And then he'd gone to the commissary to find some of the last things on his SERE packing list.

3:00 I'd sort of been thinking we could all go to the pool when Brandon got home, but Veronica is still asleep.  Brandon says he'll stay home with Derrick and Veronica so the girls and I can go.  We hurry and change into our swimming suits and put on sunblock.

3:15 It's Wednesday so the pool that's just up the street in our neighborhood is closed.  But we still have two other pools in the other neighborhoods to choose from.  So we drive to the closer of the two.
We have a lot of fun at the pool.  Charlotte shows me how she can spin underwater, and Lydia learns how to do a somersault in the water.  Both girls are very good at putting their heads underwater and blowing bubbles out their noses.  Charlotte can even swim about three feet in the water.
   
4:20 We leave the pool and hurry home.

4:30 Brandon has dinner ready when we get home.  He's made stir fry with rice and it is YUMMY!

5:05 After dinner Brandon goes to his last swimming lesson.  He's never been very comfortable in deep water and so at the beginning of the month we signed him up for adult swimming lessons at the main post pool.  Those lessons have really helped him out as he's been working on passing the swim test.  He's able to swim a lot better and farther than he ever has before. He should pass the test soon.  (And then it's my turn to start taking adult swimming lessons.)

On a more normal day I would be the one to make dinner.  I usually start it at 4:00.  At 4:30 I have an alarm on my phone go off that signals it's time for us to clean up the living room.  In theory this is so we can have the house clean when Brandon come home.  But as you can see, Brandon is usually home well before 5:00.  He usually helps the kids clean up the living room and then we all eat dinner.  Sometimes we eat first and then we clean up after.

So today we should have started cleaning up the living room after dinner, but the girls didn't have the energy to clean up, and I didn't have the energy to make them.  So when Derrick asked to watch, "Woody, Buzz" I was pretty happy to oblige.  I showed him the cases for Toy Story 1 and 2 but he said no to each of them. Then I showed him the case for Toy Story 3 and he grabbed it.  I was impressed he remembered it because it's been several months since we watch that one. I guess he wanted to see the train in the first part.

6:10 Derrick wants a sandwich.  (Derrick does eat meals with the rest of the family, but he also loves to snack between them.)

6:40 Brandon's done with swimming lessons and is going to go straight to the church for scouts.  He has the address for one of the boys he's supposed to pick up, but he realized that he can't remember the boy's name.  So he calls me for that.

6:45 I've been reading my book for most of the last hour and a half.  I'm like a crack addict when it comes to novels.  I get really sucked in and ignore my kids and house.  So usually I read non-fiction books like biographies.  I've found that I'm better at reading just a chapter or two at a time of those kinds of books.  But these Michael J Fox memoirs have proved to be just as addicting as a novel. He's a great storyteller with an extraordinary life.
The movie is over now and it's time to clean up the living room.  Some kids are more excited to do this than others.  Recently Brandon and I created a little job chart for the girls.  We pay them a penny for doing certain jobs.  That really has helped motivate them.  I have plans to create a little store where they can trade their pennies for toys and craft stuff (all marked up at ridiculously high prices).  It's like our own personal communist country.  
Soon the living room is all picked up and vacuumed.

7:10 Bed time is usually at 7:00, but it's not unheard of for the kids to be in bed by 6:45.  This night everything is running a little later though.  I get Derrick and Veronica into their in pajamas.

7:15 One of the girls starts crying about how she feels like no one loves her.  I'm not sure if this is related to her being tired or if this is a deeper feeling.  I sit down with her and hold her and tell her that we do love her and try to figure out how she's feeling.  This seems to help.

7:20 Many many nights I end up giving up on scriptures and prayers.  Veronica has a tendency to get super grumpy when she's tired and she will literally start hitting me and screaming as soon as I start singing.  Usually she gets put to bed followed in short succession by the others before we've even finished a chapter in the Book of Mormon.  But that's not the case tonight.  Maybe she's just extra tired tonight but she calmly stares off into space while I read.  After we are done with the scriptures I start reading Elder L Tom Perry's last talk from the April General Conference.  For some reason the girls became really interested in him after he died so they listen to what I read.  He talks all about the importance of the family and then we have a little talk about how important our family is.  There is a really good spirit in our home when we say the family prayer.

