Scenes from a roadtrip....

I was telling P. that road tripping is like labor. It is hell to experience and you wonder how you ever got yourself into that situation but eventually you recover and can imagine putting yourself through it again. Besides, family is worth it. Watching my kids interact with great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins of all degrees is worth it. Just don't be offended if we don't get back in the car for a couple of months.

• Time of departure-4:45am. First time I heard "are we there yet?"- 4:52am. No joke. Remind me that I find 3 year olds amusing.
• Time from St. Louis to Chicago in the car- 8 hours. Next time we get AAA.
• Days we got to go to the beach- 6!!!! We were all sporting awesome tans.
• Days Momo slept in past 10am-3. (Of course Momo was up late than 10 every night too!)
• Cousins met- countless. My kids couldn't even remember all their names. Beanie just kept saying, "And these are all my cousins? YES!"

My favorite post vacation story involved Biki talking about some cousin. "What was her name honey?" "I have no idea but she wore a green suit with polka dots. Her mom played the mole." That allowed me to zero in on the cousin's name. Anyway Biki was impressed with said cousin because "she had a pocket knife." "Really? Did she bring it to the beach?" I asked with a bit of worry, she was only 5 after all. "No but she said she had one because she said she wasn't afraid of sharks 'cause if she saw one she'd just cut off its tail with her pocket knife." Bik was duly impressed. Never mind there are no sharks in Lake Michigan. I wonder what else the kids talked about on the beach every day.