This morning the kiddos and I drove out to San Diego without the hubby. This is the first time I have attempted this long of a drive on my own and I have to admit...I was a little nervous. Everything went great! I think we did so much traveling over the summer that we have broken them in. :) It was quite hectic getting everyone and everything in the car by Ava's nap...10am. You'd think that waking up at 7am would give plenty of time, but it is amazing how fast that little clock moves! By the time I was pulling out of the garage at 10:04am, Ava was sleeping, Dylan was watching Star Wars on the dvd player (best travel accessory!!)
and I had the Garmin all set for the trip. Now, we are staying at my parents' house, where I grew up, so I don't need the GPS. I use the Garmin for the ETA and I try to take down minutes throughout the drive. Remember that competitive quality I mentioned previously? :) One reason I like to "earn" minutes is because we use SOOO many when stopping with kids!
Dylan fell asleep within the first 20 minutes so the drive was so peaceful for the first hour. Our first stop was Dateland, AZ. If you haven't done this drive (Phx to SD) before, then you will have probably never heard of the place.
Dylan, who is now daytime potty trained, wears a pull-up on these trips. Apparently he did an independent pee before we left b/c his pull-up was all askew. So...when he had to go in the car, he ended up with a dry pull-up and wet shorts and shirt. Lovely! Ava greeted our stop with some infant grunting of her own so this was a full service stop. :) Dylan is scared of the hand air dryers
so every time someone used it during our 10min. bathroom trip, he would remind me in a very loud voice. Then Ava decided she felt the same way with a little cry of her own.
Back on the road. Now, here's the question...stop in Yuma (45min away) for lunch then drive a little more than 2 hours or stop in El Centro (1.5hrs away) and be that much closer. I was going for El Centro until I decided I needed caffeine badly! I now regret that decision. I decided on In-n-Out, which is always a great choice for food, but too crowded for this type of trip. I did an end run on a man to snag a table. I felt I deserved it since I had the two kids without help. :)
Our stop was 1 hour! Yikes! I had gained a total of 15min. of time before we stopped...then I lost an hour. :( Overall we did pretty well back on the road except Ava didn't like the mountains coming in to SD. Poor ears! I told her to suck her thumb, but she's not listening to my suggestions at this age. ;) We pulled into the driveway at 3:45pm. Not bad for two stops with kiddos. We all survived and were happy. Successful one parent trip!!
They are now sleeping; storing up energy for the zoo tomorrow!
A good friend of mine from Hawaii is in town with her family. They will be our zoo buddies tomorrow! Can't wait...it is going to be so much fun!
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