the long trip to ohio

at lunch on thursday, matt and i discussed possibly staying in a hotel to sleep for a while because neither one of us felt comfortable making the whole drive. we checked the weather for our route and decided that we would try to at least get through chicago and then we would stop.

we ended up making it as far as south bend, indiana.  we stopped as soon as it started to get dark because there was no way either of us should be driving after dark. at least the weather had been mostly sunny for our drive. the good thing about snowy weather is that the roads were salted and the wet, salty road spray meant that you had to constantly spray and clear your windshield - keeping us alert and awake.

madelyn was a little confused about the hotel maybe being a new apartment where we were going to unload the truck, which was kind of funny.  the kids had been real troopers.  except for the hour we spent in panera for lunch, they had been in their carseats since about 8am and it was around 5:30pm when we rolled into the hotel parking lot (there might have been a quick potty break in there too, but i can't remember).  matt wanted to go to a restaurant for dinner, but there was no way we were going to get through a sit down dinner in public.  these poor kids needed to run around and play for a bit.  instead, he went to pick up a pizza and some drinks while the kids jumped on the bed and ran around the hotel room.  they were so happy to be free.

i am a little embarrassed to say this, but the kids had not had a bath since sunday night (and it was now thrusday).  we just didn't have the time or means to really give them a bath.  i did let them play in the tub and washed them up a little at the hotel after dinner.  we didn't bring in any clothes or toiletries (because we couldn't get to them easily).  we all just slept in our clothes.  matt fell asleep immediately (understandably) and i was left to try and get two energy filled kids to go to sleep.  they were pretty good about it - at least they were mostly quiet.  madelyn was the one making trouble by talking and getting in and out of bed for a drink.  first she woke up maddux and then she woke up mason.  i don't think i got more than two hours of sleep before i got up at 3:30am to get our stuff together so that we could get on the road by 4am.  we had to hit the road early because the movers were coming to help unload the truck into our storage units (yes, we now have two) at 11am and we still had around 5 hours of driving left.

three sleeping kids for the last stretch.  we had to lift madelyn up and over the wrapped t.v. and assorted blankets to get her in and out of the van.  she was so sweet by trying so hard to keep her snowy shoes off of everything on her way over each time.

i think we stopped at least 4 times for large coffees - the last time 20 minutes from the apartment.  matt and i were in rough shape, but we were doing better than we had been before we stopped to sleep.  that stop was worth the added cost.

the kids spent most of friday in their carseats as well.  i had to go get cash, again, to tip the movers, shuttle things from storage to the apartment, and go to pick up matt from the uhaul return.  the kids fell asleep in the van on our way back to the apartment to wait for matt to come with the last load of apartment items so i sat in a parking space and let them sleep for over an hour instead of trying to unload and hope that they stayed asleep.  i helped matt unload the truck at the apartment and then we went back to the storage units to try and find the trash bag of dirty clothes that had been unloaded into the very back, bottom corner of one of them.  if it didn't have every pair of jeans our family owns and some wet towels in it, i wouldn't have made him try and get it.  at least he knew where it was. 

there are still several items that were intended for the apartment that got unloaded somewhere in the storage units instead - like my blow dryer - but we are just going to wait for the snow to melt before messing with it.  yes, my hair will be worn in a wet ponytail everyday until that time (unless i breakdown and buy a new one) and madelyn so kindly told me on sunday that my hair doesn't look good that way, but it just isn't worth the trouble of digging it out at this point.  plus, we will need to go back for all mason's 12 month + clothes that i had packed away for maddux pretty soon too.

thankfully, i had just enough food in the apartment that we could eat dinner without me having to run to the grocery store.  i think that we were all extremely thankful to be home.  all three kids had baths after dinner and then to bed.  they were so happy to be home that all three, yes, all three, slept until 7am on saturday!  mommy and daddy really, really needed that uninterrupted sleep.  daddy even slept until 10am (we had gone to bed around 10:30pm the night before)!



my good sleepers sharing a seat at breakfast

and now we, and all our stuff, live in ohio (even though matt conceded that my idea of selling it all in wisconsin instead of storing it would have been a better idea.).  now we just need to figure out a new house so that we can move again next winter.  or we are talking about extending our lease and waiting until the snow is gone to move...  love.