What happened?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

We went on vacation last week. I have no idea where we went. We were in Missouri somewhere at Kevin's aunt and uncle's lake house. All I know is that we had to drive through Kentucky to get there and we passed places named Paducah and Poplar Bluff. The lake house was very nice, with good space for family time and a nice backyard for the kids to run around in.

Some highlights (or lowlights as the case may be) of the trip:

*We decided to stop and sleep at a hotel halfway through the twelve-hour drive on the way there. We stopped at around 11:00 p.m. at which time, Ben spit up his entire bottle of milk all over himself and the carseat. It smelled like rotten milk and had to be washed. To wash the carseat cover, you have to remove it with a screwdriver. Did we have a screwdriver? Uh...no. Did the gal behind the hotel desk have one? Uh...no. Kevin drove to the local Wal-Mart at midnight to buy a screwdriver, then came back to the hotel, removed the cover, and put it in the hotel washing machine. Then we went to sleep...sort of. Ben coughed the entire night and when he wasn't coughing, Kevin was snoring. Finally at 4:30 a.m. I woke everyone up and we set off on our travels again.
*The rest of the trip was pretty good. I napped a little. Everyone was happy in the car and we arrived at the lakehouse fairly content. Kevin's parents, Bob and Kathleen, and his sister, Amy were already there.
*We took it easy the first day. Later in the afternoon, Kevin's brother, Mark and his wife, Holly, and their two girls, Brooke and Leah arrived. Danny and Ben played with their cousins outside in the sprinkler that we brought. We also went to a sand beach at the lake and the kids played in the water. Ben fell asleep in the floaty. It was so cute...he just floated and bobbed and snored away. I wish I would've had my camera.
*That night, Ben coughed for about 25 minutes while I sat with him in the bathroom with the shower running. Kevin was snoring, so I sent him to the couch where he snored and kept his sister, Amy awake. New plan for the next night!
*On Thursday, Cathy, Anna and Elise arrived. We went on the boat (after we figured out how to put it into gear) that Kevin's aunt and uncle own, parked in a cove and swam. Danny had an absolute blast! He jumped off the boat a thousand times. It was so precious! Then, that night after dinner, we sprayed the bug spray and built a campfire. The kids loved it.
*On Friday, Glen arrived. Here were the sleeping arrangements: Bob and Kathleen slept in one bedroom. Kevin, Danny, Ben and I had to have our own room because honestly, Ben has had so much trouble with all the coughing at night that I just didn't want to subject anyone else to it. That left the following people all in one room together: Mark, Holly, Brooke, Leah, Glen, Cathy, Anna, Elise and Amy. I still feel awful about us having our own room. Next year, hopefully we'll have things under control better.
*Well, the next day was more of the same...kids playing, going out on the boat, swimming and lots of fun family time.
*When we get together, we LOVE to play board games. We laugh so hard. The final night of Catch Phrase was the best. I laughed harder than I have in years at Mark's description of "bone china". And, I'm not sure why there was so much talk of violence and punching. We LOVED seeing the family and can't wait to visit with all of you again!
*Now for the trip home. We left on Sunday at noon, stopped for lunch and then off we went. Ben napped for an hour or so, Danny watched a movie. We decided that around dinner time, we would stop wherever we were, have dinner and then find a park or playground for the kids to run around in for an hour, then get back in the car and drive the rest of the way home. We stopped at around 5:30 p.m. in some little town in Kentucky, where apparently, they bring people in from other cities to work at the McDonald's because no one there knew of any parks. As they put it, "I'm not from here". What? OK, finally we asked some customers who gave us the name of a park which we drove around trying to find and never did. Kevin decided to find an address on his Blackberry, which we entered into the Garmin (navigation thingie) and drove off to find it. It led us like 10 miles out of town into a cornfield. I'm not even exaggerating. It said "Turn left to destination" and I swear it was a cornfield. We drove back toward the town and noticed a little elementary school, so decided to stop there and play on their playground. We were playing for five minutes when Danny announced that he needed to use the potty. Number Two. Number One would just happen over the hill, but Number Two was a different story. I found a Target bag in the car, which I held for Danny to use as a toilet. Five minutes later, Ben went into a little playhouse and got stung on the left pinky finger by a wasp. So we left. By now, after the searching, the cornfield, the playing, the pooping, and the stinging, it was after 7:30 p.m. Not good. Ben cried off and on the rest of the way home. We finally pulled into the garage around 4:30 a.m. and discovered that Ben had peed through his diaper. That may be why he was so uncomfortable for the last several hours.

That's it. We had a good time at the lakehouse with the family. The drive home almost killed us. It was just too long for Ben to be in the car. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures to post. I had my camera and did not even take one picture. Not sure why.

I think Dave Barry said, "There are two ways to travel: one way is fun and the other way is with children." (Thanks, MK) No argument here! It'll get easier, right?