The Tire Swing: a weekend in Lakeland

the unedited version. so i won't forget what really happened on our road trip...

This past weekend we took a last minute trip to Lakeland to visit fam. When we discovered that the boys would have a 4 day weekend, and we knew we wouldn't be able to go at Thanksgiving and weren't sure when the next trip to Lakeland would be, we jumped at the chance to go. The boys were so excited and love road trips. except for the youngest. not a fan of being in the car in the least. That always makes for a a joyous trip. :)

The plan was to leave Thursday right after school and get in late that night. However, our plans don't always pan out, and this trip proved that in every way. A last minute trip to Dr. Morrison's office that day for a horrible sty in Nate's eye, waiting on the prescription (which took longer than it should have), and just last minute packing up and cleaning up the house before leaving (which didn't happen that morning because of school volunteering obligations, etc.) didn't have us leaving Montgomery until after 4 pm. Ugh. And then it just got worse with stopping for dinner in Dothan at a Checkers...which will never. happen. again. The Checkers part. Not a fan for many reasons. By 11 pm we were still 3 hours away...the boys kept waking up crying (and when I say boys, I mean mostly Oliver with the occasional Jake and then Henry)...i'm not a fan of driving at night because of bad night vision...so Brian was driving and exhausted. He finally made the decision to stop somewhere for the night. Keep in mind we also had Lady with us. Our sweet 12 year old golden retriever who is a mess in so many ways. Poor baby...slowly growing back her hair which fell out due to a home remedy my mom and I tried on her last spring to help with her allergies/hot spots/mange...or whatever it is that is ailing her...it seemed to help with that but caused her hair to fall out; she's constantly chewing on hotspots on her legs; and suffers with digestional issues. So we like to make things as chaotic as possible. Not that we don't have enough kids or anything to keep things interesting. :) The first place we stopped wouldn't allow us all to stay in one room...too many people...a fire hazard I guess. It didn't seem to matter that 5 of us were 8 years old and younger. After that we got desperate, and Brian failed to mention how many of us there were at the next hotel we tried. Thankfully it worked, and we got a room. We left Lady in the van for the night. Mistake #67 this trip.

I'm sure you can guess what we found the next morning when Brian went down to let her out. Yep. She didn't make it...her tummy was obviously upset...all over the van. Can I just say that I feared this would happen if we left her in the car all night??? Can I also just say that I 'm very pregnant, very hormonal, and very emotional at this point?? A meltdown would be an understatement on my part.

So we had 2 options...one of us take the 5 boys to the free continental breakfast, and the other clean out the van. Brian let me choose. At that point, both options sounded very overwhelming to me, but in the end I opted to clean out the van. by myself. no whining to listen to except myself. :) At that point, I didn't think I could take any more saga, and being by myself seemed like the best option. Even if I was cleaning up dog diarrhea. Brian ended up just throwing out one of the floor mats, which was where most of the mess was, so it wasn't as overwhelming as it could have been. All that to say, we rolled out of the hotel around 11 am with 3 hours still to go that Friday morning. in a very stinky van, which we're trying to sell. Great timing, right?? Thankfully the last leg of the trip was uneventful.

The weekend in Lakeland was wonderful...spending time with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Lots of good food (including Palace Pizza...a craving I couldn't pass up!) and a fun date night with Scott and Trisha and their sweet neighbors while babysitters watched all 10 cousins!

And thankfully the trip back to Montgomery went a lot smoother. We had an earlier start, and no stopping at hotels. :) I also had a better grip on my emotions that day. :)

our entry hallway the night before we left for Florida...the boys were so ready!!