The Road Less Traveled

Currently, we are in Austin, Texas.  The kids have been having a BLAST visiting their cousins!  It has been nice to relax, regroup, and swim, swim, swim! 

We were also able to meet up with other adoptive families who adopted cribmates/orphanage friends of our children--what a blessing!

 

Tomorrow we leave for Arkansas.  Back in the car for a good part of the day.

Surprisingly, the drives have not been bad.  True, I'm the only driver, but my kids are at good ages to travel long distances.

We do stop every couple of hours.  Potty stops are quite frequent, even with older kids.  We also pull off on historic highways if we feel so led--and because we love the movie Cars.

And we sometimes take the road less-traveled through beautiful places like Sedona--then become corny tourists who not only buy Arizona Tea, but proceed to take pictures with it.

We eat out of the cooler at least once a day. 

The GPS is my VERY best friend.  How did we survive before this great invention?  And yet, I still like real, paper maps--to give the big picture in a tactile way.

Electronics in the car is also supreme--you name it, we got it--including a Game Cube that hooks up to the video player:

I do force mandatory times where the kids have to look out the window.  Mean mother tho I am.  And recorded books have been divine--unless of course you ask my teens. 

I was very careful about allowing only four extra outfits for each child, plus a jacket and swimming suit.

Unfortunately I forgot to limit all the other junk they tend to tote on trips.

The blankets, and pillows, and stuffed animals, and pillow pets, and activity bags. 

To prove this point, I will share the following pictures.

The following photos are NOT a dramatization.  They are real, live pictures, from our real, live trip. 
No animals or people were harmed in the creation of these photos.

HOWEVER, if you are my husband please believe that the following photos ARE a dramatization.  I did NOT really allow the kids to open a restaurant in your car, drink pop, chew gum, or go to the beach and bring half of Malibu home.  Your car is as clean as the day you purchased it.  Sort of.  Stuffed animals and people may have been harmed in the creation of these photos. 

It ain't pretty.  And Honey, I'm sorry if I just scarred you for life!

We did clean the car today.  For real.  Honey, this IS NOT a dramatization.  Promise.

Just in time to traumatize it all over again.  Yee-haw!  Powdy River!