We were on the road by 6 am which was 5 am our time, neither of us slept well the night before. I never do, I get a little anxious about remembering everything & getting to where we are going. Donna was a bit anxious too about the longer ride & she was excited to see her parents & the rest of her family. Not resting well made the long drive really hard! We had extra stops to switch driving & for extra potent caffeinated beverages & energy snacks.
The boys again did really well! We stopped in KY for breakfast & to let then play at McDonalds. There was a little girl there playing, at her table she had a juice box. Kellan walked near her table & turned to me & said/signed "juice please?" I was so excited that he had put both words together & used them correctly & I think it is so adorable when the boys sign, especially please :) (I still haven't heard from the speech therapist, I need to find her number & call her) The boys loved this playground & it was hard getting them to leave but once we were back on the road they were fine. We were unable to find another place with a playground the rest of the drive but the boys still did pretty well with the help of toys, snacks & videos.
Kellan' first taste of a milkshake
Since there was no playground to be found we got the boys a treat, here is Caden's first taste
We arrived at Donna's parents about 8 pm, we visited for a few minutes & then Donna & her dad went to our home away from home, a 40 foot 5th wheel camper & unloaded the van. We were all exhausted & very ready to go to bed so we saved the rest of our visiting for the next morning & headed to our place.
This is where the fun began... About 2 am Caden woke up crying, I was still too tired to try to soothe him back to sleep in his own bed so I just brought him back to our bed, he snuggled right in & fell back to sleep. About 20 minutes later Kellan woke up so Donna went & got him & did the same thing, he also quickly fell back to sleep. Garren didn't wait long & he too joined us in bed. I wish I could have taken a picture of the 5 of us all in bed together, lol... The boys woke up super early & Garren went right to the window, pointed to Donna's parents place & said "Grandpa's house." It was too early & her parents weren't up yet so we entertained the boys for a while before getting dressed & heading over.
Our lovely home away from home
We didn't do much our first day in NY, I went grocery shopping to stock our refrigerator while Donna & the boys napped. Donna's Aunt Linea came for a visit & brought the boys some play dough & a kiddie pool. We took a golf cart ride around the campground to check out the playground & see if anything had changed (like we'd really know, lol)
Caden, Kellan & Garren
Wednesday night Caden woke again & again I brought him to bed, Kellan woke a little bit later but I just laid down on the couch with him. Both went right to sleep & Garren slept all night in his pack n play.
Thursday Donna did all of our laundry while I let the boys play at the local McDonalds, they had the best playground for toddlers by far so we went back a couple times while we were there :) Donna's cousin Nancy & Aunt Sis came by that evening for a visit.
Our trio of dear friends (they're really hard to see)
I thought that maybe the boys were waking at night because their pack n plays were cold, I somehow forgot the comfy padded sheets for them so we wrapped the bottoms in blankets. Kellan was the only one to wake that night & I slept with him again on the couch (in hopes he would fall back asleep & I could put him back in his pack n play, it didn't work)
We really needed the boys to take a good nap on Friday, they hadn't been napping or sleeping well & had been waing up really early every morning & had been pretty cranky. Donna's family has dinner at the country club every Friday night & we wanted to go but wouldn't unless the boys were in good spirits. Thankfully they all napped beautifully & were very pleasant at dinner!!! All 3 of the boys also slept all night in their own beds :)
Caden (foreground) Garren & Kellan in a golf cart
after dinner at the country club
Saturday morning Donna's cousin Nancy had a huge family breakfast at their place. If I had to guess I'd say there were 30-ish family members & kids there. It was an amazing breakfast & so fun to see everyone! I will have to see if I can get some pictures from Nancy, I didn't take any while we were there, we were pretty busy keeping up with the boys. One of the guys suggested we take them to the back yard & let them run up & down the hill to wear them out... It was pretty comical to watch all the kids go down & try to come back up. It was a pretty steep hill, so steep in fact that Kellan decided to crawl down it backwards, lol... There was a little creak bed at the bottom so our plan to have them run back up backfired, at least with the boys, once down there they just wanted to get in the creek, so they had to be conned back up the hill again.
Saturday afternoon the boys played in their new kiddie pool & went on golf cart rides through the campground. Since they only took a short nap in the van on the way back from breakfast we decided to take a ride to Wal.mart in hopes that they would take another short nap & to get a couple of groceries. We didn't have any luck with the cat-nap so it was an early bedtime again.
Sweet Jeanette jumping in with the boys
Sunday we had planned to go to lunch with just Donna's mom & dad. As we headed to their house that morning with the boys dressed & ready to go, Caden decided to jump in the kiddie pool, lol...
We decided to just strip them down & let them play while Donna went back & got them dry clothes.
Monday Donna had to go to the Jamestown station to do some work for a little bit. The boys & I just hung out in our camper playing, eating, & napping. The boys ate non stop all morning asking for one thing after the other right up until lunch & they ate a good lunch too. They took a great nap & Donna got back just in time for us to head to her cousin Janet's to visit with her & Pat, their daughter Amy & Amy's kids & husband? The boys had a great time playing on the slide, riding on the John Dear truck, chasing chickens & roosters & blowing bubble with fly swatters! Who knew you could blow/make bubbles with fly swatters?!? :)
Janet with Kellan (climbing) & Garren
Caden with Alexa or Isabelle (I can't tell them apart)
Garren looks pretty wild at the wheel, lol...
Time for bubbles!!!
The boys & their identical twin cousins blowing bubbles
Garren chasing the roosters
Tuesday Donna had to do laundry again. While she was doing that her aunt Linea came for another visit. The rest of the day we all napped & started getting our things packed back up & ready to go again Wednesday morning.
Aunt Linea & Kellan playing catch
We had a nice dinner with Donna's parents & hit the sack early in hopes of a good nights sleep for less stressful drive this time around...
That's not NY. That there is the country. There's no country in NY. :) I've seen those home away from home bedrooms....and the good news with all of them in your bed is that nobody could really roll off....it's wall to wall :) ha ha ha
ReplyDeleteThat looks like some fun living. I'll bet the kids had a BLAST !
I struggle with it being NY too but I swear we passed a state sign on our way there ;)
DeleteIt looks like you guys had so much fun! It's so great that the boys got to play with their cousins. Nothing like family. :)
ReplyDeleteYoga mats have been a life saver for us when traveling. The first trip we took with Grace she had trouble sleeping in her pack n play every.single.night... the next trip and every trip since we've used a yoga mat and she's slept like a champ.
We are just going to try putting them in a bed when we travel to FL next week. Should be interesting! We considered getting toddler air mattresses but most places we go already have furniture in the room so we'll see what happens... We may never sleep when we travel again & therefor we may never travel again, lol...
DeleteA yoga mat is genius by the way!!!
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