There and Back Again (Part 1)

Justin's grandpa passed away on Friday, May 31 and after a little thinking and planning we packed up the kids and the car and began the long drive to western New York on Sunday.  We haven't done the drive with the kids before, but we anticipated that it would be a little tough on them and us.  The important thing was for us to get back and be with Justin's family and driving seemed to be the best option.  Fortunately for us (although potentially not for them) Justin's brother and his wife live in Chicago and we decided to crash there for a night to break up the drive.   It meant two days of 8+ hour drives, but we didn't think that 15-16 hours was really doable in one shot with the kids.

The drive to New York was filled with memorable moments.  Madelyn played a lot with the iPad, her dolls, and listened to music. Along the way to Bemus she was singing along with Daddy and blowing him kisses.  It was a pretty sweet moment :)

Saturday night before we left Evan came down with a pretty nasty cold and basically didn't sleep from about 1-5 am, so Justin and I were both pretty tired and thinking that Evan might not travel very well.

Sunday night at Aaron and Lauren's was also pretty memorable.  After finally getting Evan to sleep around 10pm he started screaming hysterically around 11.  Justin decided to take him out to the car so that he wouldn't wake everyone up and drove around with him until about 12:30am.  We finally thought we were going to get some sleep but then at 1 am Madelyn starting crying and calling for me.  When I went to see what was up she had thrown up all over herself and the bed we had made up for her.  Justin and I scrambled to take care of her and thought we got her resettled, only to start a 4 hour long battle with her throwing up which ended with her sleeping in the bed with us because it was the only place left for her to sleep.  Evan finally passed out at 3 am for a stretch and Madelyn conked out at around 5 am.  Evan was pretty much up for the day by 6:45, although after I fed him he did doze until about 7:30.  Madelyn slept until 9 and seemed no worse for the wear.  We did manage to get all packed up and back into the car to continue the trek east.

The kids were both troopers about getting back into the car.  For Evan sitting more upright in his car seat seemed to help with the cold, although his carseat over 2 days of travel with with a cold became  progressively more disgusting.

We did eventually make it to Bemus Point late Monday evening.  After a quick stop by the Olive Garden where Justin's grandma was having a late dinner with two of Justin's aunts, we headed to Justin's mom's house where we were happy to finally crash with the kids.  The kids were really happy to be out of the car and really happy to see Mommom and Poppop.  And, that night of sleep did go better for all of us.