8:30 AM Sunday morning January 3, 2010-- Doors (to the house) are locked; thermostats (plural) turned down; toilets winterized; Jamie's left for their home; we're in the car and ready to go. Seat belts buckled: check. Prayer said: check. Let's go!
We start out in in what I like to call the standard parent/child configuration-Michael's driving, I'm at shotgun, Ty's in the back seat behind Michael, Claire is in the middle and Carynn is behind me. We get maybe 50 feet out of the driveway and Carynn calls out something like, "Ooh gross, Claire just pooped on the seat." We pull over, I get rid of the poop, Carynn and I do a switcheroo and everyone else retains their original positions. The dog is still somewhat disoriented. (She has issues occasionally. Unfortunately this is one of those occasions.) Somewhere between home and Montana I move her from the seat to the floor. Which is a good thing because when we get out to stretch our legs and fuel up, what I think is leftover poop smell is actually NEW poop smell. By this time I'm not feeling too charitably towards the dog. She does eventually settle down though so that's good for all of us. In fact, now that she's taken care of business (twice) she seems to have run out of ammunition, so to speak.
We discover early on that Ty can just barely reach the portable DVD player with his foot (since Michael needs to have his seat all the way back because he has long legs) and that's not a good thing, so I change the position of the DVD player by balancing it on the small ice chest just out of reach of any of his body parts. Ty's favorite movies this trip are the Ice Age sequels. He calls them the "elephant" movies. We also watch parts of WallE and Cars during this part of the trip. We enjoy our sandwiches and other snacks, but Ty doesn't really nap. I have a few tricks up my sleeve with some new books and small toys for Ty. I've also brought our magnetic letters for him to play with. These end up being more of a mess as Ty has discovered that when he puts things (toys, magnetic letters, books) in the slot in the arm rest, they disappear until we either stop or I undo my seat belt and do the long stretch over him to retrieve whatever it is he's dropped down the slot. He's not being malicious mind you, just curious and finding out about cause and effect.
Our stop for the night is a Motel 6 in Idaho Falls. They're pet and child friendly. We found out from the friendly desk clerk (she really was nice, I'm not being sarcastic.) that if we drive just a mile or so more there's a McDonald's with a great Playland so that Ty can play and get the kinks out. We do the drive, get our food and Ty enjoys the Playland. Between their trip to Oregon for Christmas and now this trip Ty's been cooped up for significant periods of time. He's been a champ about it, but it's really great when he can play as he's more of a doer than a sitter. He also caught some kind of upper respiratory thing from his Oregon cousins, so that he's in a good mood at all is a blessing.
After Ty's getting ready to go to bed ritual: jammies, teeth brushed, fluoride and book read, it's time for prayer and he's down for the night. We all get comfortable and after Ty's asleep Carynn opens the connecting door and goes to sleep herself. Michael and I settle down (Claire does too) and it's good night for all of us.
We're halfway there!
NS
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Two things: Claire pooping right next to me was super NASTY and getting a separate room for me and Ty was such the necessity. Sleep for everyone! Yay!
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