Headed Home

We got back to the hotel and I fed Killian, everyone went to the bathroom and we loaded up to head home.

Playing in the lobby.  You'll notice a tired big sister.

Happy even though he is exhausted!

Headed home!!!

10 months today so I snapped a picture.

We worked to keep everyone awake until we had filled up with gas so that stopping wouldn't wake them up.  Pulling out of the gas station Keeley was angry with me because I would not let her watch a movie.  I told her she was tired and needed to nap but that if she was still awake in an hour I would let her watch tv.  She fell asleep in 4 minutes.  Kelly and I rode silently as I watched all three kids fall asleep.  About two minutes after the last one gave into sleep, we hit a bit of a problem.  The entire highway was shut down and we were stuck. For one hour we sat in the highway on park and hoped no one would wake up.  We watched people playing catch, walking ahead to see the problem, talking to other drivers.  It was ridiculous.  Fortunately the kids slept for most of it so we at least got the nap they needed.

Because we'd played so long in the Magic Kingdom that last day Kelly and I were not sure how far we would be able to make it.  I did a lot of calculating on my phone about if we stop here tonight we have this much more to go.  As it turns out, it didn't much matter.  When it began to get dark, the rain started.  Kelly missed a turn because of the rain and poorly lit highway.  Our navigation thing told us a way to get back to where we needed to go but it took us on this random road.  Had the Garmin not said to go there, no way would I have wanted to drive down the dirt road.  Pulling back onto the highway, still in the rain, Kelly alerted me to the fact that he thought we had a flat tire. He pulled over under a bridge and I hopped out to confirm that it was flat.

I wouldn't let girls get out to see it because we were on the side of a high way with no real median, at night, in the rain so I took a picture.  Definitely flat.

We called AAA and Kelly attempted to tell them where we were.  Unfortunately, we were under some little country road with no exit and had no idea what mile marker we had passed recently.  Eventually they found us and got my spare tire put on.  We drove to the only hotel we could find to spend the night.  The blessing in that was that the hotel (a Best Western) was really nice and there was a tire repair shop close by.  Everyone got settled in for the night with the plan being that Kelly would take care of getting it repaired while I stayed at the hotel with the kids.  Just so everyone knows, this is now the second time I have attempted to do a hotel breakfast with all three kids by myself and it is HARD.  After our breakfast which only had one ginormous spill, we headed back to the room so that I could figure out something for us to do to pass the time.  I didn't have a lot of options..

Keeley wrote notes.

Kayden waited patiently so she could use the pen.

And Killian played with the lid to our medicine box for a bit.

The medicine box only lasted until he discovered the tissues in the bathroom.  He must have pulled out about 20 before I decided to we needed to do something else.

 There was a McDonald's just a little walk through the parking lots so I decided to take the kids to play.  We got over there only to discover there was no playground.  Fortunately, Kelly texted at that time to tell me he was done so the kids and I headed back to load up the car.  On the road again, still in Florida with a long way to go (16 hours). 

Playing in the car.  Killian spent a lot of time playing in the car because he couldn't really explore or walk around at the gas stations.

We watched this at least 4 times on the trip.  Girls found it hysterically funny.

At Burger King.  I'm pretty sure we've never eaten there with the girls.

I drove most of the day that day and we couldn't decide what we wanted to do about getting all the way home.  A drama filled trip to Chick Fil A for dinner made the decision for Kelly - we would all be sleeping in our own beds tonight.  We got everyone changed into pjs and Kelly took over the driving (because I have a hard time driving at night)

So happy to be in the front seat while the girls changed clothes.

 

Shortly after Kelly started driving, the rain started again.  We drove and drove.  Killian woke up wanting to eat just as we were getting into Garland so we pulled over for me to feed him.  The girls woke up and stayed up for the rest of the drive in.  All three kids quickly passed out once we finally got back home. We pulled in just before 2am - just in time to move the clocks forward an hour for Daylight Savings!

All in all, a wonderful trip.  We cannot wait to go back!!