Road Warriors and Parade Marchers

Here we go again.....

We are about to leave on a cross country trek. We are going to load up the Crimson Express and drive 18 hours to Colonial Beach, VA to spend the 4th with family. We will spend a week there and then drive 13 hours down to Alabama. I am going to hang out there with the kids while Rob flies to Africa for two weeks, and then we will drive 14 hours back to Kansas.

A total of 45 hours. Two toddlers. One Golden Lab. And lots of Advil.

And before you even think about robbing our house, we have someone painting while we are gone, our best friends staying here while their son is in a baseball tournament, and lots of neighbors watching. So, go ahead. Try to steal our 24 inch Panasonic television. It won't happen, you would be burglars.

Everyone asks me, "WHY????" Why not fly?" It's simple. We like it. We save a lot of money believe it or not, we like being together as a family, we can bring as much as we want and not worry about keeping it small for the plane, the only people we annoy are each other and not other passengers, we can bring our dog with us, etc.... It's the only way to travel.

One cool thing that has resulted from all of our driving is that my kids have been to a whole lot of states. Granted, most have been just driving through, but I think we have eaten or used the bathroom in all of them. That's how we roll. So far they have been to-

Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Plus Bennett has been to Louisiana and Texas courtesy of her visit to see her Aunt and Uncle when she was 6 months old.

And my kids will pass through North and South Carolina in a few weeks on their way to Alabama, so add two more to the list.

16 for Will and 18 for Bennett. Not bad for a 2 and 3 year old.

So, here we go again. We finally caved on our last road trip to West Virginia and let them watch movies on a DVD player. Sigh.... we made it as long as we could. But they are only for road trips. And we do try to limit them even then. But I will say, it has made our trips a whole lot smoother. Societal peer pressure wins again!

Oh, and one final note about our trip. It will take us two days to get to the beach. Do you know what those two days happen to be? My son's birthday and my wedding anniversary. :-( That stinks. Majorly.

Anyhoo, moving on. My kids were in a parade today! Kind of. A little parade with their fellow Adventure Camp campers. I wore my red, white, and blue and cheered along the parade route. This is what I saw.

The parade begins!

And here come my two adorable redheads riding in the bye bye buggy!

Bennett looks so happy to be in the parade! Look closely at Will. He has spotted me and my Mama's Boy is about to have a full blown melt down.

Can you all see Will turning around trying to find me? Look at that sweet little face peeping around the corner. He kills me. He just does.

Bennett has now decided to get out and walk and Will has had a double whammy. He can't get out to hug his Mommy and his sister has abandoned him. It becomes too much.

He's done. Full blown melt down. The saddest little parade marcher on the route.

He sees me. It's over.

But, wait! Is that a lollipop? It's all good now. Happy days are here again. Mommy who?

And of course Bennett was happy as a lark. She loved the attention and all of the pomp and circumstance. She was thrilled and has talked all afternoon about being in a parade. Love that girl.


Okay, off to pack. Lots to do. Crazy crazy few weeks ahead of us. But here is one final picture of Will that I had to share. Here he is the day after his party enjoying his new Thomas pajamas and his new train set. This is about as good as it gets for Will Webster.