7:35 When Brandon is home I'll put the girls to bed while he takes care of Derrick and Veronica.  But since he is at scouts I'll do both.  Veronica makes sure that all 8 of her stuffed animals are piled into her arms before I can put her blanket over the 9 of them. Lydia comes in with me and helps me sing them songs like "I love to see the temple" and "A Child's Prayer."  Then I give them kisses.  Both of them repeat "I You." when I tell them "I love you."  followed by a loud "BYE."  No matter how tired Veronica is she will always yell bye emphatically.

7:40 Normally I would put the girls to be right away, but tonight is girls craft night.  So they can stay up.  But first we still have to clean off the dining room table and vacuum the floor.  The girls help with that.  (They really want those pennies.) Then we can finally start our craft.  We are making a collage with the shells that the girls and Brandon found at the beach last Saturday.  We'll mount it on the wall in their room.  That way they can look at their shells without worrying that Veronica will mess up what they are doing.

8:30 The collage isn't done yet, but we are.  We've had a good time and talked about a lot of different things, but we are all getting tired. So we clean up for the night.

 8:35 I look out the window and notice that Venus and Jupiter are still very close together.  So we all go outside to get a better look at them.  I asked the girls, "How come Jupiter looks smaller even though it is bigger than Venus?"  And right away Charlotte said, "because it's farther away."  Smart girl!

8:36 Brandon comes home while we are outside and we have an impromptu astronomy lesson that involves Brandon pretending to be the sun while we run around him while pretending to be planets.  Then Charlotte pretends to be the Earth and I'm the moon.  I run around her while she runs around Brandon and we all end up dizzy.
The moon is up and Charlotte wants her picture with it.

We go back inside and take a picture with Brandon in his scout uniform on. I tease him that he has a goal to collect council patches.  Last year he was in the Far East Council and now he's in the Florida/Alabama Council.

8:45 It's time to put the girls to bed.  I read them a few pages out of Little House in the Big Woods.  We started this a few days ago after we finished Indian in the Cupboard.  Before that we read The Secret Garden.  I love that they can finally listen to books that I find interesting to read.  Still it's not like they sit quietly and listen.  A lot of times I have to stop what I'm reading to say things like, "hey stop trying to touch the ceiling fan, or are you guys even listening?"

9:00  I sing the girls their songs (Right now Lydia's is Heavenly Father Loves Me and Charlottes is Eidewiess) and then I'm finally free.
I go out into the kitchen and talk to Brandon.  We figure out that he's changed his clothes seven times that day.  (ACUs for swimming, ACUs for work, civilian clothes, swimming suit, civilian clothes, scout uniform, civilian clothes.)

9:10 Girls are up one last time.  Charlotte doesn't want Lydia in her bed.  This was the first time in about a month that they didn't sleep in the same bed.

9:20 I bring my laptop into my room and start my work out while watching an episode of 3rd Rock with Brandon.  I've figured out that a 20 minute TV show episode is the perfect way to time my workout.  Right now I'm focusing on lifting weights and stretching.  

9:45 We're done with episode and we want to watch another but first we have to get ready for bed and Brandon has to lay out his stuff for the next day. 

10:05 Start the next episode.  Some nights we watch Malcome in the Middle, and other nights we watch Fixer Upper, but tonight we are in the mood for 3rd Rock.  (Not to be confused with 30 Rock which I watch when Brandon is busy studying.)

10:25 It's time for bed.  I check on the kids one last time and then we pray together.  I consider reading but instead just go to sleep.

Sometime during the night Derrick comes in our room again

Some other time Brandon takes Derrick back to bed

5:30 Brandon gets up to go try the swim test again.  (He swims farther and better than ever before, but he still doesn't make it.)

6:00 Derrick comes in and wants trains so I let him watch them on my laptop. 

7:00 Everyone up and we start the day all over again.